Brief the AI model: one section, three runs

One section of a German leaflet translated three times. Run A has the document summary and the section's functional role; Run B adds the Project Glossary, a termbase, a TM match and a newly added term, and every house term is used; Run C adds a brief (style and purpose) and the voice changes while the terms stay. Each difference is traced to what changed.

1. Before you start: an AI model per role, a provider contract, confidentiality

   Three things to settle before any text goes to an AI model: an AI model for every role, a contract with the provider where the law needs one, and the confidentiality safeguards the text needs.

   

2. Open the project and go to Section 2

   A German leaflet for an invented camping stove, translated into English. It has five sections, each with a different job: selling, instructions, safety, returns, contact. Nothing is translated yet. This guide works on Section 2, the set-up instructions.

   

3. Click the summary icon on Section 1's bar; check it in Edit Globals, Summary

   First, what the document is about. Click the summary icon on Section 1's bar: one summary is made for the whole document. It is in Edit Globals → Summary, and you can edit it before translating.

   

4. Click the role icon on Section 2's bar; check the functional role

   Then what this section is for. Click the role icon on Section 2's bar. The section's Globals (the pencil) show its functional role: instructions, step by step. Each section gets its own; you can edit it and Save Role.

   

5. Run A: click MT translation of this section

   Run A. Click MT translation of this section on Section 2. The AI model has the summary and the role, but no terminology and no brief. The words are reasonable, but they are not the company's: pot supports, cartridge, windscreen, control valve.

   

6. Click TM pretranslate this section; click in segment 7, then 8, to see in Termbase Hits where each term comes from

   Now the company's terms. The project has a Project Glossary, the shared termbase Farnhalde terms (with Use in MT on) and a TM. TM pretranslate this section puts the TM's 87% match into segment 6, so the AI model sees it too. In the German, glossary terms are underlined in green and termbase terms in the termbase's own colour; click in segment 7, then 8, and Termbase Hits says where each term comes from.

   

7. Click in segment 10, press Ctrl+Shift+A, tick Glossary and Add

   Click in segment 10 and press Ctrl+Shift+A. Enter Regelventil → flame dial, tick Glossary, and Add. The Project Glossary belongs to this project; a termbase can be shared by many. If they disagree, the glossary wins.

   

8. Run B: translate the section again

   Run B. The same section, the same model, the same summary and role, now with the terminology. Every house term is used: pan rest (glossary), gas cartridge and wind guard (termbase), flame dial (the term just added). The AI model also saw the TM's match for segment 6 but kept its own wording: a match is a reference, not an order.

   

9. Compare Run A and Run B

   Only the terminology changed between the runs, so each term can be traced to the resource that supplied it. An AI model also varies a little from run to run: segment 5 now reads Setting up the stove.

   

10. Open Edit Globals, Style and write the brief

    Now the brief: who the text is for and how it should sound. Edit Globals → Style says it in plain words. The style belongs to the document; a section has none of its own.

    

11. Fill in General: Project Overview and Additional information

    General holds the Project Overview and Additional information. Additional information is a blank canvas: the purpose of the translation, what nothing should deflect from, what the reader must come away with; or standards to follow; or, in a book, the characters and how they speak.

    

12. Run C: TM pretranslate again, then translate the section

    Run C. TM pretranslate this section again (Run B's English replaced the match), then translate the section. The terms stay; the voice changes: you hear it click, it’s, Fit … so its opening faces. Instructions are plain already, so the change is small here; Guide J shows more.

    

13. Compare Run B and Run C

    Only the brief changed between Run B and Run C. Every term is kept.

    

14. If a result misses something, check resources and brief, then the AI model

    A request now carries a full briefing, the same one a translator would need. A less capable model may not apply all of it. If the result misses something, check the resources and the brief first, then try a more capable model: the cheapest is not always the right choice.

    

15. Translate one section after another, never all at once

    Each section's request carries the German and English of up to five sections before it. So a document is translated one section after another, never all at once: each request needs the English the previous one produced. Guide J shows this for a whole document.

    

16. When this was recorded

    Video recorded on 6 November 2026 with AV 0.2.11. The translations and costs were recorded on 25 October 2026 with OpenAI gpt-6-luna. Costs use AV's price list of 17 October 2026. Prices change.