Nadia KUZHEEVA

This is only possible if you use the Bilingual Excel filetype:

I absolutely think we should have a length limitation capability in monolingual Excel files as well, but we don't.  So you need to see whether you can work with the Bilingual Excel file.

If your file doesn't naturally fit the usecase for a bilingual Excel can you "easily" adapt it so it does?  So for example, if you don't have the source and target columns in your source Excel files does the format of the file lend itself towards inserting a column into the file so you can work with it using this filetype and then remove the unwanted column afterwards?

Hello Paul,

Thank you very much for your answer. Yes, I use bilingual Excel and it works.

I have error messages if I exceed the max authorised length. I configured the column C of the file as length limitation column.

But to see how many characters are authorised I have to move the mouse over the error message or the column in the right part of the editor.

I would like this info to be visible in the editor as I translate. For example, here in the status bar I see how many characters I input.

It would be helpful for me if the value of maximum length was displayed here too.

Like : Characters: 17, Length restriction: 22

So when I start to translate a segment I already know how many characters I can use. I don't have to translate, confirm and see if the error message appears or not. Then go see the tooltip which says: Length restriction: 22, you have input: 30.

If I saw from the beginning that it was 22 max, I would translate differently and move on faster.

Hello Paul,

Thank you very much for your answer. Yes, I use bilingual Excel and it works.

I have error messages if I exceed the max authorised length. I configured the column C of the file as length limitation column.

But to see how many characters are authorised I have to move the mouse over the error message or the column in the right part of the editor.

I would like this info to be visible in the editor as I translate. For example, here in the status bar I see how many characters I input.

It would be helpful for me if the value of maximum length was displayed here too.

Like : Characters: 17, Length restriction: 22

So when I start to translate a segment I already know how many characters I can use. I don't have to translate, confirm and see if the error message appears or not. Then go see the tooltip which says: Length restriction: 22, you have input: 30.

If I saw from the beginning that it was 22 max, I would translate differently and move on faster.

Nadia KUZHEEVA

Thanks for bringing this one to our attention.  I thought we could resolve it with the DSI Viewer plugin on the appstore, but for some reason the length restriction is not shown:

So we'll fix that and release an update in the near future.  In the meantime you can click on the DSI column and read this value, but obviously it would be better to see this in real-time all the time as you navigate through the segments.  So we will address this.

Thank you very much Paul. Have a nice day!

Nadia KUZHEEVA

Thought you'd be interested to note we updated the DSI Viewer today and it's available on the appstore:

https://appstore.sdl.com/language/app/dsi-viewer/995/

Now supports what you need:

Hello Paul,

I installed and tried it. This app corresponds perfectly to my needs. I find this feature indispensable when translating excel files with length limitation. Thanks à lot and have a nice day !

Dear Paul,

can you please explain to me how it works? I have installed DSI Viewer and the no of characters of the target segment doesn't have to exceed the no of characters of the source segments. So I have a different limit for all segments! My problem is that in DSI Viewer I do not visualize the length restriction, can you please help?

Antonia Tofalo

Can you tell me the type of file you are translating and how you set the limit for the target characters?

Hi Paul, I have an Excel file, the Trados package was created by the client. Actually I didn’t set the limit for the target characters because it’s different for every segment. The instructions say that I have to respect the limit of the source language.

Antonia Tofalo

So in this case you have to add a column for this in excel and calculate the number of chars in each segment.  For example, I added the column C:

To calculate the length just use this formula in cell C2:

=LEN(A2)

Then copy the formula down the column.  Then in Studio set up your Bilingual Excel filetype like this (based on my example):

Make sure you either deselect the monolingual Excel filetypes in your File -> Options before you create your project, or move the Blingual Excel above the monolingual ones:

Then open your file for translation:

And the count as you work will be visible at the bottom of your screen:

Thank you so much Paul! The fact is that the client prepared the package for me, thus I suppose I can't do that. Am I right?

BTW it's very useful for next time. Thanks for your precious help!

Antonia Tofalo

Antonia Tofalo said:

The fact is that the client prepared the package for me, thus I suppose I can't do that. Am I right?

What you could do if you like, is this:

1. get the source file by saving target (or maybe it's in your source language folder already if the package was created with it?)
2. create a new project of your own after preparing the source file as you need it
3. once you're done and have updated the translations into your own TM just add your TM to the project that was prepared for you and pre-translate.

At least that way you can use the verification as you work, and pre-translate with translations that already comply with the length check.