Forum: CAT Tools Technical Help
Topic: How are you supposed to fix these kinds of CAT tool segment problems?
Poster: Thomas Pfann
Post title: Fixing the problem is easier than using a workaround
Don't forget that these are all just workarounds to a problem which usually is not too complicated to fix.
I actually encountered the same problem only today: The source files were PDFs, my client (a translation agency) created the sdxliff files via the InDesign (idml) files, but my xliffs contained all the hard returns from the original PDF. This meant that some sentences were split over three or four segments. This slows down the translation, waters down any leverage from the TM and contaminates the TM with lots of useless new entries. Solution: I explained the problem to the project manager, she apologized and asked her localization engineer to prepare the files again (this time properly) and a couple of hours later I received new xliffs. Problem solved.
With less complicated source formats (eg. Word or Powerpoint) it is easy enough to fix the source files yourself (taking out all unwanted hard returns). But if that's not possible (like in my example from today) just get back to whoever created the project because it is them who skipped a step when preparing the files thus causing the problem in the first place.
Topic: How are you supposed to fix these kinds of CAT tool segment problems?
Poster: Thomas Pfann
Post title: Fixing the problem is easier than using a workaround
Don't forget that these are all just workarounds to a problem which usually is not too complicated to fix.
I actually encountered the same problem only today: The source files were PDFs, my client (a translation agency) created the sdxliff files via the InDesign (idml) files, but my xliffs contained all the hard returns from the original PDF. This meant that some sentences were split over three or four segments. This slows down the translation, waters down any leverage from the TM and contaminates the TM with lots of useless new entries. Solution: I explained the problem to the project manager, she apologized and asked her localization engineer to prepare the files again (this time properly) and a couple of hours later I received new xliffs. Problem solved.
With less complicated source formats (eg. Word or Powerpoint) it is easy enough to fix the source files yourself (taking out all unwanted hard returns). But if that's not possible (like in my example from today) just get back to whoever created the project because it is them who skipped a step when preparing the files thus causing the problem in the first place.