Is it possible to automatically delete the invisible double spaces at the end of a segment?

Question

Is there a setting that makes it possible to automatically change double spaces at the end of a segment into single spaces? These spaces are not shown in the segment itself, so I cannot do so while translating. They are in the source document, since this seems to be customary in US texts, but in Dutch, we use only one space.

Of course I can do a search and replace, but I cannot do so automatically, since there usually are a number of places in my texts where a number of spaces are deleted (if only the people writing these texts would learn how to NOT do that), so I would have to check each double space manually, which can be quite time consuming.

So it would be so nice if Trados would give me the option to edit the intersegment spaces. Is that possible?

Paul · Accepted Answer

Hi Ineke, 
 The display filter is in the Review ribbon and you filter on "All Content": 
 
 But I'm not convinced this will help you do anything more than carry out a visual check. You can edit them and delete a space but it's manual. 
 Regards 
 Paul

Paul · Answer

Hi Ineke et al, 
 Since this discussion started Jesse Good , a developer creating apps on the app store, has added functionality to his Cleanup batch task plugin to handle this. You need Version 1.3 for this and the way it works is this. 
 I have a file looking like this in Studio. I'm filtered on "All Content" so you can see the double spaces between the segments: 
 
 I run the new "Cleanup Source" batch task with this option checked "Use conversion files on non-translatable content". This is the stuff between segments: 
 
 The conversion file uses this simple rule... just looks for two spaces (\s\s) and replaces with a space (which you can't see ;-))

Note that the source spaces have been cut down to a single space, but not the target. So you finish the translation and then run the second batch task "Clean up target and generate files" with the same option and the same settings file: 
 
 The target file and Studio now only has a single space. 
 
 In practice it takes a few seconds to run these tasks and will resolve your problem. nice work Jesse Good ! 
 You can read more about this tool generally here (although this particular feature is not discussed as it wasn't there a few days ago!): 
 
 Hope this helps. 
 Paul

Walter Blaser · Answer

Unknown said: 
 Is there a setting that makes it possible to automatically change double spaces at the end of a segment into single spaces? These spaces are not shown in the segment itself, so I cannot do so while translating. 
 Ineke 
 These spaces should show up if you enable the display of spaces. To do this, click on the "paragraph icon" in the View part of the ribbon and you will see small dots wherever there is a space. 
 I know this problem of double spaces with US texts and it is annoying. On the other hand, I am surprised you still get this because this was a habit in US long time ago and it is disappearing, meaning that younger people do not follow this rule anymore. 
 What I used to do with these texts was to open them in Word before translation and replace all occurrences of "a dot followed by two spaces" by "a dot followed by one space". 
 Beste groeten. 
 Walter

Paul · Answer

I completely disagree that this is a bug in Studio. It's definitely not! Studio is faithfully reproducing the style of the source document. The verified answer was presumably marked up by whoever asked the question, so I think that's ok too. If it doesn't answer the problem for you then opening another thread would be simple enough. 
 
However, I do think a solution could be found and this would be an enhancement. If SDL don't make this an option perhaps something through the AppStore, but it's not a bug.

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Is it possible to automatically delete the invisible double spaces at the end of a segment?