I have many years experience doing DTP and translation memory. The job or prepping and processing files should be the responsibility of the project manager. I understand if a translator has a direct client then they will need to deal with DTP/prepress issues, but no transltor should have to deal with this unless they want to or have an interest. Too many translators get messed-up files dumped on their desks because inexperienced or lazy PMs do not handle things efficiently.
At this point no one should be exporting pdfs to create Word files! Perhaps one or two page documents for convenience sake, but otherwise the native application should always be used to export text into a translation memory format. It saves so much time and eliminates errors.
Many of the problems mentioned in this thread have to do with Microsoft Word, and rightfully so. Clients often think becasue it is "only Word" that it should be easy to do anything. Most of the English Word documents I work on are a mess, and it is no easy thing to whip the translated versions into shape, because everyone kind of does their own thing and Word is not really meant for complex DTP.
Since the advent of translation memory it has become much easier to deal with DTP applications. Frame, Indesign, Interleaf...using the taggers is great and eliminates the copy and paste errors of the past.
Every project is different of course and we all scramble to keep up with the latest tips and tricks. Thank you for starting this discussion and good luck with those weird Word files!
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francishunger Germany Local time: 09:44 English to German
Know your Word
Jun 19, 2009
I think that some of the very basic MS Word functions that would be useful for a translator - editor - DTP publisher workflow are unknown to at least one of the parties, namely:
* Follow changes and make comments - Allows to follow, agree, disagree changes between editors and translators in MS Word documents
* Style sheets - Predefined style sheets in MS Word should be named and used the same way as in the final DTP document. This makes integration of Word documents into any DTP file (be it Quark, Indesign, Pagemaker, Illustrator) much easier. For: headlines, block quotes, lists, index, bibliography etc.
* Key bindings – They allow to apply a certain style sheet e.g. a headline to a paragraph with just a key combination, which makes it possible to work through a document after the final translation and apply the style sheets really fast.
Any other suggestions regarding MS Word, that I forgot?
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Mauricio Coitiño Uruguay Local time: 06:44 Member (2006) English to Spanish + ...
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Very good Ms Word contribution
Jun 20, 2009
This is indeed a very good contribution on the use of Word, face to a later DTP process. I've just finished a fomatting project fo a 273-page PhD thesis un Word and I cannot be thankful enough for the style and automatic indexation functions of Word.
There's nothing like a good DTP program, but Word can do some interesting things.
Francis Hunger wrote:
I think that some of the very basic MS Word functions that would be useful for a translator - editor - DTP publisher workflow are unknown to at least one of the parties, namely:
* Follow changes and make comments - Allows to follow, agree, disagree changes between editors and translators in MS Word documents
* Style sheets - Predefined style sheets in MS Word should be named and used the same way as in the final DTP document. This makes integration of Word documents into any DTP file (be it Quark, Indesign, Pagemaker, Illustrator) much easier. For: headlines, block quotes, lists, index, bibliography etc.
* Key bindings – They allow to apply a certain style sheet e.g. a headline to a paragraph with just a key combination, which makes it possible to work through a document after the final translation and apply the style sheets really fast.
Any other suggestions regarding MS Word, that I forgot?
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The translation workplace 
