Soviet birth certificate, handwritten
Uzbekistan, issued 1973, Uzbek and Russian
Exactly what the product returned. Nobody fixed these files by hand. Scan: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
memoQ connector
Scanned PDFs and photos in memoQ, ready to translate
memoQ imports text, and a scan holds only a picture of it. The ChatsControl connector runs when you import a scan: it reads it into an editable Word file with its tables, stamps and signatures, and memoQ imports that file, so you translate with your own TMs, termbases and MT.
Free connector for memoQ on Windows, checked in memoQ 9.2 and 9.7. Reading a scan costs $1.50 per 1,000 characters, at least 1,000 characters a page. See real scans translated, with their Word files
Translation agencies we work with
What memoQ does with a scan
memoQ does not read text from scans: a scanned PDF or a photo of a document gives it nothing to segment. The usual way out is OCR in another program, fixing what it misread and rebuilding the tables in Word before the import.
The connector does that inside the import. It is a small Windows program that memoQ runs as the project template's script before import.
How it works
- Add it to a templateOnce: the connector goes into a project template as its script before import, for PDFs and pictures.
- Import the scanImport With Options, with the Microsoft Word filter for scans and photos. Files that hold text go through untouched and cost nothing.
- ChatsControl reads itmemoQ waits while the scan is read: about two minutes for a one-page scan, longer for more pages.
- Translate in memoQThe document keeps its name and opens as the Word copy: paragraphs and table cells as segments, the layout in the preview.
Hard scans, and the Word files we built from them
Compare the scan with the copy, switch to the translation, and download both files - open them in Word and check for yourself.
CMR consignment note, phone photo
Uzbekistan, photographed on a desk
Exactly what the product returned. Nobody fixed these files by hand. Scan: Solijon Solayev, CC BY-SA 4.0
Apostille in three languages
Brazil, 2021, Portuguese, English and French
Exactly what the product returned. Nobody fixed these files by hand. Scan: Civil registry office in Rio de Janeiro, Public domain
memoQ alone and with the connector
| memoQ alone | With the connector | |
|---|---|---|
| Scanned PDF | No text to segment | An editable Word file, segmented like any other |
| Photo (JPG, PNG, TIFF, WebP) | No text to segment | Read into Word and imported |
| Tables | Retyped after OCR in another program | Word tables, cell by cell |
| Stamps and signatures | Lost or described by hand | Kept as pictures where they stand |
Download
One zip for 64-bit Windows 10 and 11 or Windows Server 2016 and later. It carries its own runtime, so nothing else needs installing, and its README.md has every step with the names of memoQ's screens.
- Local projects: put the connector in
%LOCALAPPDATA%\ChatsControland addchatscontrol-memoq-local.batto a local project template. - memoQ TMS: an administrator allows custom code once in the memoQ TMS deployment tool, puts the connector on the server and adds
chatscontrol-memoq-server.batto a server template. Set up as memoQ documents it, not yet run on a live memoQ TMS by us. - No scripting at hand:
chatscontrol-memoq.exe --convertwrites a Word copy next to each scan, which memoQ imports like any Word file.
Set it up once
Your API key
- Sign up in the ChatsControl app and ask for API access below with the same email.
- Once access is open, create a key in the app: Settings, API. It starts with
cc_live_. - Put the key in
chatscontrol-memoq.jsonnext to the exe, then check it from a Command Prompt:chatscontrol-memoq.exe --check.
The project template
- Resource Console, Project templates, Edit: Automated actions, Script before import.
- Add the batch file once, and an item for
*.pdfwith the batch file set as its command. - Command line arguments:
"{InputFilePath}" "{OutputFilePath}"(paste it, typing a brace makes memoQ insert a placeholder of its own). Timeout: 300 seconds. - Repeat the item for
*.jpg,*.jpeg,*.png,*.tif,*.tiffand*.webp, then Test run my command on a one-page scan: exit code 0.
Import a scan
- Create the project from the template without adding the scans in the wizard.
- Documents, Import With Options, pick the scans and photos.
- Filter: Microsoft Word filter, default. memoQ marks the line with an orange bolt: the filter does not match the extension, which is what we want. Click OK.
The key never goes on a command line or into the log, which shows only its last four characters.
Get an API key
The connector reads scans through your ChatsControl account. Sign up in the app, then send this request with the same email: we open API access within a working day, and you create the key yourself in Settings, API.
Thank you. We will write to you within a working day.
What it costs
$1.50 / 1,000 characters
One flat rate: $1.50 per 1,000 characters, scans included - you pay for the characters recognised on them, at least 1,000 per page. No subscription, no seats. A scan costs the characters recognised in it, but at least 1,000 × its number of pages, counted over the whole scan.Examples:a passport, 1 page, 200 recognised → 1,000 chargeda certificate, 2 nearly empty pages, 900 recognised → 2,0002 pages, one dense (3,000) and one nearly empty (100) → 3,100, exactly what was recognised
Good to know
- It only reads the scans. The translation is yours, in memoQ, with your TMs, termbases and MT, and it exports as a Word document.
- memoQ stops a script at the template's time limit. A scan not finished by then fails the import while ChatsControl goes on reading it: import it again a few minutes later and the finished copy comes in without a second charge.
- Up to 50 pages and 100 MB a scan. Password-protected PDFs are refused.
- Left to its own filters, memoQ imports the Word copy of a scan with its PDF or image filter and fails: scans go in with Import With Options and the Word filter.
Questions
Do we pay twice if an import fails or we import the same scan again?
No. The connector remembers which ChatsControl document each file became, for 30 days or until your retention setting deletes it, and fetches that one. Every upload also carries a key made from the file's content, so an upload whose answer was lost is not read twice.
Does ChatsControl translate the document too?
No, the connector orders recognition only. memoQ gets an editable Word file in the source language.
Which memoQ versions does it work in?
We checked it in memoQ 9.2 and 9.7 with local projects. memoQ's documentation describes the same script before import for its current versions.
Where do the scans go?
To ChatsControl's servers in the EU, read with training disabled at our model providers. The data security page has the full list.
What does it cost?
The connector is free. Reading a scan costs $1.50 per 1,000 characters recognised on it, at least 1,000 characters a page, from the balance of the account the key belongs to. Files that hold text pass through and cost nothing.
More for agencies
Put one of your scans through memoQ
Download the connector, ask for an API key and import a scan memoQ could not read before.