Greek localization and inflection: the case of short strings ambiguity

First published as: Why contextual information is necessary for the localization into highly inflectional languages like Greek

There are many issues that affect localization which have been mentioned in some detail in a previous post.

Quite often, major companies or major localization service providers, deliver lists of English strings that need to be localized (or reviewed, edited, QAed) in highly inflectional languages, the case with Greek.

Trados TagEditor: spell checking option appears inactive (grey)

Go to Tools -> Plugins -> SpellCheck, and select MS Word Spellchecker

Cumulative patch for SDL Trados Studio 2009 SP1

Cumulative patch for SDL Trados Studio 2009 SP1.

For more information, please refer to KB article 2913
at http://talisma.sdl.com/article.aspx?article=2913&p=1.

This cumulative patch addresses the following issues with SP1:

Custom text and attribute field values lost when upgrading translation memories for use in SDL Trados Studio 2009 SP1

Creating a new translation memory in SDL Trados Studio 2009 SP1 may fail with the error message "Culture ID 4096 is not a supported culture"

Connecting to a MultiTerm Server 2009 from SDL Trados Studio 2009 SP1 may fail when using the HTTP protocol

Opening third-party XLIFF files after upgrading to SDL Trados Studio 2009 SP1 fails with the error "Object reference not set to an instance of an object"

Please make sure to apply this patch as soon as possible.

Apply the cumulative update as follows:

Close SDL Trados Studio.
Download the ZIP file KB2913.zip from the attachments area of this KB article.
Extract the ZIP file to a temporary folder of your choice, such as C:\temp. The ZIP file applies to all editions of SDL Trados Studio 2009 SP1.
Double-click the file Studio-KB2913.msp. This will install the patch and update the following files in the SDL Trados Studio 2009 SP1 installation folder:
MtAnywhere.dll (new file version 8.1.1107.0)
Sdl.FileTypeSupport.Bilingual.Xliff.dll(new file version 9.0.1107.7)
Sdl.LanguagePlatform.TranslationMemoryMigrationApi.Implementation.dll (new file version 1.6.1110.1)
Sdl.TranslationStudio.TranslationMemoryManager.dll (new file version 9.1.1117.1)

Trados suggestion: Automatic term replacement and case change when opening a translation unit

Trados suggestion: Automatic term replacement and case change when opening a translation unit

The following is an idea I submitted to Trados. Feel free to vote it. It is a pity that the market leader is well behind functionality than other tools (i.e. DVX and Metatexis fully support this with a multitude of case adaptation options).

Currently, one needs to insert a term manually, either by a shortcut/clicking on Trados Suite 2007 or by entering first characters in Trados Studio 2009. The other option would be to enable term replacement when pretranslating. However, this is hardly ideal as one cannot benefit to the same extent with matches that will be created during the translation process and it will require extra work.

Also, when terms are replaced, there should be options whether the case should change following the source text. I.e. if my term is *Printer* and its translation is *Imprimante* whilst my source text is *Turn off the printer* then it should automatically adapt case and output *Turn off the imprimante*.

http://ideas.sdltrados.com/ideas/detail.asp?i=2612

Σεμινάριο ορολογίας με το Trados Multiterm (λήψη παρουσίασης)

Online webinar «Εισαγωγή στην Ορολογία» στα Ελληνικά.

Είδος Παρουσίασης: Webinar
Ημερομηνία: 4 Νοεμβρίου 2009
Ώρα: 16:00-17:00
Παρουσιαστής: Κώστας Ναδάλης

Download the pdf of the presentation
Download the full presentation with audio (The WebEx ARF player is required to playback the recording. Download ARF player)

Download information technology English -> Greek AutoSuggest dictionary for Trados Studio 2009

I have created an information technology (software) English (US) -> Greek AutoSuggest dictionary for Trados Studio 2009
(8MB rar version, 23 MB uncompressed).

English Greek autosuggest dictionary for Trados Studio 2009

I have created an English (US) -> Greek autosuggest dictionary for Trados Studio 2009 based on mainly legal texts of the European Community (3MB rar version, 9 MB uncompressed). Follow the link above for instructions and download link.

Adding term to termbase (Trados Studio 2009)

Trados Studio 2009 - Adding term to termbase

1. Select the source term
2. Select the target term
3. Right click on any selected term and click on Add new term (or assign a shortcut for this via Tools - Options - Keyboard Shortcuts)
4. Click on the auto hide icon (only for the first time you add a term)
5. Click on the Save icon or F12 (for some reason F12 does not work for me and others as far as I know).
6. Move back to your text and continue translation (the add term pane will be hidden automatically).

Using the Autotext feature in Trados Studio 2009 SP1

This is the first of a series of notes with the intention of reviewing the new and old features, as well as the performance of the new version of SDL-Trados, Trados Studio 2009 SP1.

Autotext is a very handy feature and it feeds to the Autosuggest prompt. You can add manually entries (not recommended), import autoTxt files, import them from Trados TMs (the new format), or tmx files.

How to analyze, pretranslate, clean files in multiple folders and subfolders in Trados

Many people seem to manually add the files in each folder/subfolder when they receive big projects with complex and deep file structure. This can take an inordinate amount of time but there is a simple trick to save you all the hustle. I have tried to illustrate this procedure with a number of screen shots.

