managing a .csv file exported from a website

Hi everyone, 

I have to translate a .CVS file exported from a website (i asked for other formats and the owener told me that is not possible for them), below an example of the file:

31,377,it,NASTRO MONOADESIVO RIFLETTENTE PER INTERNO,"**ALU BAND** è il nastro **monoadesivo acrilico** sviluppato specificamente per la **sigillatura ermetica di barriere vapore alluminizzate**, come le membrane della serie **BARRIER ALU**.

How can I manage the ** and special symbol? the same for the number at the beggining?

I Attached a screen with more context.

Thanks in advance

Screenshot of a .CSV file opened in a spreadsheet program showing a row with product description in Italian, including special characters and asterisks.



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[edited by: Trados AI at 12:55 AM (GMT 0) on 29 Feb 2024]
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  • Thanks for screenshot... although you seem to handling this as an Excel file as opposed to CSV.  At least this is what it looks like since you have everything in one column.  Is this how it's supposed to be handled, so not like this... or something like this?

    Screenshot of a CSV file incorrectly opened in Excel with all data in one column, causing formatting issues.

    It seems to me you may be corrupting the intended formatting of this file because of the way you are looking at it and this is making it difficult for you to understand how it should be handled.  Excel could also be responsible for corrupting some of the characters due to encoding issues and this could be the cause of your "special chars" problem.

    Can you open the CSV you were sent, before you open it in Excel and mess it up, in a decent text editor and then add a BOM (byte order mark... a good text editor can do this, something like Notepad++ or EditPad).  Then import the CSV into Excel as opposed to opening it in Excel.  Select the comma as the delimiter and then you'll be able to see what it should look like.

    Then you'll also be able to see how best to handle it... if you get it Excel ready you can probably handle it easily with the Excel filetype in Studio, just adding a couple of embedded content rules for the ** symbols.  The numbers will be on segments of their own and so easy to handle.

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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    [edited by: Trados AI at 12:55 AM (GMT 0) on 29 Feb 2024]
  •   Is this how it's supposed to be handled, so not like this... or something like this?

    Screenshot of an Excel file showing a table with columns labeled 'id', 'title', 'type', 'description', 'meta_description', 'video', and 'body'. The 'description' column contains HTML tags and Italian text.

    this is the CSV source file and as this the target file should be.

    I sent you the CSV file like this and the excel file after conversion like this

    is is your source file... at least this is the one you gave me:

    Screenshot of Trados Studio software with a warning message indicating a file type definition problem. The message suggests that the CSV file format is not supported or not properly defined.

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    [edited by: Trados AI at 12:56 AM (GMT 0) on 29 Feb 2024]
  • This looks exactly the same as mine. But I cannot make this open in excel with only three lines.  How did you do that? And why doesn't the excel file you sent me also do this?

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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  • I have no idea. I just clicked on it. I aslo asked to my collegue to try to open it, he has a Mac and he can open and see it like in the pic:

    Screenshot of Trados Studio interface showing a CSV file with columns for source text and target text. No visible errors or warnings.

    The problem is when i transform the file CSV into Excel, manage it in Studio for translating, than generate it and i cannot go back as in this source file. I have really no idea what is going on.

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    [edited by: Trados AI at 12:57 AM (GMT 0) on 29 Feb 2024]
  • Are you also using a MAC?  I'm wondering if the problem relates to these carriage return and line feeds?

    Screenshot of Trados Studio CSV file opened in Notepad++ with carriage return and line feed symbols visible, indicated by a red arrow.

    Excel sees these as an instruction to move to a new line.  Can you open the CSV in Notepad++ and turn on the view to see all characters, then share a screenshot:

    Screenshot showing the 'View' menu in Notepad++ with the 'Show Symbol' option expanded, highlighting the 'Show All Characters' feature.

    Maybe when you send the file to me these are getting added.  I've seen problems like this going from a MAC to Windows.  So try zipping up the CSV and email the zip to me as opposed to putting it into your fileshare repository.

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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    Design your own training!

    You've done the courses and still need to go a little further, or still not clear? 
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    [edited by: Trados AI at 12:57 AM (GMT 0) on 29 Feb 2024]
  • ok... success!

    Screenshot of an Excel error message indicating a problem with the list separator in regional settings.

    The problem is that I have en)UK) regional settings on my computer.  You have something else (Italian I guess...) and the difference is that here (Windows Control Panel) I have a comma as the default list separator that Excel uses:

    Screenshot of Windows Control Panel Customize Format dialog box with the list separator option highlighted, showing a change from comma to semicolon.

    I changed this to a semi-colon and it works for me so I get the same as you.  Will take a look at the original problem now!!

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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    [edited by: Trados AI at 12:57 AM (GMT 0) on 29 Feb 2024]
  • No, I use a Windows.

    Great! first step done! 

    Many thanks

  • I tested the excel file based on the sample csv you provided.  This looks fine to me:

    PF_test.zip

    I can't comment on the Excel files you sent me as they are different to the example CSV you sent me.  Certainly they seem to be in the format I was getting before I changed my regional settings so perhaps you have a problem with the conversion to Excel and so started off wrong?

    Another problem I can see is that I have no idea how to get the Excel file back into the CSV format you need.  I think that if your customer can't get you proper source files (html or xml as opposed to a CSV export that looks like this) then your best bet is to work on Excel and leave it to your customer to get the files back into his system.

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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    You've done the courses and still need to go a little further, or still not clear? 
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  • Thanks Paul, I think that the file in English version "t_2_product_trans_semicolumn_TEST2.csv.xlsx" is the correct one. I will send it to the customer to see their opinion. They told me I can also send the xls file so I hope so.

    Can you please tell me what you did in the english version? So I will try to do the samem and see the result.

  • Can you please tell me what you did in the english version? So I will try to do the samem and see the result.

    All I did was translate the IT version in Studio, then save the target.  That's it.

    If I take the sdlxliff you sent me and save target, or save source, then the format is completely wrong as you noted.  But the IT excel file you provided is also wrong... so I think you started with the wrong file.  If you make sure it's been handled as intended first (make sure the source excel is one record per line) then you should be able to pre-translate it from your TM quite quickly and then save the target correctly.

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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    Design your own training!

    You've done the courses and still need to go a little further, or still not clear? 
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  • ok I tried again and maybe I did some mistakes during conversion. Now it seems to be good also to me.

    The last question is: is there a way to split also these sentences in one segment each? In mine and your file is the same segmentation.

    Screenshot of Trados Studio showing text with segmentation. A purple cursor indicates a point in the text, with no visible errors or warnings.

    Many thanks Paul

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    [edited by: Trados AI at 12:57 AM (GMT 0) on 29 Feb 2024]
  • Yes:

    Trados Studio screenshot showing a list of segmentation rules with various status indicators such as 'Implemented' and 'Not implemented'.

    Just add a segmentation rule to break on a line feed:

    Trados Studio settings window with a focus on 'Segmentation Rules' tab, showing a dialog box for adding a new rule with a red arrow pointing to the 'Add' button.

    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

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    [edited by: Trados AI at 12:58 AM (GMT 0) on 29 Feb 2024]
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