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Advanced Segmentation Control & Rule Portability

The Problem: Structural Tags Blocking Segmentation

Standard segmentation rules often rely on a "Full Stop + Space" pattern. However, in files containing dense HTML, CSS, or JSON, sentences often conclude and are immediately followed by a tag or a code block without a trailing space.

  • Result: Trados fails to break the segment, leading to "mega-segments" containing multiple sentences.

  • Current Limitation: The "After break" dropdown only allows for general categories like "Anything," "Number," or "Whitespace," but lacks specific logic for tag-based boundaries.

Proposed Solutions

1. Enhanced "After Break" Logic: Support for Tags

The "Edit Segmentation Rule" dialog should be expanded to recognize tags as valid segment boundaries.

  • Feature: Add "Tag" or "Structural Placeholder" as an option in the After break dropdown menu.

  • Technical Logic: If the "Break character" (e.g., a period) is followed immediately by a Tag (Internal or External), the segment should break even if a space is absent.

  • Benefit: Prevents multiple sentences from being trapped in a single segment when separated only by structural code.

2. Segmentation Rule Portability (Import/Export)

Manually recreating complex segmentation rules for every new TM or project template is a significant time-sink for Lead Auditors and Project Managers.

  • Feature: Implement a dedicated Import/Export button for Segmentation Rules.

  • Supported Formats: .xlsx or .rsx.

  • Functionality: Users should be able to export their refined rule sets from one Language Resource and quickly deploy them across other projects or share them with team members.

  • Benefit: Enables instant deployment of "Golden Rules" for specific file types, ensuring consistency across the entire production chain.

Competitive Advantage

By allowing Tag-aware segmentation and Rule Portability, Trados would significantly reduce the manual "Split Segment" workload that currently plagues technical localization projects. It would allow professionals to treat segmentation as a "set and forget" asset rather than a recurring manual task.

Screenshot of the Trados Translation Memory Settings window showing the Edit Segmentation Rule dialog. The 'After break' dropdown is expanded, displaying options like 'Anything' and 'Text (including numbers)'.

Sameh Elsharkawy