alignment and formatting

Hello everyone!

I am learning how to align two files in SDL Trados Studio 2021.

No problem, except that I am getting red dotted lines where there is a difference in the formatting, i.e., lack of bold or italics or color.

I cannot find the tags or format tools in the Ribbon of the Alignment section.

I  have search documents and I found no mention of Formating in Alignment.

Also, is this the right forum for this question? On the column at the right of this box, I find this tip: 

  • Choose the right forum – Check out the list of forums here

but when I click on here - I get an empty box in this panel.

Thank you in advance!

Adriana

Parents Reply Children
  • Hello Paul!

    Screenshot of Trados Studio showing misaligned text segments with inconsistent font characteristics. The first word is black in the source and blue in the target segment.

    I hope you can enlarge this screenshot, but even in this size, we can see that in these aligned segments, font characteristics, such as color and bold, do not pass consistently. In the last segment,  none of the bold passed through. In the first segments there is a mixture, for instance, the first word is black in origin and in the destination it is blue.

    I wanted to correct these differences inside the Alignment work area, but I can't find how to change colors and such. 

    A couple of days ago I had a similar problem with tags, and I got the right solution in this forum, but in Alignment I don't find these tools.

    Maybe the only option, as you suggest, is to change the differences in the Editor on the .sdlxliff. 

    Thank you for responding. 

    Adriana

    emoji


    Generated Image Alt-Text
    [edited by: Trados AI at 2:46 AM (GMT 0) on 29 Feb 2024]
  • In the last segment,  none of the bold passed through. In the first segments there is a mixture, for instance, the first word is black in origin and in the destination it is blue.

    ok - I see your problem.  You do have three options:

    1. fix the source files as this is where the problem really lies.
    2. save the alignment as an SDLXLIFF, then open the SDLXLIFF in Trados Studio and you'll be able to find the problems and fix them more easily I think.
    3. don't do anything, just accept this as an aligned TM with a penalty on it

    Unless I was being paid for creating a perfect TM I would opt for 3.  The reason for this is that it will probably be more work to correct all these segments that you may not ever use than it is to use the TM as a resource for the translation and correct any tag issues as you come across them while working.  As long as the TM is penalised you'll never get a 100% match so you'll always be able to check it as you work with this TM only being used when yo have nothing better in your actual production TM.

    I ran a quick test and this works just fine:

    Screenshot of Trados Studio showing a segment comparison with mismatched formatting, where the source text is bold but the target text is not.

    It is an additional step, but would allow you to achieve what you're after.

    As a quick and dirty option - you can use 'Import translation units as plain text' option of advanced import dialog to get rid of all formatting altogether at a later stage.
    https://docs.sdl.com/813470/673931/trados-studio-2021-sr1/advanced-import-of-alignments-into-tms

    This 3rd option is also really a variant of this direction which is not a stupid idea.  It just means you'll always have to address the tags as opposed to being able to use them when they're right, and not when they're wrong.

    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

    emoji


    Generated Image Alt-Text
    [edited by: Trados AI at 2:46 AM (GMT 0) on 29 Feb 2024]
  • Thank you, Paul.

    Your considerations are sound. It is funny that the only 2 questions I've had so far had to do with formatting.