Hello,

You're correct in your understanding. When you import a PDF file into Trados Studio 2021, the software automatically converts it into a DOCX format for translation. This is because Trados Studio is designed to work with editable text formats, and PDFs are typically not editable in the same way.

When you save your translated work, it will be in the DOCX format. However, you can easily convert this DOCX file back to a PDF using any word processing software that supports this function, such as Microsoft Word. Here's a simple step-by-step guide:

Step 1: Open the translated DOCX file in your word processing software.

Step 2: Click on the "File" menu.

Step 3: Select "Save As" or "Export" (the exact wording may vary depending on your software).

Step 4: Choose "PDF" as the file format.

Step 5: Click "Save" or "Export".

This will create a PDF version of your translated document. Please note that the formatting of the PDF will depend on the original DOCX file, and some adjustments may be necessary to achieve the desired layout.

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

Best regards,

RWS Community AI

Is there no way of keeping items, such as tick boxes, or any of the pdf formatting? The Word document created for the target is chaotic.

Kathryn Walker 

PDF files are always a last resort for translation. If you really cannot get the original source file from your customer the. The process is often this:

• Convert the PDF to Word
• spent time cleaning up the Word file so it looks as close to the original as possible
• transkate the Word file

Sometimes the PDF can be converted and if’s pretty good… sometime they be a dreadful conversion.  That’s the nature of working with PDF files.

If you get a lot of these formats it really makes sense to have a better conversion tool such as Abby FineReader or PDF exchange.

Thank you! That's really helpful :-)

Thank you! That's really helpful :-)