Handling Mathematical Equations in Word

Question

Hi, 
 I'm after some assistance from anyone who has to handle translation of documents containing mathematical equations, specifically in Microsoft Word. We are working on a new feature for the Word filetype that can extract the translatable text and allow you to edit it. However, this is quite tricky and displaying the information in Studio in a way that makes sense is not straightforward and definitely needs a preview. 
 So, the help I'm after is twofold: 
 1. We need example documents of math formulae you need to be able to handle 
 2. The usecase for needing to be able to translate it so we can understand what parts you routinely have to change 
 All the help you can provide here would be much appreciated as we are working in the dark to some extent on the best way to proceed. If you don't want to share the examples in the community then please email pfilkin@sdl.com 
 Thanks 
 Paul

Paul · Answer

I guess I'll answer my own question then... nobody is interested in us spending time to improve our ability to handle mathematical equations! I know the development team have made some good progress here with the sample data they have so we'll probably have to wait until someone complains!!

Michael Bailey · Answer

Paul, sorry this slipped through the net - I've always tended to prefer to discuss the equations with a client and agreed on their rendering in the target language prior to translation - to then make the translation process and subsequent QA and Revision steps shorter. In financial supervision equations and formulae seem substantially less complicated than in econometrics. 
 Occasionally I receive equations from the CRR (Regulation (EU) 2013/575) e.g. Article 154 - but that is about as complex as they get for me.

Paul · Answer

Hi Christine, 
 
Thank you. Based on your example I take it you are referring to localization of the numbers in the formula? So being able to replace the decimal comma with a period for example? 
 
Regards 
 
Paul

Paul · Answer

Hi Reynir, 
 
Do you have a sample file just with this equation in there? I could try and recreate, but then it might not be representative of the equations you see. 
 
Thank you 
 
Paul

Paul · Answer

Thanks Reynir, 
 That worked. I tested it in Studio 2017 after cutting the file down to size a little: 
 
 This extracted as follows: 
 
 Looks as though we have extracted enough here. Look ok to you? 
 Regards 
 Paul

Paul · Answer

Hello Reynir, 
 
I'm glad you asked ;-) 
 
The application only extracts complete strings longer than 2 letters on the basis anything less won't be translated. At least this is the assumption the development team have made. So currently you would need to handle this in Word afterwards if you did need to make a change to these parts of the formulae. Do you? 
 
The "Ref" info cannot be hidden automatically because whoever created these expressions has inserted reference fields into the equation itself. Not sure why they would do this? So you would have to use the display filter to lock and hide these segments. 
 
Regards 
 
Paul

Paul · Answer

Hi Reynir, 
 
Can you provide some examples of where you do need to change strings that are longer than 2 letters. Currently this is the way the developers felt it was appropriate to handle equations to save you having to bother with them at all. But if you have good reasons and can provide examples of why short strings like this get changed in the translation process then we can submit a request to change it. 
 
Regards 
 
Paul

Reynir Gunnlaugsson · Answer

Finally a solution to this problem. Apparently one has to enable the file type identifier Wordrocessing MF v.2 for Word 2007-2016 files. Then one has to insert a comment with the text of every equation in the document and then finally it appears correctly. The comment should also contain the small one or two letter parts discussed earlier to avoid post-editing. So, problem solved, as far as my needs are concerned.

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Handling Mathematical Equations in Word