Processing XML files

Question

We have an XML file we are trying to process for a client that is not coming out correctly in Trados. For some reason we&rsquo;re not getting segment breaks at the tags, all text is flowing continuously (resulting in segments that are 2000-5000 words long). Also, in the source XML file, we&rsquo;re seeing tabs to separate certain content types (product description /t product number /t currency) that are not picking up in Trados. Trados is replacing those tabs with a simple space. If the client needs these tabs in the file to separate content type, we&rsquo;re worried that Trados not picking up the tabs may cause import problems when the client tries to bring the translated content back into their native environment.

Paul · Accepted Answer

Hello Alaina Brantner , I received your email, thank you. It would have been useful to have a sample file but I recreated the problem I think. So I have a sample file like this: Fullscreen tabs.xml Download Nice cup, PG Tips $193.00 £168 8 lbs (4 kg) 85 Not so nice cup, English Breakfast $200.00 £174 7 lbs (3 kg) 85 Large cup, Tiptons $243.00 £208 12 lbs (6 kg) 85 If I open this file with a default TM and deliberately create parser rules where the tags are inline then I can reproduce what you see: So, the tabbed spaces have become ordinary spaces and of course the tags are deliberately inline so they are not on separate segments. The solution to the problem I have created for myself is simple, and will hopefully help you too (but I am guessing!). First of all you need to preserve the whitespace as the default is normalizing it. So change this setting to preserve: Next, make sure the parser rules for your xml filetype are not set to inline (hopefully you did create a custom XML filetype for your file and are not just using the defaults): Now if you open your file with this new filetype you should see this: This is much better... the tabs are retained and the elements have been handled as separate segments. This is all you asked for, but you could improve this further again by segmentation on the tabs. If you add a simple rule to your TM segmentation rules like this: Now when you open the file with your new filetype and custom segmentation rule you see this: Probably much better to translate this way! Hope that helps. Regards Paul

Paul · Answer

Hi Alaina, 
 ok. Couple of things here probably: 
 
 A Language Resource Template is used to create a TM. So you don't have repeat the settings over and over for similar things. The language would be your source language and not the target since we are segmenting the file based on the source content not the target. 
 To do what you need go the settings on the TM itself and you'll find the similar options. This is where you change the segmentation rules, or 
 create a new TM based on your new Language \resource Template and use that. 
 
 Make sense? 
 I know it's a little counter intuitive as it would be much much better to have the Language Resource Template available to be used for any TM you like so you only had to change the rules in the template and not on every TM. But that's just the way it works... unfortunately. 
 Regards 
 Paul

Paul · Answer

Hi Alaina, 
 
I'm a little confused by this post and don't really have any idea what you mean by "it's not saving the language pair". The segmentation rules are on the TM. So if you open a file against a TM using the segmentation rules you created then they will apply. 
 
If this isn't clear perhaps you can elaborate a little... pictures help! 
 
Regards 
 
Paul

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Processing XML files