Instead of working in the document directly, you can also use dialog box mode. In dialog mode, you translate in a dialog box rather than in a document. The translation dialog looks like this (if no segment and terminology has been retrieved from the TU or the TDB):
In this mode, the same colors are used as in document mode; the only difference is that the TU is presented by a dialog box.
This mode is especially helpful when you translate text boxes or table cells with fixed height, because many text boxes or table cells are too small for TUs in document mode.
Also, in the case of tables, the translation dialog box is useful because it is faster than normal mode.
In the General options dialog box, Miscellaneous tab, you can decide whether you want to start the translation dialog box only manually, always, or in special circumstances. (For further information, see Translation Dialog Box.)
While the dialog box mode has advantages, it also has drawbacks. For the time being, it is not possible to deal with footnotes/endnotes, fields, comments, etc. in the translation dialog box. In these cases, MetaTexis switches to document mode automatically (giving you a warning beforehand).
In dialog box mode, the most functions for dealing with TUs are available, except for the functions needed to manipulate segments.