Hello,

Absolutely, Trados Studio has a feature that can help you with this. It's called "MultiTerm Replace" and it allows you to replace multiple terms in one go. Here's how you can use it:

Step 1: Open your project in Trados Studio.

Step 2: Go to the "Review" tab.

Step 3: Click on "Search" in the "Editing" group.

Step 4: In the "Search" dialog box, click on the "Replace" tab.

Step 5: Enter the term you want to find in the "Search for" box.

Step 6: Enter the term you want to replace it with in the "Replace with" box.

Step 7: Click on "Add to List". This will add the pair to the list of terms to be replaced.

Step 8: Repeat steps 5 to 7 for all the terms you want to replace.

Step 9: Once you've added all the terms, click on "Replace All".

This will replace all instances of the terms in the list throughout your project. Please note that this feature is case-sensitive, so make sure to enter the terms exactly as they appear in your text.

I hope this helps! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

Best regards,

RWS Community AI

Excuse me, say what?!

I'm not seeing "Editing" in the Review tab, but I do have it in my Home tab:

I'm not seeing "Search", and Find and Replace simply open the normal Find/Replace window:

Not seeing an "Add to list" option here.

Can someone help me out? It sounds like an interesting feature.

Michael Schroeder 

Michael Schroeder said:

Would a script like that would maybe work directly in the pretranslated sdlxlff files themselves, say in a text editor?

Yes... it's only a text file so you can edit an sdlxliff as you like.

Michael Schroeder said:

Or would that corrupt the file?

Only if you break the integrity of the sdlxliff.  So typically we never recommend editing the sdlxliff files directly since there are no controls managing what you can and cannot do.  But if you're careful, and know what you're doing, then anything is possible.

But I'll stress... it's not recommended!  Much better to use the API and then you are less likely to break things

 Paul 

Gotcha, and as always thanks for your wisdom

Thanks Paul! I think such a script or plug-in would be useful to a lot of people! Incorporating such functionality to the existing search & replace dialog would also be a neat feature, as long as you could maintain lists (say, by saving them and calling them up from a drop-down when needed) and edit them as necessary. That said, have a wonderful weekend!

Rene Morin  Michael Schroeder 

I spent a little time last night to create such a script... maybe it'll be useful for you?  I put it into the AI Enabled forum because I only managed to do this using ChatGPT to help!  If you need it changed you know what to do :-)

 Search & Replace for multiple terms/phrases 

Paul 

Absolutely fantastic, great work! I've bookmarked the page and will give it a go when I get some free bandwidth. It looks very straightforward, and I really like how you can choose the files that you want to apply - that's a very nice touch.

I'm guessing that case sensitivity would have to be considered in the tabbed lists? AFAIK, Studio doesn't have the ability to handle that "intuitively" (WorldServer can do this, i.e. changing syntax -> rules would also change Syntax -> Rules). So syntax->rules AND Syntax->Rules just in case.

Michael Schroeder 

Michael Schroeder said:

I'm guessing that case sensitivity would have to be considered in the tabbed lists?

Yes.  I guess you could make it smarter... but I'm not going to ;-)  I think a smarter solution would be better as a plugin, or being built into the core product.  Maybe this will give someone the idea now we can all see how useful this could be.

Absolutely brilliant! This is exactly what I had in mind when I posted initially, but there's no way I could have come up with a script like this. Thanks so much for spending time on this; much appreciated! The only problem for me is that I can get it going up to the drop-down list with the Ctrl+Alt+H shortcut, but then nothing happens. Everything just stops. Not sure how I could fix this.

Rene Morin 

Rene Morin said:

The only problem for me is that I can get it going up to the drop-down list with the Ctrl+Alt+H shortcut, but then nothing happens.

ok - so I have a few questions:

1. have you created your search and replace text files?
2. have you created a settings file and put the paths to the search and replace text files in it?
3. have you replaced the hardcoded path in the script with the path to your own settings file instead of mine?
4. is the drop down populated?
5. if it is populated and you select a file have you then closed the window as that's the trigger to progress the script?

I also noted that it is quite sensitive to spaces in the paths, use of an ampersand in the paths.  I didn't spend any time attempting to handle that... rather I simplified the paths ;-)  Certainly the potential for a problem

Rene Morin 

Also...

Rene Morin said:

Not sure how I could fix this.

Use ChatGPT!

