(Note: a pdf version complete with screenshots and screens is available upon request)

This third and last episode will cover the use of Trados Workbench and TagEditor to translate Excel and PowerPoint files.

Powerpoint and TagEditor

1) In Trados Workbench, configure the ttx workflow option:

Select Option>Translation Memory Options
Select the Tools tab
Select the TRADOSTag XML workflow for Word .doc files option
Click OK.



2) Create a main folder containing two sub-folders: source file and target file.

3) Prepare the .ppt file for translation as follows:

In Translator Workbench, analyse and pre-translate the file using Analyse and Translate. During these two phases, the file will be automatically converted to .ttx format so to enable you to translate it using TagEditor.

4) Open TagEditor, select the file to translate and open it.

5) Once completed the translation, check the tags using the TagEditor Generic Tag Verifier plug-in.

6) Save the file with Save as Bilingual.

If you clean-up the file, you will automatically convert it to its .ppt original format. It is important to keep the original file in the same location it was first stored in.

7) Open Powerpoint, select the translated and saved file and check both translation and final DTP. At times, it happens that some parts remain untranslated, such as, for instance, sentences or terms into boxes etc.. With the aim to minimise these flaws, assure you are using the more recent version of PowerPoint.
Excel and TagEditor

Two methods are usually used to translate a .xls format file with Trados Workbench, depending on which Trados version you have.

Trados version preceding 7.5:

In that case, you can use the Trados T-Window for Clipboard.

1)Open Excel and select the file to translate
2)Open the T-Window for Clipboard
3)Open Trados Workbench with the TM you want to use

Proceed as follows:

1 – In Excel: select the sentence to translate and click Copy; the selected text will appear in the Clipboard
2 – in the Clipboard: click Copy Source
3 – translate the text into the Clipboard
4 – click Set/Close
5 – again in Excel: click Paste; the text will appear translated into the Excel cell.


Trados version 7.5 (SDL Trados 2006):

Using this version of Trados, you can translate a .xls format file more easily with TagEditor.

Proceed as follows:

1)Open Trados Workbench.
2)Open TagEditor.
3)Open the Excel file to translate; it will be automatically converted to the new format.
4)Once completed the translation, or during the operation, save the file clicking Save Target. That way, the translated file will be stored in .xls format. Anyway, a copy of the file is also stored as .ttx.

It often happens that original .xls files contain a column with the original language and another column destinated to its translation. If you save the file translated using TagEditor as target, it will overwrite the column in the original language. So, it would be a good idea to make a copy of the original file before starting to translate it, and then copy the translated column from the file saved as target once completed.

This was the last episode dedicated to the instructions to manage some types of files. I hope you find them useful and would be glad to get your feedback with your opinions and tips.