Alchemy TECHBYTES

String list and Filters

The string list takes centre place in Alchemy CATALYST within the Workspace window, displaying all localisable segments for the selected resource in the Navigator window, recursively. Localization engineers, Translators and Project Managers alike can then manipulate what the string list displays using Filters and the QuickFind tool.

Of course none of this is new in CATALYST 12 however a major overhaul took place in order to increase the refresh rate and offer complete control over the filtering capabilities. As a result the first fundamental change is the way the Show All Strings button behaves.
The string list now renders instantly so it no longer made sense to have to click on the Show all strings button to trigger CATALYST to show all the strings from the selection in the Navigator window. Instead the button is now a toggle. By default it is "on" meaning each time you select a resource, all the segments within are immediately listed in the Workspace window, i.e. the string list. And this is where the second fundamental change comes in: the string list only shows the strings matching the filter's definition. There is no longer groups of strings based on their status.

The button also works as a quick access to the filter list. Selecting the first entry will turn Show All Strings on or off while all the filter options are accessible below.

Already at this point, if you have been working with CATALYST 11 or older, you will have experienced a great improvement in the speed at which your string list refreshes each time you navigate through your resources. But all of you avid users wanted to have more! looking for flexibility from the filters. For example showing all strings marked for Review but excluding locked strings or listing any string with a specific status including keywords or inline tags... So we implemented the ability to create your own custom filters. Which along with the new button to Include or Exclude locked strings will allow you to filter for any criteria you can think of.

Filters which you are familiar with are still available from the Filter dropdown but now include a few additions. Those are filters to list strings with Validations errors, Maximum size, Tags, Keywords or Context Links. The sought after improvements however come with the ability to build on this list creating your own custom filters. Customize yours by clicking the button.

The custom filter dialog seen on the left offers a way to create any number of custom filters. This includes giving a name and setting up the desired criterias to filter for.

In this example we make the most of the duplicated ability to pair one or more segment status with specific metadatas. This filter will show strings if they are either For Review and containing a keyword or Signed off containing a tag.
Thus a For review string without any keyword would not be listed and a Signed off string with a keyword would not be listed either.

The blue arrow buttons are used to order the custom filters which is in turn reflected in the Filter dropdown.

Whether or not a filter should include or exclude locked strings is then controlled by the Include locks button. Allowing you to toggle to show locks or not independently of the filter selection.

Something worth mentioning at this point is that those custom filters can be saved in a User Profile. Go to FILE > Options > User profile. It's easy to share your custom filters with colleagues and vendors, or just backup. This is very useful when assigning a review or engineering task and you want to guide the user with a pre-defined filter.

The Include Locks button located to the right of the filter dropdown controls if the string list (filtered or not) should include lock strings, only displays locks strings or excludes them.

For instance, while using the same filter, Untranslated, we can see the results of selecting each of the 3 different options:

To conclude this presentation of the new improved string list, let us turn our attention to the last major change. The title bar directly above the string list includes the wordcounts. Just like the string list only displays the segments matching the filter, the wordcounts broken down by status are reflecting the segments included under the active filter.