Hi Paul. Yes to all. Actually, when I close the window (which I wasn't doing when I wrote my earlier comment), it does cycle through all the replacements, but nothing gets changed in the target column.

Hi Paul. Yes to all. Actually, when I close the window (which I wasn't doing when I wrote my earlier comment), it does cycle through all the replacements, but nothing gets changed in the target column.

Rene Morin 

What are the paths to your files?

The script file, settings file and replacements file are all in C:\AHK scripts\

Rene Morin 

File names?

Dropdown_Search_Replace.ahk
settings.txt
CFM_replacements.txt

Rene Morin 

Also what version of Trados Studio and what operating system.

Gives you some idea of just how much error handling the development team need to put into every single small thing they build!!  Also explains whey it always works on "my computer"!

Trados Studio 2022 SR1 - 17.1.6.16252
Windows 11 Home 10.0.2261 Build 22621

Can it have something to do with where my trados files are located? Again, I can see the S&R box cycling through all the replacements in my replacement file, but nothing gets changed in the target column. Looks like we're very close, but...

 Rene Morin 

I tried to replicate your setup as follows... all good:

However...

1. I don't have W11.  ChatGPT says this:
   "There aren't any inherent changes in Windows 11 that would directly impact the functionality of AutoHotkey scripts compared to Windows 10. However, there might be changes in user interface or system behaviors in Windows 11 that could affect the behavior of your script, especially if it relies on interacting with specific applications or parts of the Windows interface.  For instance, if an application's controls have changed (names, positions, etc.) in the new version of the OS, the script might fail to interact with them as expected. This might be relevant for your script, since it involves interacting with Trados Studio."
   
   
2. I don't know what version of AHK you're running, I have 1.1.33.10.  You can use this single line script to get that:
   MsgBox % "AutoHotkey version: " . A_AhkVersion
   
   
3. I don't know what your replacement file looks like... and empty rows, additional lines at the end or start?

On point 1. I guess you could check the labelling I used for the search, replace and replace all button using AHK's Window Spy?  I used these:

Edit2
Edit1
WindowsForms10.BUTTON.app.0.ea119_r8_ad19

In that order.  I can't think why these would change, but probably worth checking.

Rene Morin 

I also checked with ChatGPT as it's smarter than me...

It could be due to several reasons:

1. **Differences in the setup**: Check if all file paths and file contents are correct and match what the script expects. This includes the path to the settings file and the search and replace files mentioned in the settings file.

2. **Permissions**: Ensure that the script has the necessary permissions to read the files. If the files are in a protected directory or if there are user-specific restrictions, the script might fail to read the files. Try running the script as an administrator.

3. **Differences in software versions**: Even if the version of SDL Trados Studio is the same, differences in other software versions (like Windows or AutoHotkey itself) might cause different behavior. If possible, try to use the same versions of all relevant software.

4. **Differences in system settings**: For example, if the target system is using a different display scaling setting, it might affect the coordinates used by the script for GUI positioning and clicks.

5. **Differences in Windows versions**: As I mentioned in the previous message, there might be changes in user interface or system behaviors in Windows 11 that could affect the behavior of your script.

6. **Script Execution**: Make sure that the script is properly started (as an administrator, if necessary) and that the hotkey is pressed in the right context.

If the problem persists, try debugging the script by adding message boxes (`MsgBox`) at various points in the script to check if the script is running as expected and to identify where it might fail. Also, try to see if there are any error messages or if the script is exiting prematurely.

If it's only the search and replace functionality that's not working, make sure the search terms in the selected file exactly match the text in SDL Trados Studio (considering case sensitivity, white spaces, special characters etc.). Also, ensure the control names (`Edit2`, `Edit1`, `WindowsForms10.BUTTON.app.0.ea119_r8_ad19`) in the script are still valid in the other user's SDL Trados Studio.

Remember to always back up your data before running scripts that modify it, especially when debugging.

Hmmm... I just upgraded to the latest version of AHK (2.0) to see if it would make any difference. It doesn't. My replacements file is very simple. For testing purposes it only has this:

Cybertip Cyberaide
C3P CCPE
Project Arachnid Projet Arachnid

All separated by tabs. I even get your "Operation complete" message at the end, but again, nothing gets changed in the target column even though it does contain segments with the words "Cybertip", "C3P" and "Project Arachnid".

Rene Morin 

Maybe a more basic problem... do you have anything else different in your search & replace window to the settings I used?