In this article, you will learn how to create your Project in miniTPMS, how to do it Fast and without Fury.
Prerequisite: in order to create a Project, you need to have a Project Group created (check the article Creating your first Project Group).
There are a couple of ways to create a Project in "mini", at a glance:
1) from the Dashboard projects list by clicking the Green + button on the appropriate Project Group, like here:
If you click the button it will show you the page for creating a new project for Bemba EC (endclient) group 320 (hence the name).
2) from the Rapid Project Entry pulldown menu by choosing the right Project Group (parent level) - this menu contains the 20 latest Project Groups you have been working on, so it might be you won't find your desired group here (on the other hand, it massively helps if you work on a lot of repetitive projects, many small "installations" of the same, aka "Continuos Localization Projects")
3) from the Project Group list where you can search for Groups and their Projects etc. Get there by clicking the green Projects button on the top menu bar (see picture above), or by going to Menu - Project Groups - Project Groups (yes, it's repeated :) )
Choose your Project Group, pick it, and then on the right side click on the +New Project green button. We like green buttons. Get used to it.
Now that this all is behind us, let's move on. Creating a Project will bring up a Page that looks like this:
No, it's not the whole page, but I want you to also be a little surprised when you see it for the first time so let it be a mistery.
Let's explain the fields a little bit:
Name: well, use it to explain the project name. Just like with anything you do for your clients, it probably has a name, right?
Project Type: this should be used to showcase the type of documents you are translating here. So while I highly recommend do use types as "DOC" for Documentation, or "SW" (short for Software) or for example "INDD" as in InDesign file, etc, I would stay away of introducing Industry/Specialization into the Types (so Legal, Marketing etc is NOT to be put here - regardless of what the screenshot shows)
Don't see what you need? Use the power of Green + button!
Workflow: if you don't know what Workflow is, check the definition. If you know what it is, pick your workflow here.
Source Language: seriously, you don't need an explanation. If you do, you are probably on a wrong website.
Target Language(s): ok here, you might want some explanation especially if you don't see all the active languages on the list. This is because miniTPMS remembers what language pairs you did for this client, and recommends some languages automatically. If you have a new language pair to enter now, just click on Client Languages or All Active Languages to show more (well, to show All actually)
Start/Due date: the start of your project, and the Due date your Client gave you
Client Contact: whoever sent you this particular project - note that if you have a Client Contact already defined in the Project Group, it will be copied from-there-to-here which is awesome, but sometimes also annoying. So if you don't want it, just remove the default contact in your project Group.
In-House PM's: by default, it's the person who is entering the data, but it can be changed to whichever colleague you want to
CAT Tool: if you have some CAT Tools defined in the system (Menu - Settings - CAT Tools) then you can pick them up here. Comes in handy if you are looking for something after 3 years, and are not sure if you did it in MemoQ, Trados, MemSource, Accross, WordFast, CaffeTran whatever there is a plethora of these... if you are using only one CAT tool (hard-core memoQ fan) then you don't have to bother with this field.
What's hidden from the screenshot:
Description: describe your project the best way you can, if you want to. If you don't, don't.
Awesome tip: you can put this description in the mail you are sending to your vendor from the system (wow, we have that too? yes, we have that too)
Special Instructions: same here, if there is anything you need to know, need to remember and want to remember it 3 weeks from now as well, please put it here. Also, check the Awesome tip from Description as it applies here too.
The Propagate button: ok, this one is awesome, if you are setting up a project which has 11 target languages, you can propagate your "numbers" (for example, untranslated words) through all 11 languages with this button. Click it, enter the number and the system will copy these as so called "Client Numbers" for each language pair.
And finally we have a thing that you won't use all the time but it is handy: "Move this Project to another Project Group" option. This is very handy if you realized you created your project in a wrong group. Go back to editing the Project, and move it to wherever else you want to.
You done? Click the green SAVE button. Green.
Tadammm... your project is created. Now it's time to enter the numbers (words, hours) appointed by Client, and to pick them Vendors who will be doing the nitty-gritty work.
Next Step: Client Numbers