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Convert TMX to SDLXLIFF or use another technique to achieve this re-reading task?

Mike Rodent

Simply: 

A client has sent me a 20,000 word document: the source and the target, both Word documents. The source is in French target is in English and the job is a "re-read".

By converting all tables to text in both files, then converting all text to tables, then making these two vertical columns in the same Word file, I then made an Excel file.

I tried converting this to tmx using something like Olifant... or was it using something in SDL itself? Can't recall. Half the units failed. Not unexpectedly (since this is SDL) the "error results" failed to be visible.

Then I found an online spot to convert from Excel to tmx. This file is larger and on examination it appears to contain all TUs. Everything (i.e. source and text) appears to be perfectly "aligned".

Now I want to do an EXTREMELY simple thing: produce an sdlxliff (the memory can be a blank one) so I can go through the file segment by segment in SDL. 

I have tried to do this several times ... but to no surprise whatsoever, nothing appears to be able to achieve this. 

Any suggestions?

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[edited by: Satish Kumar at 7:55 AM (GMT 1) on 24 Oct 2025]
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  • 0 in reply to Paul

    You mean in Olifant? It says "Source: FR" and "Target: EN". That's all it says.

    Could there be some way of editing some bytes of the .tmx to make it says PRECISELY what SDL needs it to say, if "fr-FR" / "en-GB", for example? I have Notedpad++ and have some experienced of this byte-level intervention due to some of the most infuratingly intractable SDL errors.
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  • +1 in reply to Mike Rodent

      

    Mike Rodent said:
    You mean in Olifant? It says "Source: FR" and "Target: EN". That's all it says.

    Yes... and probably in a text editor too.  You don't need Olifant just to look at a TMX.  Does the file look like this:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE tmx SYSTEM "tmx14.dtd">
<tmx version="1.4">
  <header
    creationtool="ExampleTool"
    creationtoolversion="1.0"
    segtype="sentence"
    adminlang="EN"
    srclang="FR"
    datatype="PlainText"
    o-tmf="TMX"/>
  <body>
    <tu>
      <tuv xml:lang="FR"><seg>Bonjour</seg></tuv>
      <tuv xml:lang="EN"><seg>Hello</seg></tuv>
    </tu>
  </body>
</tmx>

    Or this:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE tmx SYSTEM "tmx14.dtd">
<tmx version="1.4">
  <header
    creationtool="ExampleTool"
    creationtoolversion="1.0"
    segtype="sentence"
    adminlang="en-GB"
    srclang="fr-FR"
    datatype="PlainText"
    o-tmf="TMX"/>
  <body>
    <tu>
      <tuv xml:lang="fr-FR"><seg>Bonjour</seg></tuv>
      <tuv xml:lang="en-GB"><seg>Hello</seg></tuv>
    </tu>
  </body>
</tmx>

    If it's not the latter then that might be your problem.  Just edit with a text editor - search and replace the language codes.

    Excel is probably easier for you.

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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  • 0

      

    I also think you might be making hard work for yourself down the line based on the requirement:

    Mike Rodent said:
    A client has sent me a 20,000 word document: the source and the target, both Word documents. The source is in French target is in English and the job is a "re-read".

    Once you've re-read it what is the task?  Just tell them which bits you'd change, or provide a marked up version of the English with tracked changes?  If the latter you could do this:

    1. align the French and English word files in Trados Studio to create a TM
      1. or create one from your TMX (the import can ignore language variations so that would easier for you)
    2. Create a project with the French source Word file
    3. Pre-translate from the TM and now you have a populated version of the English to review.
    4. Open for Review instead of Translate, or just manually turn on Tracked changes.
    5. Read and make your changes.
    6. Save the target file and that Word file will be in English with tracked changes.

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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    You've done the courses and still need to go a little further, or still not clear? 
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  • 0 in reply to Paul

    That did it ... thanks a lot!

