Can you Align a large volume of *partially translated* ResX files?

Question

Hi

I use SDL Trados studio 2014

I have a large volume of ResX files that need to be aligned into a TM. Actually 2 TM's (EN-NL & EN-FR)
The problem is that these ResX files are partially translated.
(Note: The ResX are for a software program, so lots of repetition and overlap)
example of what I have:
ErrorMessages.EN.resx
ErrorMessages.FR.resx
ErrorMessages.NL.resx
I have 10365 ResX files in total, so the choice of method to use is vital with regard to the time i'm going to spend doing this...

What is the best approach in this situation?

1. Aligning first with the risk of bad TU's because of untranslated fields in the ResX
And subsequently translate the ResX using the TM I just made.

2. Go through all the ResX files and translate the untranslated fields with another tool like Zeta Resource editor.
Once everything is translated, I start aligning the files.

Option 1 is faster I think, but poses a higher risk for errors in the TM (which will need to be corrected later I guess, which takes time too)

Option 2 will yield a better TM from the start but requires a lot more time & work without the help from the TM before you can even start aligning.

What would you guys do?
Is there a better solution? Option 3?

(I searched the forum but I couldn't find the answer to my question, so just in case this is "double", apologies)

Paul · Accepted Answer

Hi Francois, 
 I'm not completely clear, but I think you have thousands of monolingual files, some of which are already in two languages because they are partially translated? So on this basis it seems you will have to go through these files one at a time anyway checking all the segments as the bits that are already translated will presumably be the result of a copy source to target as they won't need translating? 
 I think, if I was faced with this, that I would do the following: 
 
 Align the files anyway and create new TMs. 
 These TMs will all carry a default alignment penalty so won't take preference over a TM you created during interactive translation. 
 Then I would create the project and just work through the files never pre-translating from the aligned TMs, but rather using them to support the creation of a TM through interactive translation. 
 This way you will have more confidence for your repetitions but can use the aligned TM where appropriate to speed up the translation. 
 
 So no rocket science ideas here. I think the fact these are monolingual files that are partially translated means you'll just have to check them all anyway. It also means you won't be putting source=target TUs into your clean interactive TM. They'll be in the aligned TM, but that won't matter in the end. 
 Regards 
 Paul

Paul · Answer

Hi Francois, 
 
Don't forget you can convert CSV to TMX with the Glossary Converter... so you probably already have a good (and free) tool for that. 
 
Regards 
 
Paul

Luke Hipsher · Answer

Hi Francois, 
 Sure thing! So, I would add the ErrorMessages.EN.resx to a new project and use the built-in 'Microsoft .NET Parser' for RESX files: 
 
 Then, add the Target Languages FR and NL: 
 
 Then, I would Create/Update the Source and Target string lists:

Then, I would open each of the Target string lists, select all strings and click Home > Scan Target File (Alignment). Select the target file for alignment under this file and make sure that only 'Validate modified strings' is selected under Options : 
 
 This will validate all strings that are modified, which should validate all strings that are untranslated as well. So then I would filter to 'Unchanged Translation': 
 
 This will filter to all strings where the Target is the same as the Source. Select all filtered strings and press Ctrl+U. This will un-translate and turn to red all of these strings that are unchanged. 
 Then go back to the Project tab, select all target string lists and select Project > Export . Select the SDL Passolo TMX Export , click Next and make sure that the Output is set to Write another file for each target language . This will only export the Translated strings to the TMX, skipping all of the strings that I had changed to Untranslated. Then, these TMX files can be imported into an SDLTM in Trados Studio. Best regards 
 Luke

Luke Hipsher · Answer

One other note... Since you would like to convert these to SDLXLIFF, you could open up the TMX files in Studio editor using the filetype definition located here: 
 appstore.sdl.com/.../

Paul · Answer

Hello Francois, 
 Unknown said: I would love to be able to use them in a Perfect match... Sdl trados studio 2014 asks for xliff files to do this. 
 This is because Perfect Match is all about comparing with a previously translated bilingual file, not monolingual file. If you don't have the bilingual files (SDLXLIFF perhaps?) then you could align your files and create a TM that is more specific to this job. maybe that would help. 
 Regards 
 Paul

Lydia Simplicio · Answer

Hi Francois, 
 
Could you give me your order number please as I cant find the license or account. 
You can send this is you prefer to swhale@sdl.com and then i will follow this up for you. 
 
Kr 
 
Steve

Trados Studio > 1. Trados Studio

Can you Align a large volume of partially translated ResX files?