How BabelBud works

BabelBud writes a first draft of the English translation and lines it up with the original, so you only check what matters. You decide the important words: names, dates, numbers and key terms.

Once you approve one of those words, the program never changes it again, in any document. Your job is to confirm them against the original; everything else follows from them.

The tabs, in the order you will use them

1
Documents
Upload a PDF. Click Extract, then Propose critical, then Fill EN under locks. The original sits on the left and the English on the right.
2
Critical List
The names, dates, ID numbers, course codes and course titles the program found. Flip a switch to lock one after you have checked it. “Jump to” shows where it sits on the page.
3
Scan Check
For scanned transcripts. A picture of the original sits beside each credit or grade the program could not read. Type the number, then Save & rebuild.
4
Review
A summary of what is locked and anything that does not match.
5
Term Review
A multiple-choice quiz for words that repeat across documents, such as the department name. Pick the English you want, type your own, or skip. Run “Find repeated terms” on the Glossary tab first.
6
Glossary
Every approved word, plus the program’s suggestions waiting for your approval.
7
Certificate
Download the package: cover, English, original, certificate. The draft always works; the certified one unlocks once the checks pass.

What the marks mean

You see	It means	What to do
Yellow cell with ?	The scan reader could not read this credit or grade.	Open Scan Check and type it from the picture.
Blue cell with a star	A credit worked out from the semester total, not read directly.	Confirm it against the original.
Orange “Read from a scan”	A value from a scanned page, shown with a crop of the original.	Compare the crop with the English before locking.
“3 docs” badge	The same word appears in 3 documents.	Lock it once; it covers all of them.
Red “rows add to 17 credits; document says 18”	A semester total does not match its rows.	A digit was probably misread; check that semester.
“DRAFT — NOT CERTIFIED”	The checks have not passed yet.	Fix what Review lists, then download again.

What deserves your own eyes

The program is good at the bulk of the text and weakest on small details in scans. In testing it read a graduation month as 12 when the page said 2, so a date came out as December instead of February.

Dates from scanned pages. Read the crop, not just the English.
Names. The suggested spelling is a guess from the Korean sounds; you know the spelling the person uses.
Credits and grades in scanned transcripts, especially ones marked ? or with a star.
Department and course names. The same Korean term should read the same everywhere; Term Review is where you settle it.

If you are unsure, skip. Skipping never locks anything.

What it never does, and what stays with you

It never changes a word you have locked.
It never produces the certified package until the checks pass. Before that, the package is stamped as a draft.
It does not write the translator’s oath or the notary pages. Those are signed by people and added after printing.
It does not send your documents to an outside translation service. Translation runs on the computer that hosts the program.

The certificate it produces records that a person reviewed and locked the listed words. It does not say anything about professional credentials.

If something looks wrong or stuck

“Failed to fetch” or a blank page. Refresh the page (Cmd+Shift+R on a Mac). If it stays blank, tell the person who set this up.
A button seems to do nothing. Long documents take minutes. Click once and wait; the first run is slowest because later runs reuse earlier work.
A translation looks wrong. Fix the word on the Critical List or in Term Review, lock it, then use “Apply to all documents”.
You corrected a number and want to see it. On Scan Check, press Save & rebuild, then download the clean PDF again.

Your corrections and approved words are saved automatically and survive re-translation.