Paratext 8 has a lot of new features to accompany this major new version release. Here is a comprehensive list of what you can expect if upgrading from Paratext 7.5.
This list is also available in Paratext via the Help menu (recommended). The help page is more formatted and includes links to other help pages.
Registering for Paratext 8 was simple enough, you simply went to registry.paratext.org and authenticated with your email address, selecting your organization, and filling out four other blanks–only one of which is mandatory. Simple enough, that is, if you had a connection to the Internet and a G Suite (Google-based) email address. If you didn’t, you were out of luck–although we knew this limitation was only temporary.
Well, now the capability has been added to the registry site for two new registration options, neither of which require a Google account.
This option allows project administrators to register their team members. When you log into registry.paratext.org and go to the Users tab, you should see a button that says “Register New User”
Please be aware, this button will only work if you are an administrator on one or more projects in the registry. To become an administrator, you have to register a new project or migrate an existing project. If the project is already registered, you would have to be given administrator permissions by the administrator of that project.
When you click the button to register a new user, you are able to add the user’s name, organization, country, field unit, supervisor, and reason for using Paratext. This will create a code and send it to your email address.
This type of registration code comes with some restrictions. The newly registered user will be able to participate in projects and use resources, but cannot become administrator on a project or register projects of their own until they sign up for themselves on the registry site.
Later, when a user who has been registered by a third party wants to fully register, they can do so by creating a new registration with either a Google account or just an email address. The registry gives them the option of connecting their new registration to their existing identity by asking them to provide their original name and code. After that, they will have normal privileges for their organization.
Now when you go to register for Paratext, you begin by entering your email address. If your email is known to the system as a Google account, a Google authentication window will pop up. If not, you will be given the option not to use a Google account as in the image below.
If you choose not to use Google, you will create a password for your new account and must wait for a verification email to be sent. Once you open the email link, your account will be verified, and you will have a temporary code. This code will enable Paratext to work on the Basic Tier until you are approved in your role in an organization.
We are excited that there are no more barriers to user registration in Paratext. This is very important in keeping Paratext available for all!
Paratext 7 came with 121 resource texts in forty different languages. What is in store for users of Paratext 8?
A resource text is a text that is not editable and is available for other translators to use as a model text or to gain insight into possible ways to render a difficult passage. When an ideas or object in the original language doesn’t have a direct equivalent in the receptor language, the translator looks for creative ways to describe it in the receptor culture. Take the word “throne” for example. It often refers not to a chair, but is representative of a kingdom and its power or authority. And even when it does refer to the chair a king sits on, that can also be difficult to express in cultures where chairs are not used. In these cases, a translator will look to translations from similar cultures in the area to see how the ideas were expressed. In Paratext 7, if the text you wanted to use for ideas happened to be one of the 121 existing resources, then you were fortunate. If not, it was rather difficult to obtain such a text other than buying the physical book if it was still in print.
One of the fundamental changes to Paratext in version 8 is that it now relies on the Digital Bible Library (DBL) for all resource texts. The DBL is an online digital asset and licensing management platform for Scripture. It currently contains 1,389 texts representing 1082 unique languages. Because Paratext 8 can now access the DBL for resource texts, we suddenly have the potential to reference many more texts in Paratext 8.
Although new and old texts are constantly being added to the DBL, they are not automatically available to Paratext. When the archivist uploads the text to the DBL they have an option to make that text available as a resource to a select group of users, to a specific organization, or to all Paratext users. In fact, it is this flexibility that will enable us to make Paratext 8 available for free to anyone. Our previous set of 121 resources were available to everyone who was granted a Paratext license. We had to make sure that anyone who requested a license was using Paratext in accordance with the agreement we had with the owners of all those resources, some of which were clearly not for free public access. In the new system, anyone can register for Paratext. By default, they will be able to download any resources that are not restricted. As those users are vetted by their organization, they will then get access to any and all resources that their organization has been given access to–potentially in hundreds of languages.
If there is a resource that you would like access too, please contact the DBL archivist for your organization and area. If unknown, contact me and hopefully I can route your request to the appropriate person. Ultimately the decision is up to the content owner, but now the process is as simple as checking a box in the DBL after the owner gives consent.
If you have a published Scripture text that you think other translations will benefit from, please request that yours be added to the Paratext resources. This will quickly make Paratext a better tool for another translator in your area of the world.
Paratext 8 brings a powerful new project management feature with a lot of potential. I’m afraid, though, that without taking the necessary time to set the system up properly, many teams won’t ever benefit from it. That would be a shame. So here’s an overview of how it works so that you can better understand and start preparing for the new Project Plan tool in Paratext 8.
Every Bible translation project, no matter how it is organized, has a set of tasks that need to be completed in a certain order in order to make progress. Whether you are the translator and trying to remember what step comes next, or an administrator and trying to assure that your team follows those steps, Paratext 8 can help its users to know what to do and when.
First you must divide the project into stages. Paratext comes with stages one through four as a default, but it is very easy to name them and to add additional stages. Let’s take a four stage model:
These are stages that every book must go through and the number of stages differs between teams and between organizations. You’ll need to decide on these stages together as a team before continuing.
Each of those main stages will contain a number of tasks. Deciding what those tasks should be is where you need to do the bulk of your planning.
Let’s say that for each chapter, your process of drafting involves reading through the TEV and then reading through the UBS Handbook. Your first three tasks are:
In practice, these are checkboxes that the translator must check off manually. But Paratext makes it very easy to do this, by providing an “Assignments and Progress” button in the top right corner of the editing window. Clicking on this will open the dialog box and allow the translator to check that stage as complete.
Tasks may be independent or dependent on other tasks. In the above example, the drafting task would be conditional on having first read through the TEV and the UBS Handbook. You can’t check off a dependent task until the prerequisite tasks are also completed. Reading the Handbook and the TEV, however, don’t have to be completed in order, so they are independent tasks.
Most tasks will be set to be completed per chapter, but you can also set tasks that must be done once per book. An example of this might be “Add important Biblical terms to the glossary”. You wouldn’t want to require that after each chapter! Instead, you might choose to assign that task for the Final Revision stage, and set it to take place after the Biblical terms checking is complete for the whole book.
In addition to tasks, Paratext also helps you to work through the maze of inventories and checks that are available. One never knows which of these checks to run and at what stage in the project. At what stage to you start to worry about spelling? When do you work on correcting punctuation? At what point do you work on Biblical terms renderings? You probably don’t want to be verifying the consistency of Biblical terms in the first draft. So now you can tell Paratext to enforce a Biblical terms check at a later stage of the project. Maybe before the external review, you could have Paratext prompt you to work through the Biblical Terms tool and account for your choice of renderings.
Not only does this tool help keep teams consistent in their practices, it also provides a very visual record of progress for the whole team to see what is taking place and when. This will help keep project members consistent in their methods and accountable to each other.
Paratext 8 and Project Plans may get off to a slow start as individual teams try implementing different stages and tasks. But you can be sure that we will continue to help you find your way by sharing success stories in the news section of this site.
If you have a story about how Paratext has helped your translation team, and you think it would encourage others, please get in touch.