Can multiple .xlf files can be concatenated (in Studio 2015) into one large .xlf file to execute QA consistency check?

Hi Experts,

I am working on a project with more than 5 .xlf files. After translation, the customer wants to have .(translated) .xlf files back but at the same time also requires QA consistency check.

Doing consistency check with QA 3.0 on individual files after translation is ok, but how to check the consistency over the full project (i.e. consistency across all .xlf files)?

My questions:

Q1. Can multiple translated .xlf files be concatenated to run a consistency check over the full project after translation?  

Q2. If yes, is there an upper limit in terms of number of  .xlf that can be concatenated?

Q3. Can the concatenated .xlf files also be separated after consistency check?

       Q3 has the lowest priority.

Could you kindly help me with this please?

Thanks and best regards

Shyam Gupta

Parents
  • If I understand you correctly, you want to do a QA on a project with 5 files. All you need to do in this case is to go to Files View, select all files and open them for review. This will open them in one virtually merged file, so you can perform any actions on these files as were they ONE single file, save them and close. In this process the files remain physically separated, while are just virtually merged and shown as one single file.

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  • Hi Jerzy,
    Thanks for your quick response. What you have suggested sounds simple and tempting but I need to confirm how I should proceed.

    - I can see (say) all five .xlf files listed only under "Projects".
    - I can click on two or more files (just like in Windows explorer) to select them - they are then "greyed" (selected).
    - Now, when I click to open them, only one file is opened in the editor window (scrolled down, and found that contents of only one file are there)

    Should I not be seeing the contents of all selected files for executing a QAl?
    Was that the right way to try? Kindly advise.

    Thanks and best regards
    Shyam
Reply
  • Hi Jerzy,
    Thanks for your quick response. What you have suggested sounds simple and tempting but I need to confirm how I should proceed.

    - I can see (say) all five .xlf files listed only under "Projects".
    - I can click on two or more files (just like in Windows explorer) to select them - they are then "greyed" (selected).
    - Now, when I click to open them, only one file is opened in the editor window (scrolled down, and found that contents of only one file are there)

    Should I not be seeing the contents of all selected files for executing a QAl?
    Was that the right way to try? Kindly advise.

    Thanks and best regards
    Shyam
Children
  • This happens, if the XLF files have been merged out of several other files.
    But if you say "XLF" - do you mean SDLXLIFF files and you are on the target side in the files view?
    If the files are single standard files, then the behavior you describe is strange and I do not know, why that happens.
    Could you contact me directly (jerzy at czopik dot com) to let me look at your PC via TeamViewer?

    Best regards, Jerzy

    _________________________________________________________

    When asking for help here, please be as accurate as possible. Please always remember to give the exact version of product used and all possible error messages received. The better you describe your problem, the better help you will get.

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  • Hi Jerzy,

    Thanks a lot for your help this afternoon, it was extremely useful.

    Collecting x- number of files and starting a consistency check works well. However in case of an inconsistency, I am having difficulty in locating the segment where the mismatch is. Because the QA tells you- there is a translation mismatch with (say) "Segment x". The mismatch message shows the segment number where the mismatch is, but the file name given in the message is the one where you automatically land when you double click on the message. Let me try to explain with an example what I mean with it:

    Consider the translation mismatch message:

    when one clicks twice on this message, the QA takes you to the segment text - taken as reference (in this case in segment 95) 

    The translation S95 (which is in file 03_montage_ILS.,  please see 1st insert) is supposed to be a mismatch of translation in Segment 93 (see insert 2, window).

    What I don't see is where (in which file) to find this S93?

    Because, in a large file with x number of merged files, with each file having a different length (number of segments) and all starting with segment 1 - there can be many Segment 93!

    It would be easy if one could know in which file the segment S93 - as reported by QA in this case - is located?

    I must be overlooking something. Could you kindly give me a hint please?

    Thanks and best regards

    Shyam

  • This is tricky. Your files are virtually merged, so the segments are numbered per file individually.
    For this reason I do not double click the message to open the editing window as you did, but click the inconsistency message in the messages window. This brings me to the reported segment. Now I can copy the source text of this segment (or at leas a part of it) and use this for filtering my display. When I paste this text in the Display Filer, I see all segments containing that particular text listed and can decide, how to adapt.
    For other errors the use of this editing window is usually at least very good, but it is nearly unusable for inconsitencies.

    _________________________________________________________

    When asking for help here, please be as accurate as possible. Please always remember to give the exact version of product used and all possible error messages received. The better you describe your problem, the better help you will get.

    Want to learn more about Trados Studio? Visit the Community Hub. Have a good idea to make Trados Studio better? Publish it here.