SDL Trados Studio 2015 - problem with Indesign text variables

Question

We noticed that Trados does not display Indesign text variables properly: they are displayed as a tag (instead of text) when they are included in the sentence (e.g. when they are in the middle), while they are not displayed at all when they are at the beginning or at the end of the sentence. This causes big problems for those languages which have different syntax (German, Italian, etc.) because while generating the target file, Trados places those variables in the same position as they where in the source file. 
 Example: "Verificare il corretto funzionamento dei dispositivi XXXX" becomes "Check that the devices are operating properly XXXX" (where XXXX is a text variable - not displayed in Trados - that indicates the name of those devices). 
 Is there any specific Trados setting we can use to avoid this problem?

Paul · Answer

Hi @Gianluca, 
 
I did think this had been resolved but lost track of which build/version. The current 2015 is: 
 
SDL Trados Studio 2015 SR3 - 12.3.5262.0 
SDL MultiTerm 2015 SR2 - 12.2.1657.4 
 
So check you have these first, and if not please upgrade. If you do then it may be in 2017. I can test a file if you are ok to share? 
 
Also note that if you filter on "All Content" as opposed to the default "All Segments" then at a push you can move the tags back into the translatable content and place them where you prefer. 
 
Regards 
 
Paul

Paul · Answer

Dear Gianluca, 
 Unknown said: the problem is that Trados 2015 does not display the text variables in the source text when they are at the beginning or at the end of the sentence, so the translator is not able to place the tags into the translatable content and in the right position. 
 I got that... but if you do what I suggested by filtering on "All Content" instead of the default "All Segments" then I'm pretty sure you will see these tags and you can move them into the "All Segment" area as part of your translation. 
 Send the example file to pfilkin@sdl.com and then I can hopefully explain better. 
 Regards 
 Paul

Paul · Answer

Hi Gianluca, 
 ok - same problem in Studio 2017. But if you change the display filter in the review toolbar to "All content"then you will see this: 
 
 Note that the tags which are normally hidden are now visible, which means you can drag them into the "All segment" area and move them to suit the text, like this: 
 
 Just drag and drop the tags and they will be available as any other. I know this is going to be a nuisance and we clearly need to address this problem in the filetype settings but it may provide you with a workaround for now. 
 Regards 
 Paul

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SDL Trados Studio 2015 - problem with Indesign text variables