# Learn to use OmegaT in 5 minutes!

This short instructions are shown on OmegaT start-up screen.

## 1. Set up a new project

Note: On an Apple Mac, use the ***Command*** key (（key with ***⌘*** mark）instead of the ***Control*** key.

To start using OmegaT, first create a project that will hold all your files, such as your source file, translation memories, glossaries, and eventually your translated file. In the Project ***menu***, select ***New...*** and type a name for your project. Remember where you are creating the project, because you will need to return to it later.

After you give your project a name, the ***Create New Project dialog*** will open. At the top of that dialog, select your source file's language and the language that your translated file will be, and click ***OK*** to continue.

If you are interested in other settings of this dialog, you can return to it any time by pressing ***Ctrl+E***.

Next, the ***Project Files dialog*** opens. Click on Copy Files to ***Source Folder...*** to select your source files. OmegaT will then copy the selected files to the ***/source*** subfolder of your newly created project. After the source files have loaded in the Editor pane, you can close the ***Project Files dialog***.

## 2. Translate the file

OmegaT will present one segment at a time for you to translate. After you have translated each segment, press ***Ctrl+U*** to move to the next untranslated segment (or ***Ctrl+Shift+U*** to move to the next translated segment). Whenever you want to see what your translation will look like in its final format, press ***Ctrl+D*** to generate the translated documents, which will be created in the ***/target*** subfolder of your project folder. During translation, use the ***Edit*** and ***Go To*** menus to perform various useful functions.

## 3. Validate your tags

If your source files are formatted files, e.g. Microsoft Word, LibreOffice Writer or HTML, OmegaT will convert the formatting into tags that surround the text that you translate. Often documents will also have tags that have nothing to do with formatting, but which are also important in the source files (and in the translated files). A source sentence might look like:


OmegaT, however, will present this sentence in the following fashion:


The tags in OmegaT are greyed, so they are easy to recognise. They are protected, so that you cannot modify their contents, but you can delete them, enter them by hand or move them around in the target sentence. However, if you made mistakes when you typed the formatting tags, your translated files might fail to open. Therefore, press ***Ctrl+Shift+V*** before you generate your translated files, to validate that your tags are correct.

## 4. Generate the translated file

Once you have made certain that there are no tag errors in your translation, press ***Ctrl+D*** to generate the target files, which will be created in the ***/target*** subfolder of your project folder.

## 5. Few more things to remember

If a file does not load into the Editor pane, then it could be that it is in a format that doesn't work in OmegaT. See ***Options → Preferences... → File Filters*** for a list of file formats that OmegaT can handle.

You can create a new project for each new job, and you can add new source files to a project at anytime.

To remind yourself of the project's initial settings, open the project properties dialog by pressing ***Ctrl+E***. To see a list of files in the project, open the ***Project Files dialog*** by pressing ***Ctrl+L***.

At the end of your translation, OmegaT exports three translation memories called level1, level2 and omegat to your project folder. The level1 and level2 memories can be shared with users of other translation programs. The memory named omegat can be used by OmegaT itself, in future projects that you create. If you place such translation memory files in the ***/tm*** subfolder of a project, OmegaT will automatically search them for similar segments, called ***"fuzzy matches"***.

You can add a new term to the glossary by pressing ***Ctrl+Shift+G***, or copy existing glossaries to the ***/glossary*** subfolder of your project folder, and OmegaT will automatically look up words in them.

It is often useful to search for words and phrases in the source text and in your translation, so press ***Ctrl+F*** for the ***Text Search dialog*** at any time.

For a more comprehensive introduction see OmegaT for beginners on the OmegaT web site. If you need assistance with any aspect of OmegaT, feel free to join the OmegaT users group.

[The guide come from omegat manual version 3](https://github.com/omegat-org/omegat/blob/master/docs/en/instantStartGuideNoTOC.html)