How do I convert a bilingual doc to monolingual using Word or equivalent? Thread poster: Alan Frankel
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Alan Frankel 
United States
Local time: 11:24
German to English
I have a bilingual Word (.doc) file that I want to convert to a target monolingual Word file. Is it possible to do this using Word or an equivalent (such as Open Office)? I would think so, since it's a pretty obvious need, but I can't find any description of how to do it either within Word help documentation or on the web. Any suggestions would be welcome.
Note that I'm also posting a question in the Trados forum about whether this can be done with Trados.
Thanks,
... See more I have a bilingual Word (.doc) file that I want to convert to a target monolingual Word file. Is it possible to do this using Word or an equivalent (such as Open Office)? I would think so, since it's a pretty obvious need, but I can't find any description of how to do it either within Word help documentation or on the web. Any suggestions would be welcome.
Note that I'm also posting a question in the Trados forum about whether this can be done with Trados.
Thanks,
Alan ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Is it a Trados bilingual file? | Jun 11, 2009 |
Hi there. Do you mean that you have a Word document with hidden source text and markers (i.e. a bilingual file produced with Trados) and visible target text, and you only want to have the target text? Or do you mean to keep the source text?
| | | | Dusan Rabrenovic
Slovenia
Local time: 17:24
Member (2008)
German to Slovenian
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| Use Workbench's "Clean Up" function | Jun 11, 2009 |
If the file was translated using Workbench and you want to get rid of the source text as well as all the additional Trados markings, simply useTools->Clean Up, select the document in question and click Clean Up. If the file was NOT translated in Word and contains random code, you could check whether the code and source text use a different font than the translation, in which case use Word's "Replace All" function, whereby you'd select the appropriate font and replace it with an empty space, then... See more If the file was translated using Workbench and you want to get rid of the source text as well as all the additional Trados markings, simply useTools->Clean Up, select the document in question and click Clean Up. If the file was NOT translated in Word and contains random code, you could check whether the code and source text use a different font than the translation, in which case use Word's "Replace All" function, whereby you'd select the appropriate font and replace it with an empty space, then proceed with Replace all. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 17:24
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Alan Frankel wrote:
I have a bilingual Word (.doc) file that I want to convert to a target monolingual Word file.
Assuming this is an uncleaned RTF type file.
1. You can do a find/replace operation that finds everything that is marked as "hidden" and replace it with nothing. How you'd do that depends on the word processor. I'm not even sure if OOo can do it, but you'll have to read the help files.
2. If there is no hidden text, then you can use a wildcard search (or regex, if that is what your word processor calls it) to delete everything between those little tags.
3. If you have MS Word, download and install Wordfast and use the "Quick Clean" button from its toolbar.
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Alan Frankel
United States
Local time: 11:24
German to English
TOPIC STARTER | Wordfast "Quick Clean" did the trick | Jun 11, 2009 |
This was a file produced with Word/Trados.
I had the demo version of Wordfast on my machine. I didn't realize that I could use it to clean files produced with Word/Trados. It was indeed quick. Thanks, Samuel!
I did not see a way to use Word's search/replace to locate bookmarks. Nor did I think that I could use a text editor's search/replace (with or without regular expressions) because Word documents are not simply linearly structured sequences of text, and I feared th... See more This was a file produced with Word/Trados.
I had the demo version of Wordfast on my machine. I didn't realize that I could use it to clean files produced with Word/Trados. It was indeed quick. Thanks, Samuel!
I did not see a way to use Word's search/replace to locate bookmarks. Nor did I think that I could use a text editor's search/replace (with or without regular expressions) because Word documents are not simply linearly structured sequences of text, and I feared that I'd mess up the indices.
Tomás, I wanted to get rid of the source text and keep the target text.
Dusan, since the file did not have a TTX extension, "Tools->Clean Up" wouldn't let me select it.
Thanks, everyone! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Hynek Palatin
Czech Republic
Local time: 17:24
Member (2003)
English to Czech
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| Clean Up in Workbench | Jun 11, 2009 |
Dusan, since the file did not have a TTX extension, "Tools->Clean Up" wouldn't let me select it.
You need to select "Microsoft Word Documents" in the "File Type" list box in the "Files to Clean" dialog. Then your file should be visible.
| | | | Alan Frankel
United States
Local time: 11:24
German to English
TOPIC STARTER | I figured that out after I posted, Hynek. | Jun 11, 2009 |
Hynek, only after I posted did I figure out that I needed to change the file type. Thanks! But even then, the CleanUp function refused to do the job. Instead, it displayed the error message: "-2147467259: This file cannot be processed as TTX because it was saved as a bilingual document in Word." I have always seen that message, so I've given up on using that method, which is of course the most straightforward.
But since then, I found out that not only can I use Wordfast's QuickClean... See more Hynek, only after I posted did I figure out that I needed to change the file type. Thanks! But even then, the CleanUp function refused to do the job. Instead, it displayed the error message: "-2147467259: This file cannot be processed as TTX because it was saved as a bilingual document in Word." I have always seen that message, so I've given up on using that method, which is of course the most straightforward.
But since then, I found out that not only can I use Wordfast's QuickClean macro, but also the tw4winClean.Main macro from Word. As far as I can tell, these macros are undocumented; a search for "tw4winClean" in the Trados help documentation does not result in any hits. However, once you know that such a macro exists, you can find it on their online help (talisma.sdl.com). Articles 1523 and 2202 mention it. However, I don't see anywhere even on their online help that lists all the macros and describes their use.
[Edited at 2009-06-11 14:43 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Alan Frankel
United States
Local time: 11:24
German to English
TOPIC STARTER
[Edited at 2009-06-11 14:43 GMT]
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Tony M
France
Local time: 17:24
Member
French to English
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SITE LOCALIZER | Wordfast manual | Jun 11, 2009 |
The Wordfast manual gives very helpful instructions as to how to manually 'clean' a file if all else fails. I found this very useful the other day, when a corrupted file couldn't be cleaned by the normal methods.
I tried to look for it just now in order to copy and paste it here, but can't seem to find it. 
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