• Replies 3 replies
  • Subscribers 432 subscribers
  • Views 3738 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related

Translate PDF files

Riccarrdo Paolo

Hello
These are the first tests on this SDL Trados software and I would like to learn how to use it.
I would like to translate a PDF file, from English to Italian.
How you do it?
I downloaded the SDL test trados 2017.
If you have a very simple guide I can not find it give me a hand you?
Thank you for answering.
Rate translation
×
Suggest better translation
×
Moderator UI
×
  • Get AI Suggestion
  • Hi ,

    In simple terms, you don't handle a PDF any differently to another file. At least this is the theory. So just create a new project and select your PDF file as the file you will translate, and Studio will take care of the rest.

    However, PDF files are unusual in that they are created mainly to allow somebody to view the contents of a file irrespective of how it was actually created. This means you can have very good quality PDF files where the text is easy to extract, but it also means you can have terrible quality PDF files where the text is next to impossible to extract. So how you actually handle the file is more often than not down to experience.

    When I explain to people how to handle a PDF I normally advise them to open the PDF in Studio as if they were translating a single file and then immediately close the project. This creates a word file based on the contents of the PDF and places it in the same folder. You can then clean up the word file so it looks sensible, and then translate the word file instead of the PDF. So in effect only using Studio to do the conversion. If you didn't have the trial version then you would be able to download a plug-in called IRIS from the SDL AppStore and this is capable of very good extraction, even with quite bad text, or images only PDFs. You can still do this without IRIS but the results might not be as good. You will however understand the process.

    I'm hoping that you just didn't realise you could handle the PDF in this way, and that you know how to create a project with any other file?

    Regards

    Paul

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

    ________________________
    Design your own training!
    You've done the courses and still need to go a little further, or still not clear? 
    Tell us what you need in our Community Solutions Hub

  • in reply to Paul
    A theory of translating PDF files. Files, which have been created NOT to be edited in any way. So this is a contradiction in terms.
    In my humble opinion using any automated conversion process - regardless which kind you take - is simply asking for trouble. It is much better to invest in a decent OCR software and use this to manually convert the PDF in a readable and workable Word file. If you rely on what machines make, you end up with formatting going nuts just in that very moment, when you change the amount of text - and this is what we do with each translation.
    This said, there so many descriptions how to handle PDF files on the net, as this topic creeps up every now and then all over the world, where translators communicate with each other. Just look at this quick search: www.google.de/search

    _________________________________________________________

    When asking for help here, please be as accurate as possible. Please always remember to give the exact version of product used and all possible error messages received. The better you describe your problem, the better help you will get.

    Want to learn more about Trados Studio? Visit the Community Hub. Have a good idea to make Trados Studio better? Publish it here.

  • Hi Riccardo,

    However, if you are totally new to SDL Trados Studio and you want to learn how to use it for translating any of supported file type you can find links to both Quick Start Guides (PDF documents) and YouTube video guides from the "Welcome" view under the "Get Started" tab.

    Hope this also helps.

    Phil Elliott