1. Click on the Window button (bottom left of the keyboard, next to Ctrl) and E to open Windows Explorer.



2. Navigate to the main folder of your translation project and click on the main folder.



3. Click on the Search button (on top, next to the Folders button). In What do you want to search for dialog click on All files and folders



4a. If searching for rtf documents in the All or part of the file name field enter *.rtf
4b. If searching for rtf documents and ttx documents in the All or part of the file name field enter *.rtf *.ttx



5. Click on Search below. The files will appear on the right pane.



6. Resize the Windows Explorer Window and bring it on the right side

7. Run Trados Translators Workbench

8. Click Tools-> Analyse (or Translate or Clean up)

9. Move the Analyze (or Translate or Clean up) window to the left

10. Click on the right pane of the Windows Explorer window

11. Press Ctrl+A to select all documents

12. Drag and drop all documents to the Files to Analyze window in Trados. (You can see the trail of the drag and drop movement in this screenshot).




13. Click Analyze (or Translate or Clean up) on Trados. Done!

Trados error at clean up: Word could not convert the document due to an OLE/COM or file name error

You try to clean up your document with Trados and you get this.

Solutions:

1. Save word doc as rtf and try again.
2. Clean up with Wordfast. It worked in all cases I had this problem.
3. Change the file name to something simple, with latin characters and no spaces or other symbols.

Another reason you fail to clean up is because you have not closed the document you are cleaning up.

Importing a glossary from Excel to Trados Multiterm via MultiTerm Convert

Applicable to MultiTerm versions 2007 or earlier. A slightly different procedure is required with MultiTerm 2009 at the point when one imports the entries - Read here the modified procedure, slideshow included.


Trados instructions appear overwhelming to you with the multitude of options? You have tried to import your favourite, two-column dictionary and failed? Read on, it is easier than it seems; although not half as easy as in other CAT tools like DVX, Wordfast or MetaTexis.

Preparing the glossary in Excel

Use headers, i.e. the first cell in the first column could be English and the first cell in the second column Greek:

English Greek
file αρχείο
folder φάκελος

Importing via MultiTerm Convert

Open MultiTerm Convert. You will see the following screens:

1. Welcome.
2. Conversion Session. Select New Conversion session.
3. Conversion Options. Select Microsoft Excel format.
4. Specify excel file. Input file. Select your Excel file. The other file options will be populated automatically. The location of the xml file will be the same as the location of the xls file. Note it as you will need it later.

5. Specify Column Header.
For English select Index field: English (e.g. US)
For Greek select Index field: Greek
6. Create Entry Structure. Leave as is. Next.
7. Conversion Summary. Leave as is. Next.
8. Converting. Wait.
9. Conversion Complete. Finish.

Creating and Importing to MultiTerm termbase

Open MultiTerm. File/Create termbase:

1. Termbase definition. Use a predefined termbase template: Bilingual glossary
2. Termbase Name. Enter name.
3. Index fields. Remove German. Add Greek.
4. Descriptive fields. Leave as is. Next.
5. Entry structure. Leave as is. Next.
6. Wizard Complete. Finish.

Importing entries

Termbase/Import entries: Termbase Catalogue. Select default import definition. Press Process.
1. General settings. Import file: the xml file you have created. Select Fast import (skip to screen 7).
7. Import definition summary. Next.
8. Processing the import. Next. Wizard Complete. Finish. Close Termbase Catalogue.

Trados, Word and Concordance screen layout for full visibility during workflow

In order not to continuously alternate windows (with the Alt+Tab shortcut or with mouse clicking) you can arrange these three windows horizontally on your screen.

Below you can find a screenshot of a proposed arrangement so that you have full view of Word, Translator's Workbench and Concordance. A 1024x768 screen resolution was used. Higher resolutions can give you more space and lower resolutions can hardly support this layout.

You have to manually resize each window and move it to the appropriate location.

Convert excel files to Multiterm 5

The Converter macro available at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cat_conv/ (developed by Sergei Mouraview) and from this page too, automates the process of converting Excel glossaries into a Multiterm import file. It is fast and FREE.

You define columns exactly as you want records defined in your Multiterm database and the macro handles the rest.

Multiterm has the ability to handle duplicates on import.

How it works

Preparing the glossary in Excel

First column is English, second is Greek
Make sure there are no empty cells in your file
In the first cell of the first column you type Seg L=EN-US
In the first cell of the second column Seg L=EL
Close your glossary
Click on Twb.xls
Open your glossary
Select the two columns
Go to Excel -> Tools -> Export to TWB Memory

A text file is generated in the same folder. You import it to Trados.

Importing a glossary to MultiTerm 5

Use a similar procedure to create a MultiTerm 5 database with MultiTerm.xls
In first column you add English and the second one Greek.
Then go to Excel -> Tools -> Export to Multiterm

Translate ttx files in your favourite translation memory tool

Thanks to Jost Zetzsche and his toolkit, I discovered a new trick to do this. So far I would do it with MetaTexis which imports ttx files or tag the original (non ttx) file with another utility like Rainbow localization tools, or create a custom macro to do the tagging for special file formats.

So even if you do not own MetaTexis you can use a nice little tool, TTXpress, which will allow you to translate in Word with your favourite CAT tool.

TTXpress is a two-button toolbar that allows you to open TRADOS TagEditor files directly in Word. You can proceed with translation using your CAT tool of choice and then save as bilingual TRADOS TagEditor, as needed. These functions require that TRADOS TagEditor is installed on your PC.

If you stick to the following workflow (step 1 applies if you are creating your own source TTX and not receiving directly in this format), you should be able to work without problems:

1. (Open your .txt, .qsc, .isc, .sgm, etc file in TagEditor. Click Save. Close the file.)
2. In Word, click Open TTX as RTF on the TTXpress toolbar. You may see the screen flicker, as the conversion process actually opens the file twice.
3. Translate. Save the RTF.
4. Click Save RTF As TTX. Again you may see the screen flicker. A dialog box reports the location and name of the saved TTX file.