Claudia Schreiner 

The best way to work, based on this:

Claudia Schreiner said:

In the end I need ONE final version which contains all the implemented changes of the 3 partial deliveries both in my project sdlxliff and in the TM. And I need to be able to save them as xml-file again.

Is for you to create the project in the first place making sure that the XML filetype has been correctly configured to extract the text you need.  Then you would create a Project Package and send the package to the translator.  They would send you a return package at the intervals you wanted and you could update your project with that, proof read, make changes and send an updated package back.  That would ensure you had proper control of the project and you would always be able to save the target XML at the end, and update your translation memories.

To do this you would need to have the Professional version of the product.  What version are you working with?

If you don't have this, and if the translator who does all this work for you doesn't have it either, then the solution may be this

1. translator creates the XML filetype to your instructions for what needs to be translated
2. translator prepares a project and translates the file
3. translator sends you a version of the SDLXIFF to proofread, and also the XML filetype settings file in case you want to try and generate the XML file
4. you send the edited SDLXLIFF with tracked changes back to the translator
5. the translator replaces the SDLXLIFF in their project (if you don't do this you have to apply all your project settings again) with the one you returned (keeping a dated backup of the one they had originally)
6. translator reviews the changes and updates the work
7. repeat steps 3 to 6 until the job is finished
8. translator returns the completed SDLXLIFF to you
9. you do your final checks and if all is well you import the XML filetype settings into the project you created for this file, update it into your TM with a batch task and generate the target XML file

There are probably several variations on this, but unless you are sharing the TM with others who need to see the updates as the project progresses I see no need for you to update your TM until the end.  That will avoid you importing segments that may not be approved.  You have the SDLXLIFF files anyway so if the worst comes to the worst you can import SDLXLIFF files into a TM at any time to update it.

Thank you very much, Paul .
Yes, as said at the beginning I'm working with the Freelance version.

But what do you mean by

Paul said:

Is for you to create the project in the first place making sure that the XML filetype has been correctly configured to extract the text you need. 

We were both able to open the file in Trados and start translating? And it also worked to save the target as XML file again when we did an initial test. However, last night I just realized that I can no longer create a “correct” XML file – there are only ~ the first 100 segments translated, the rest isn’t even though many more segments are already translated.

Yes, I do need to create a XML file in the end.

So how would the translator configure the XML which came from the client? You said in 3. that the translator needs to send me

Paul said:

also the XML filetype settings file in case you want to try and generate the XML file

Oh, and I forgot to mention that we both work simultaneously. So for time reasons I already do the proof reading while he is translating the next batch. Would this then still work that way? Do I just "OPEN" the SDLXLIFF to add my changes?

 Claudia Schreiner 

Claudia Schreiner said:

Yes, as said at the beginning I'm working with the Freelance version.

Apologies... I missed that.

Claudia Schreiner said:

We were both able to open the file in Trados and start translating? And it also worked to save the target as XML file again when we did an initial test.

Well... XML is not always straightforward.  The default XML filetype will extract every element containing text and offer it for translation.  But sometimes, more often than not, XML requires special handling.  You may have translatable text inside attributes which the default will not extract; you may have some elements that you don't wish to be translated but the default gives you no control over this.  So if you both opened and saved using the default then of course this will work... and as long as you're happy it's extracting exactly what's needed then as long as you're both on a version of Studio that uses the same default XML filetype you won't have a problem.

As usual, without adequate context it's never possible to provide the exact answer to a question like this!

Claudia Schreiner said:

So how would the translator configure the XML which came from the client? You said in 3. that the translator needs to send me

Well, if it's needed (as I just said) this article explains:

https://multifarious.filkin.com/2014/06/01/custom-xml

It is 8-years old now but I think the principles are all good.

Claudia Schreiner said:

Oh, and I forgot to mention that we both work simultaneously. So for time reasons I already do the proof reading while he is translating the next batch. Would this then still work that way? Do I just "OPEN" the SDLXLIFF to add my changes?

Well, this introduces a little more complexity because now he needs to update his file with your changes, but his file is by now not the same as yours.  I think, pending different advice from anyone else since our users are more often than not smarter than we are when it comes to practical aspects like this, that I would work like this:

1. translator creates the XML filetype to your instructions for what needs to be translated
2. translator prepares a project and translates the file
3. translator sends you a version of the SDLXIFF to proofread, and also the XML filetype settings file (if you created a custom XML fietype) in case you want to try and generate the XML file
4. you make your edits (don't use track changes as I don't think this will be helpful in your workflow unless the translator is going to manually apply them to his file by referring to yours in a separate window) and update them into a clean TM
5. you send the clean TM back to the translator
6. the translator adds your TM for that file to his project, disables his other TMs temporarily, and runs "Translate to fuzzy" against his version of the file.  This runs through his version of the file and stops at every segment that has a different translation.  The translator accepts or otherwise the reviews and carries on working.
7. repeat steps 3 to 6 until the job is finished (you need to create a review TM every time to make sure you don't do work twice... but it's trivial)
8. translator returns the completed SDLXLIFF to you
9. you do your final checks and if all is well you import the custom XML filetype settings (if needed) into the project you created for this file, update it into your TM with a batch task and generate the target XML file

"Translate to fuzzy" is this one in case you didn't know:

There's probably multiple ways to work with a colleague if you are not using a solution that is designed for sharing such as Trados Team, but I think this is how I'd do it so that one person always maintains the translation itself.  Otherwise I think you could get in a bit of a confusing pickle!

Thank you very, very much for your detailed reply, Paul. I really appreciate your prompt and useful help even though to me, as a very basic user, this seems to be quite a complex project.

Don’t worry, I totally understand that it is not always easy to answer such questions without knowing the particular situation.  
For sure, I’ll also read your article regarding XML files.

Fingers crossed everything turns out fine in the end. ;-)