Office Word: building blocks not copied to target

Question

I have a Word document (template, .dotm) with building blocks, linked to some Visual Basic code that provides the user with a form to fill in. The information of the form then goes to the right spots in the Word document. 
 When translating in Studio, the building blocks show as tags. With the help of the Tag Verifier, I'm quite sure we copied all the tags into the translation. Upon export, Studio provides me with a .dotm file, with the form, the Visual Basic code and the bookmarks, but not with the custom building blocks that appear in the source document. 
 Unless I'm mistaken, there is no way we can copy building blocks from one Word document to another. 
 Is there a way Studio can take care of this? 
 Thank you. 
 
 S&eacute;bastien

Paul · Answer

Hi Sébastien Devogele , 
 
Can you provide a simple example with just a few segments and some of these building blocks?

Paul · Answer

Hi Sébastien Devogele , 
 
Thanks for the prompt... I'm working away at the moment and tend to catch up on emails when I travel back. Annelies did indeed send me your files the day you posted this. I have just looked at them and there are a couple of problems for me: 
 
1. They are too big and I have no idea where to look for the problem 
2. I have no idea how to test them and get VB errors on the source trying to see how it works which doesn't give me confidence 
 
I think this is something you are best tackling in one of several ways: 
 
1. Through your support contract, or 
2. Professional Services or an external consultant 
3. Ask your client to remove the building blocks for translation and put them back afterwards 
 
I think that if these files have been changed beyond all recognition of a normal word file then it may be asking a bit much for Studio to handle them.

Sébastien Devogele · Answer

Hi Paul , 
 
Thanks for trying. I indeed thought (only afterwards though) that Studio just isn't able to help me out with it, even though the source files don't give me VB errors. 
 
We've retrieved the text of the building blocks, copied that into a new Word document, translated that document with Studio and then, in our translation of the original text, recreated the building blocks from scratch. So we've done what you propose in your point 3. 
 
Thanks for helping! 
 
Sébastien

Trados Studio > 1. Trados Studio

Office Word: building blocks not copied to target