Hi to all,

I’m not a programmer but a simple, old and deep-rooted user of HW and SW since the old 1980’s MS-DOS and PCs. I have always been persuaded that computers and IT must make our lives simpler, and I am always searching for the best way to (perversely :-) ) exploit all what hardware and software offer.

I’d like to share with you this possible alternative to the “Align” procedure offered by SDL Studio 2015 (in this case, not working on previous versions of TS, as they do not have the “Bilingual Excel” file filter) to create a brand-new TM, starting from a source and a target (already translated) documents.

This procedure might avoid possible segmentation issues and, above all, simplifies the paragraphs/segments alignment process. Instead of using the “Align” interface of SDL Studio 2015, source and target (already existent) documents may be handled using a more flexible and less tricky word processor.

Foreword

Suppose that we have two documents similar to these (here I have used two MS Word documents containing the REACH MSDS section headings and the list of P, H, R, S statements in English and in Italian, but you may use any other source and target document you like).

The first step was to check the correct matching of paragraphs (¶) and/or segments between the two documents.

Process

1.  If you are using MS Word (or any other similar advanced word processor application), the first thing is to convert the text of the source document in a table format selecting all of it and, then, using the “Insert > Table > Convert Text to Table” command (the UI is in Italian, but the position of commands/options should be the same):

When you click on “OK”, you should obtain the following result:

In this case, MS Word default settings create a 1 column table with all cells surrounded by all borders (and this is not a real problem, as they can be easily removed).

2.  Repeat the above procedure on the target document to obtain a similar result:

Now we are ready to open a new and empty MS Excel (or any other advanced spreadsheet application) sheet.

3.  Select the entire source document table created (in MS Word clicking on the “table mark” [in red in the above image] in the top left corner of the table itself), copying (Ctrl+C) and pasting (Ctrl+V) it after having selected the cell “A1” of the spreadsheet:

Obtaining the following result (obviously, I have adjusted the column width):

4.  Repeat the above procedure to select, copy and paste the content of the target document table, but this time selecting the cell “B1”, to obtain:

and save the file.

Now we have a bilingual Excel file to import in SDL Studio 2015 using the file filter “Bilingual Excel” (remember to prioritize it and to uncheck other “Microsoft Excel” file filters).

5.  Open the “Bilingual Excel” file filter “Common” dialog, and adjust the pertinent settings to reflect the data of your Excel file:

For this example, I have defined columns “A” (source) and “B” (target), unchecked the “First line column heading” (as the Excel document does not contain any heading), and checked the “Confirm existing translations”.

6.  When you import the bilingual Excel file in SDL Studio 2015, you should obtain the following result:

7.  Save the project (Ctrl+S) to generate the *sdlxliff bilingual file.

8.  Now select the “Translation Memories” view (bottom left) and the command “Home > New > New Translation Memory” (or press Alt+Shift+N) to activate the creation of a brand-new translation memory.

9.  Assign the name, the path, and all the settings to the new translation memory as usual, to create an empty TM.

10.  Now import the saved *.sdlxliff file adjusting settings in “Bilingual Document Import Options”, “General Import Options” dialogs and, finally, click on “Finish” to start the import process:

11.  At the end you will get a final and usable populated TM:

identical to that generated using the SDL Studio “Align” procedure, but, from my point of view, with less efforts.

Conclusion

This is just a possible way to generate a brand-new TM when you have a source and an already translated target documents. I consider it less tricky than using the “Align” procedure as it allows to process source and target (translated) documents using a more flexible word processor application. Moreover, it simplifies the possible unwanted segmentation issues (more control on them).

The above procedure might be also modified, for example, creating only a single MS Word document running a (selective) merging of the source and target (translated) documents, say with the source paragraph/segment followed by the pertinent target paragraph/segment and, then, creating a 2 columns (source and target) table to paste and copy in a MS Excel spreadsheed.

It should also be possible working directly on an Excel file avoiding the step in MS Word (but in this case we would lose the flexibility of a word processor application).

I hope this might help you.

Thank you for your attention.