Convert imperial to metric (but keep imperial in brackets)

Question

Hi all, I would to know if there is a way to automatically convert dimensions from the imperial to the metric system. For example, I have 2'' (or 2 in , it is not constant) in the source segment, and I want to translate it by "51 mm (2 po) " in the target segment. I have thousands of these to translate within the segments (segments are a mix of text, numbers and dimensions), but are never the same, so I need to do a lot of manipulations. If that function doesn't exist, is there an app for this? Thanks

Paul · Answer

Hi Sylvie Hugues , 
 
I'm afraid it's not possible in Studio, and there is no app for it either. I have got this on a long list of future apps as I've wanted this since Studio 2009 but we never seem to get there. Perhaps someone else is aware of one but I am not.

Paul · Answer

Hi Sylvie Hugues , 
 
Having said that there is a workaround I can think of if you have Trados 2007, but I don't know how effective it will be. Trados 2007 had a built in measurement option to convert metric to U.S. and vice versa. So maybe you could use the Legacy Converter to convert your SDLXLIFF files to a TTX and then handle the TTX in Trados 2007 to do your measurements. You could use the SDLXLIFF toolkit to extract an SDLXLIFF file that only contained these segments with measurements and handle them first as a TTX in Trados 2007, then use this to update your translations in Studio. 
 
I don't know how effective this would be, but if you have thousands of them it might be worth a shot.

Nora Díaz · Answer

While conversions can't be done automatically, if you have a few that you can enter into a list of variables, maybe that will make your work easier. I have done this in the past with the RegEx Match Autosuggest Provider (available in the app store):

Trados Studio > 1. Trados Studio

Convert imperial to metric (but keep imperial in brackets)