Retrofit won't retrofit + I don't understand alignment of retrofit

I have tried the retrofit function with several different project and files, and the result is always the same: after retrofit, the target file is exactly the same as before -- no retrofitted changes. Any advice?

Another question. When I open the retrofit file for review in the alignment view (something I never tried before), what is shown is the old target version at left and the new at right (i.e. no source is shown), with mostly no connections at all and no possibility of making any. My question then is: What is the point of this? I can't do anything here (except confirm the few suggested connections), and it is virtually impossible to see the changes from the original source to the revised one unless the file contains only a handful of segments. (The help text tells me I can "edit the review results"; not possible.)

Screenshot of Trados Studio showing the alignment view with the old target version on the left and the new on the right, no source displayed, and few connections between segments.



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[edited by: Trados AI at 3:59 PM (GMT 0) on 28 Feb 2024]
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  • Hi  
    No changes in target file after retrofit - did you confirm the alignments? I never had problems with that. You exit the alignment by clicking "Update SDLXLIFF file". The next screen you see is the editor view with all changes tracked.

    The Other Question: You connect segments in this alignment view by selecting an old and a new segment (click on segment number), click "Connect" - there you are, they are connected. If you click on the first segment number, you will see some segment numbers on the other side turn blue. Those are the segments within the same paragraph. You can only connect within a paragraph.
    You can't edit anything *in this alignment view*. Nor do you have to spot any differences. Just connect corresponding segments and "Update SDLXLIFF file", then you can very clearly see the changes in the editor view and you can approve, reject or edit them.

    Very, very useful function IMHO. Hope this was a help.
    Daniel

  • Hi Daniel,
    Thanks for your replies. I'm not sure I understand them, though. I'll investigate The Other Question, but as for the first reply: "did you confirm the alignments" -- I'm not talking about alignments at all. What I mean is that I use the Retrofit function (both from an open sdlxliff file and from the Project view, with the same result) as a batch task, add the reviewed target file in the dialog and then run the process. After that I expect to see a target file that is updated with the changes in the reviewed file, but that does not happen. And the alignment feature is not involved at all.

    But I am heartened by your last sentence, so I shall look into that.

    Thanks,
    Mats
  • Inexplicably, now that I tried it again (in exactly the same way as before, and with one of the projects I repeatedly tried yesterday without getting the expected result) the retrofit function now worked as I thought it should. Now The Other Question remains to be explored -- maybe that, too, will yield a more understandable result.
  • And now I still don't understand. The Help text says: "Check and adjust the alignment that SDL Trados Studio performs when importing an externally reviewed target file, if you think the reviewer made major changes that could affect the alignment."

    But I don't see how viewing the original target file and the reviewed target file (as opposed to the source file and reviewed target file) helps me with that -- particularly since I cannot do anything in the alignment view. Please take a look at the image in my first posting: The only thing I can do there is to select the already suggested connections and confirm or disconnect them. For all segments below them, I cannot do anything at all: if I select two of them and right-click, all options are greyed-out. (You say: click "Connect" -- that is not possible for any of the segments.)

    And anyway, I don't see the use of this -- please explain. (In this example, I simply clicked "Update SDLXLIFF file" to see what would happen. The result was nothing: the changes introduced in the revised target file were still not introduced in the sdlxliff file.)

    Maybe with you, what you get when opening the retrofit file for alignment is source and target files?

    Mats
  • Unknown said:
    But I don't see how viewing the original target file and the reviewed target file (as opposed to the source file and reviewed target file) helps me with that -- particularly since I cannot do anything in the alignment view.

     

    I think you are completely misunderstanding this feature.  It has nothing to do with the source file.  It's all about making changes to the target so that you can update your TM with changes made outside of the bilingual SDLXLIFF.  So the alignment is about matching the changes to the existing target, segmented as it is in the SDLXLIFF with the new target file after it was updated by a reviewer.  If more segments were introduced to the target then you will not be able to align them because there will be no equivalent source in the SDLXLIFF to map it to, so the alignment won't allow you to make any changes in these cases.  The original target maps perfectly to the source.

    Retrofit is intended to allow light changes to be put back into the TM after an incontext review.  If you have more changes than this then it would probably be better to do a new alignment only with thr source and updated target file.  When you do this you'll probably see why retrofit won't work because there won't be any source segments to align to.

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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  • Sorry to pester you like this... Anyway, here is a usable retrofit file corresponding to the one above but with the source file at left (the one above was my mistake). But I still cannot do anything with the connections:

    Screenshot of Trados Studio showing an 'Auto connection' panel with a warning icon next to 'EDITORIAL' and 'Dear Translator' text in the source file panel on the left.

    Mats

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    [edited by: Trados AI at 3:59 PM (GMT 0) on 28 Feb 2024]
  • Hi
    The workflow would be something like this: You translate a document, produce a target file in the original format, say Word, and give this to a colleague for review who does not use Studio. That colleague makes some slight alterations and returns the Word file to you. You can then use that file to update your sdlxliff using the retrofit function.
    On your above screenshot there's English text on the left and Swedish text on the right side - that is not how it is meant to be used. That is how a normal alignment works, not a retrofit alignment.
    Daniel
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