Trados / CAT query - a viable workaround for Excel files?

[Andy Lausberg]

Hi.

I know there has been a substantial volume of CAT talk on the list, but I can't see anything exactly like this in the archives, so...

I have a reasonably large excel file to translate. There is a substantial amount of repetition spread out between the different worksheets in the file. I have a recent version of Trados on my system (Freelance 2007).  

While I really cannot stomach using SDL tag editor, I don't mind using Trados workbench if I am working in an MS Word file.

I currently have a word file of the same content that I put together using tab delineated plain text files I generated by saving the individual excel worksheets.

Soooo....

If I work through the Word file using Trados workbench, building up the TM in the process, could I later use this TM to auto-translate the original excel file using the TRANSLATE option from the Tools menu of Trados workbench?

In other words, can I run the Trados TM that I've created with the Word file through the original excel file to translate it?

Has anyone tried this? Will it work, or is there some glitch that will rise up and bite me in the proverbial posterior?

thanks.

AL

--
Andrew Lausberg, B.A., Grad. Dip.
Korean, Japanese and English Translation
laus...@oceanreach.org
61-4-6656-9621 (Australia)
--

[Joji Matsuo]

Andy,

 

I have never tried what you are about to do, that is build a TM from a Word file and applying it to an Excel file.

 

I do know that if the text in the cells in the Excel file have word wrap turned on, there might be some tags embedded in it that you won't see while you work in Word. This will result in fuzzy matches when you apply the TM to the original Excel file. You'll have to use Tag Editor if you want to take advantage of your TM.

 

In short, I think there are some bumps along the way.

 

Joji Matsuo

Omaezaki, Shizuoka

[Jean-Christophe Helary]

When I translate Excel files here is what I do:

1) convert the file to ODS with OpenOffice.org (preferably the most
recent version)
2) create a translation project with OmegaT and put the ODS file in
the /source/ folder
3) translate with OmegaT and create the translated file
4) open the translated file located in /target/ with OpenOffice.org
and save it as Excel.
5) Check the result in Excel, make a few modifications, deliver.

Jean-Christophe Helary

------------------------------------
http://mac4translators.blogspot.com/

[Marc Adler]

On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 6:17 AM, Andy Lausberg <andyla...@gmail.com> wrote:

> While I really cannot stomach using SDL tag editor, I don't mind using
> Trados workbench if I am working in an MS Word file.

Ultimately, I think it'll be quicker to resign yourself to using tag
editor. There are also ways you can unlock the tags and eliminate tags
from partial hits that make the whole thing more palatable.

--
Marc Adler
www.adlerpacific.com

[Frode Aleksandersen]

What you want is possible, but instead of translating an exported
file, you simply use copy+paste. Copy the columns you want to work
with from Excel into Word and translate them like you normally would.
You'll probably want to copy the source column into the target one so
it's easier to work with Workbench. Once you're done, just copy the
cells back into Excel. Check the alignment of the cells to make sure
nothing has shifted up or down a row, and you're done.

/frode

[John Brannan]

Andy Lausberg wrote:
> If I work through the Word file using Trados workbench, building up
> the TM in the process, could I later use this TM to auto-translate the
> original excel file using the TRANSLATE option from the Tools menu of
> Trados workbench?
> In other words, can I run the Trados TM that I've created with the
> Word file through the original excel file to translate it?

As others have said, it's unlikely to be quite that easy. My approach would be to do the initial translation in Word to generate the TM, as you describe, and then open the Excel file in Tag Editor and apply the TM, which *should* be fairly quick and painless. I emphasize *should* here, because a lot depends on how the text in the Excel file is structured. If you have sentences that are split across different cells (which happens infuriatingly often), you'll have a bunch of sentence fragments that may or may not match the TM.
If you go the cut&paste route, bear in mind that copying an entire column of table cells from Word to Excel is going to go haywire if any of the cells include paragraph returns. Excel insists on putting each paragraph of pasted text into its own cell. In that situation you have to select the text in the cell in Word and then double-click in the target cell in Excel before you paste.

HTH
John Brannan

------------
Canberra, Australia
Email: john.b...@netspeed.com.au
Phone: (+612) 6258 6038 Fax: (+612) 6258 6238

[Marc Adler]

On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 5:05 PM, John Brannan
<john.b...@netspeed.com.au> wrote:

> *should* here, because a lot depends on how the text in the Excel file is structured. If you have sentences that are split across different cells (which happens infuriatingly often), you'll have a bunch of sentence fragments that may or may not match the TM.

By the way, if there's a whole lot of this kind of editing busywork,
charge extra.

--
Marc Adler
www.adlerpacific.com

[Andy Lausberg]

Thanks everyone, both for the advice and the ideas.

And yes, it does seem just a little too easy, doesn't it?

Just to explain some of the details:

It appears that there are no other tags to worry about. In the exported file, each new row is delineated by a paragraph mark, and everything within that row (different columns) are delineated only by tabs. In other words, the text in each cell is intact and without breaks, manual returns, paragraph marks, etc.

However, there is a lot of organization in terms of cell to cell relationships (merged cells, levels of indent, etc) so I do not plan to try to copy and past method, at this point.

I'll let you know how it all goes.

AL