    ("Verify answer" appears to mean "Thanks Paul, this is the accepted answer"). Unusual forum this one. 
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  • 0 in reply to Mike Rodent

     

    Mike Rodent said:
    ("Verify answer" appears to mean "Thanks Paul, this is the accepted answer"). Unusual forum this one. 

    It means, please verify it as the correct answer, if its helped.  Not all users do that but it's very helpful for several reasons:

    1. Users finding this thread will see this at the top:
      Screenshot of a Trados Studio forum thread titled 'Convert TMX to SDLXLIFF or use another technique to achieve this re-reading task?' with a verified answer marked by a green checkmark.
      Which can be helpful in really long threads as you probably just want the answer to a similar question.

    2. Al verified answers go into a moderation queue that we use to continually train the AI.  In that queue moderators can make sure the correct queation and answer are being mapped, validate them, and add the Q&A into the training for the AI.
      Users sometimes mark their own questions as verified, or when there are multiple questions in the same thread verify an answer that is not related to the original question.  So we have to be sure that the Q&A makes sense.
      This is also why we prefer to have one thread per question.

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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    [edited by: RWS Community AI at 10:25 AM (GMT 1) on 23 Oct 2025]
  • 0 in reply to Paul

    Thanks for that suggestion.

    I had never used alignment before. I went and gave it a try. Oh dear. I had in fact been very surprised that the two Word documents (source and target) converted so nicely, with perfect alignment, to a 2-column table in my initial steps.

    NOT the case with the SDL alignment tool. And as ever, with a substantial document (20k) aligning the segments (even when you have the hang of it, and I have no prior experience with this) is no trivial task.

    PS ALSO: every single time I come to this forum I am asked whether I want to use "AI" (I don't accept that acronym). I always have to click "No", but there is also a checkbox to say "never ask again". This box does not work. Please can you somehow tweak things so that this question is not asked?

    I want nothing to do with shitty "AI" (real acronym should be SP, statistical processing) either now or at any time in the future. Not least because of the nonsense it generates but also because of the totally unacceptable environmental cost of the CO2 from generating petabytes of nonsense.
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  • +1 in reply to Mike Rodent

     

    Mike Rodent said:
    And as ever, with a substantial document (20k) aligning the segments (even when you have the hang of it, and I have no prior experience with this) is no trivial task.

    There are tricks to making alignment easier and faster.  Over 11-years ago I created a video that still gets watched today so might be helpful.  It does show a very early version of the alignment tool, and the UI is horrible (me messing with some UI apps are to blame for that!!), but it might be helpful if you want to give it another go: https://youtu.be/EKlkZEkLL8E?si=vOgyUi390fyfjLj4

    Alternatively, a decent, free, and simple alignment tool worth a look would be this one: https://sourceforge.net/projects/aligner/

    Mike Rodent said:
    PS ALSO: every single time I come to this forum I am asked whether I want to use "AI" (I don't accept that acronym). I always have to click "No", but there is also a checkbox to say "never ask again". This box does not work. Please can you somehow tweak things so that this question is not asked?

    It seems you triggered an unusual situation, probably through leaving the page open without ever clicking away the initial message for at least 60 minutes.  That triggered the 60-minutes "no more editing" rule which we have in place to prevent users from changing posts long after having created them that may then make follow up replies a nonsense.  We checked in our logs to find this as it was an unusual scenario.  Perhaps your love of AI is how you got there!

    So we're going to address this to make sure that in the unlikely event anyone else ever does this we will force a decision around the use of AI before the no-edit rule kicks in in the background.  If you act on the message the first time it does work.  I'm pretty sure we would see a lot of complaints in here if it didn't!

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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    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

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  • 0 in reply to Paul

    Thanks... actually I persisted a bit with the alignment tool and found that it works very well! Also my 2 documents only needed a few actions and all was PERFEKT.

    Also for the tweak to the AI thing. Yes, I love it!
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