METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR TRANSLATING DOCUMENTS USING TRANSLATION HANDLES

A translation assistance program of a word processing program used to translate a source language document written in a source language to a target language document written in a target language. The translation assistance program displays the source language document on a translation screen portion of a display device. The translation assistance program then compares each source term in a product glossary with the source terms in the source language document. The product glossary associates each source term it stores with a target term which translates the source term into the target language. For each source term from the source language document which is stored in the product glossary, the translation assistance program: 1) underlines the source term in the source language document, 2) inserts a translation handle on the translation screen portion immediately after the source term, and 3) associates the translation handle with the target term which translates the source term into the target language. When the user decides to insert the target term at a current insertion point on the translation screen, the user invokes an insert target term command which contains the translation handle associated with the appropriate source term. In response, the translation assistance program retrieves the target term associated with the translation handle and inserts the target term at the current insertion point on the translation screen portion.