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How can I edit the source of SDLXLIFF files?

Lorenzo Martinelli

I have an SDLXLIFF file generated from a FrameMaker MIF file where the source text contains significant segmentation errors that will affect the TM and cause mistranslation down the line.

It occurred to me that I could fix these segmentation errors if I could edit the source text.

Unfortunately, the "Allow Source Editing" in Project Settings is grayed out.

While I could "rummage" inside the SDLXLIFF file with a text editor, I was wondering if there was a way that I could edit the source text in some easier, faster and less "hair-raising" way.

I tried to roundtrip to TTX (which are much more "editable-friendly") using SDLXLIFF to Legacy Converter, but when I reimport it, somehow the changes to the source are lost.

Any idea?

Lorenzo
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  • 0 in reply to Walter Blaser
    It would have been nice if I could merge segments. But I can't.

    I cannot ask the client to recreate the file with different segmentation rules.

    And there are no "unpredictable" results if I move the couple of words that cause problems from one segment to the other using Notepad++

    It's just that editing an SDLXLIFF file with Notepad++ is a pain in the neck and takes an inordinate long time.

    Let me give you a (fictitious) example of what I want to do:

    My text contains segments not unlike
    The XATN. Output A is at the rear of the unit
    The XATN. Input A is at the rear of the unit

    Studio segments it at the dot of XTN. as
    The XATN.
    Output A is at the rear of the unit
    The XATN.
    Input A is at the rear of the unit

    which means that "The XATN." would be considered a 100% match for the second occurrence, but because of word order issues in my language, that would be totally incorrect and propagate throughout the files, be stored in the TM and be reused in error for subsequent versions of the document.

    Since I cannot merge the segments, if I just move "output" and "input" from one segment to the segment above, everything would be totally fine.

    I can do it manually, using a text editor, but the structure of SDLXLIFFs is not easy to navigate, and while it's feasible to do it manually once or twice, I have hundreds of these things to fix.

    Lorenzo (who thinks that this is a major and colossal bug or shortcoming in an otherwise quite good piece of SW)