Trados-prepared document without Trados
Thread poster: Emilie Fahlenkamp
Emilie Fahlenkamp
Emilie Fahlenkamp  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 21:01
English to Danish
+ ...
Mar 3, 2009

I am translating a Trados-prepared document but do not use Trados, and am really not fond of the format! Any tips on how to make this process a little more efficient in Word? I will not be acquiring Trados before the deadline

Thanks in advance for your help.

Emilie


 
esperantisto
esperantisto  Identity Verified
Local time: 04:01
Member (2006)
English to Russian
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SITE LOCALIZER
What is a Trados-prepared document? Mar 3, 2009

Be more specific.

 
Spiros Doikas
Spiros Doikas  Identity Verified
Local time: 03:01
Member (2002)
English to Greek
+ ...
Segmented? Mar 3, 2009

Is your Trados document pre-segmented with full/fuzzy matches? (I.e. if you press Ctrl+Shift+8 will you see both source and target text?).

 
Peter Bouillon
Peter Bouillon  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 02:01
French to German
+ ...
Try Wordfast Mar 3, 2009

You did not clear up this issue with the agency beforehand? As things stand, it will be you bearing the responsibility if things don't work out with your translation in the end. For instance, if the technical format of your translated text does not match the agency's expectations when you hand it in.

Try using (an unlicensed version of) Wordfast. This will let you translate mid-sized documents, and “uncleaned” Wordfast documents are compatible with “uncleaned” Trados documen
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You did not clear up this issue with the agency beforehand? As things stand, it will be you bearing the responsibility if things don't work out with your translation in the end. For instance, if the technical format of your translated text does not match the agency's expectations when you hand it in.

Try using (an unlicensed version of) Wordfast. This will let you translate mid-sized documents, and “uncleaned” Wordfast documents are compatible with “uncleaned” Trados documents. This assumes that you were given a .doc file, not a .ttx file.

Peter
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Emilie Fahlenkamp
Emilie Fahlenkamp  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 21:01
English to Danish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
.doc received Mar 3, 2009

I have translated these documents for the agency beforehand, and have had no issues receiving a Word document, with text interspersed with these symbols and each sentence appearing twice. This time it's a much larger document and I am just wondering if there is a better way of doing this that inserting the translated text into the document in Word, leaving the symbols and formatting as is. Short of acquiring Trados right at this moment.

I will try Wordfast, thanks for the tip.
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I have translated these documents for the agency beforehand, and have had no issues receiving a Word document, with text interspersed with these symbols and each sentence appearing twice. This time it's a much larger document and I am just wondering if there is a better way of doing this that inserting the translated text into the document in Word, leaving the symbols and formatting as is. Short of acquiring Trados right at this moment.

I will try Wordfast, thanks for the tip.

Emilie
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esperantisto
esperantisto  Identity Verified
Local time: 04:01
Member (2006)
English to Russian
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SITE LOCALIZER
Anaphraseus Mar 3, 2009

might be a solution, if your document has no fancy formatting. However, it is still in beta status — use with caution.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/anaphraseus


 
Lori Cirefice
Lori Cirefice  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 02:01
French to English
Wordfast Classic Mar 3, 2009

Emilie Fahlenkamp wrote:

I am just wondering if there is a better way of doing this (snip)

I will try Wordfast, thanks for the tip.

Emilie


Yes, Wordfast is a good choice, and you can use an unlicensed version for as long as you wish. The only limitation is the size of the TM you can use, which isn't really a problem because you can keep translating even when you have passed the upper limit, either create a new TM, or just keep translating knowing that TUs may not be saved/matches not served.

Be sure to download Wordfast Classic (Version 5) for this kind of file, not the new Wordfast Pro (6).

I think you will find it much more convenient than inserting your translations between the delimiters.


 
Emilie Fahlenkamp
Emilie Fahlenkamp  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 21:01
English to Danish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Looking at Wordfast Mar 3, 2009

And I can still deliver a Trados-compatible document to the client?

I am looking at Wordfast right now, and it does indeed seem like a much better solution than inserting or copy/pasting. Thanks!


 
Spiros Doikas
Spiros Doikas  Identity Verified
Local time: 03:01
Member (2002)
English to Greek
+ ...
Yes Mar 3, 2009

Wordfast uses the exact same formatting for .doc files as Trados.

 
Lori Cirefice
Lori Cirefice  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 02:01
French to English
Seconded Mar 3, 2009

Spiros Doikas wrote:

Wordfast uses the exact same formatting for .doc files as Trados.


Yes, even more so because the file you received was pre-segmented in Trados, your customer won't have any segmentation issues with the unclean file that you return to them. You probably shouldn't change the segments (shrink/expand).

Good luck with your project!


 
Wolfgang Jörissen
Wolfgang Jörissen  Identity Verified
Belize
Dutch to German
+ ...
Wordfast is not the only option Mar 3, 2009

... although most options (if not all) will be limited in either time or capacity.
You might still look at:
- MetaTexis (fully functional demo for 60 days if I am not mistaken)
- Deja Vu X (fully functional for 30 days)
- MemoQ (was it 60 days?)

And there was this macro somewhere that could convert all the segments into a table with source and target next to each other, and vice-versa. I am sure other colleagues will know more.


 
Heinrich Pesch
Heinrich Pesch  Identity Verified
Finland
Local time: 03:01
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
+ ...
Buy Wordfast license Mar 3, 2009

If you get these kind of jobs regularly you should buy the license for Wf asap. Then you can built up your own translation memories and use them for other projects too. That's what your customer is doing all the time, why shouldn't you?
I remember having translating the same kind of documents too, only that the only the known segments were pretranslated from the customer. Do not be afraid to change the size of segments using Alt+pgdown or Alt+pgup. The segment you translate should be a rea
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If you get these kind of jobs regularly you should buy the license for Wf asap. Then you can built up your own translation memories and use them for other projects too. That's what your customer is doing all the time, why shouldn't you?
I remember having translating the same kind of documents too, only that the only the known segments were pretranslated from the customer. Do not be afraid to change the size of segments using Alt+pgdown or Alt+pgup. The segment you translate should be a reasonable linguistic unit. Sometimes pretranslated files have a line-break where the sentence is not yet finished or they combine one or more sentences because the software did not recognise the full-stop.
I'm a Wordfast user since six years (soon have to buy the license again, which lasts three years), and though I have Trados too, I use Wf wherever it makes sense.

Regards
Heinrich
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Jorge Payan
Jorge Payan  Identity Verified
Colombia
Local time: 20:01
Member (2002)
German to Spanish
+ ...
Old Wordfast version Mar 4, 2009

I have still at hand the oldie and goodie WordFast 3.35x, which was free and had no TM size or TU number limitation.

You could use it while you decide on buying either TRADOS or a more cost-effective CAT tool, as WordFast, of course!

Just let me know to my private address if you need it.


Saludos


 
Emilie Fahlenkamp
Emilie Fahlenkamp  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 21:01
English to Danish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Up and running on Wordfast Mar 4, 2009

I looked at Wordfast, simply because I am under time constraint, and can report that I am up and running. It is so much easier, especially for larger documents, which I hope to now get from this client.

Thanks to all for your advice and tips! I am definitely much better prepared for future documents now.

Emilie


 
Stanislav Pokorny
Stanislav Pokorny  Identity Verified
Czech Republic
Local time: 02:01
English to Czech
+ ...
AFAIK Mar 4, 2009

esperantisto wrote:
might be a solution, if your document has no fancy formatting. However, it is still in beta status — use with caution.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/anaphraseus


Anaphraseus is intended for OpenOffice only. Or have I missed someting?


 


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