Using Trados to translate a large PDF with pictures
Thread poster: Catarina Lopes
Catarina Lopes
Catarina Lopes  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 15:14
Member (2013)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Aug 20, 2014

Good morning everyone!

Is it possible to use a CAT tool to translate a large pdf catalogue and still keep the formatting? This seems like an impossible task but I would like to hear your opinion as I'm a new Trados user.

This is a 50MB pdf file, 450 pages, with many pictures, text boxes, columns and tables.

I opened the file with Trados 2014 and this is what happened:

- it generated a 700-page word file (needless to say that part of the formatt
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Good morning everyone!

Is it possible to use a CAT tool to translate a large pdf catalogue and still keep the formatting? This seems like an impossible task but I would like to hear your opinion as I'm a new Trados user.

This is a 50MB pdf file, 450 pages, with many pictures, text boxes, columns and tables.

I opened the file with Trados 2014 and this is what happened:

- it generated a 700-page word file (needless to say that part of the formatting was gone)
- the word count was not available in Trados
- segmentation was a total chaos: it did not recognise sentences as segments but smaller units like phrases and words, titles and captions came in between sentences, etc.

Is there a way to fix this and make it possible to translate with Trados and deliver the file with a reasonably good formatting?

I have translated catalogues before but was always given the text in word, so formatting was never an issue because it would be handled by somebody else.

Thank you!
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Emma Goldsmith
Emma Goldsmith  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 16:14
Member (2004)
Spanish to English
OCR and other solutions Aug 20, 2014

José Henrique Lamensdorf has written an excellent post about preserving the layout and fonts of a PDF file: http://www.lamensdorf.com.br/translating-a-pdf.html

If you need a simpler approach, you could OCR the PDF using a program like Abbyy or Nuance, clean it up in Word and then translate it in Studio. Even so, you're looking at a huge number of hours to convert a 500-p
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José Henrique Lamensdorf has written an excellent post about preserving the layout and fonts of a PDF file: http://www.lamensdorf.com.br/translating-a-pdf.html

If you need a simpler approach, you could OCR the PDF using a program like Abbyy or Nuance, clean it up in Word and then translate it in Studio. Even so, you're looking at a huge number of hours to convert a 500-page file and prepare it in Word.

Processing the PDF in Studio will only work for quite simple files. I wouldn't recommend it for complex, long files like the one you have.

Alternatively ask your client for the original file format (because it wasn't created as a PDF originally). Studio processes all sorts of filetypes, including InDesign and Quark Xpress, so this would probably be the best solution.
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Mariano Saab
Mariano Saab
Argentina
Local time: 12:14
Spanish to English
+ ...
Try Wordfast Anywhere Aug 20, 2014

You might get a decent conversion, although I've never converted such a large file. If you have Abby FineReader, that's probably your best option.

 
Catarina Lopes
Catarina Lopes  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 15:14
Member (2013)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you, Emma. Aug 20, 2014

Thank you very much for you input and the useful link, Emma.

So, if the client were to provide the original file format (e.g. InDesign), I would be able to process it in Trados without having to worry about formatting? Could I still handle the file in Trados even if I don't have such programs (InDesign or Quark Xpress) installed in my PC?

Thank you!

[Edited at 2014-08-20 11:39 GMT]


 
Catarina Lopes
Catarina Lopes  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 15:14
Member (2013)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you, Mario. Aug 20, 2014

I did try to convert it with Wordfast Pro and was impressed at the result: it kept the same number of pages and 95% of the formatting. However, I only have the demo version and an error message popped up right after conversion. I could not even see what segmentation looked like in Wordfast.

Then I tried to open the file generated with Wordfast in Trados but had the exact same problem with segmentation, what makes it impossible to translate.

It's such a large heavy file
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I did try to convert it with Wordfast Pro and was impressed at the result: it kept the same number of pages and 95% of the formatting. However, I only have the demo version and an error message popped up right after conversion. I could not even see what segmentation looked like in Wordfast.

Then I tried to open the file generated with Wordfast in Trados but had the exact same problem with segmentation, what makes it impossible to translate.

It's such a large heavy file that translating it from a PDF would be a nightmare. The only solution would be to have the original file format, as Emma suggested, or the text in word.

Anyway, this was only a potential job but I was wondering if this was doable at all, for future situations.

Thank you for your help.
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Woodstock (X)
Woodstock (X)  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 16:14
German to English
+ ...
Formatting is strictly speaking not part of your job Aug 20, 2014

Many translators I know charge extra for working with PDF files for that and other reasons. The final formatting is actually a DTP job, which many of us are not experts in and requires a different skill set, so it's time-consuming added work that isn't paid. As Emma points out, the original of a PDF is always some other file type, so gently insisting on the original will ultimately save a lot of time and aggravation. The alternative is to state clearly in advance that there is an extra charge fo... See more
Many translators I know charge extra for working with PDF files for that and other reasons. The final formatting is actually a DTP job, which many of us are not experts in and requires a different skill set, so it's time-consuming added work that isn't paid. As Emma points out, the original of a PDF is always some other file type, so gently insisting on the original will ultimately save a lot of time and aggravation. The alternative is to state clearly in advance that there is an extra charge for working with PDF files and why. The original file will likely materialize as if by magic!Collapse


 
Catarina Lopes
Catarina Lopes  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 15:14
Member (2013)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you, Woodstock. Aug 20, 2014

That's exactly what I thought. This project has an additional DTP task that should be handled by an expert. I suppose that no matter how effective a CAT tool is in processing these files, the final result would most probably not be perfect and would require the help of a DTP, isn't that right?

[Edited at 2014-08-20 13:33 GMT]


 
Emma Goldsmith
Emma Goldsmith  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 16:14
Member (2004)
Spanish to English
Beauty of CAT tools Aug 20, 2014

Catarina Lopes wrote:

So, if the client were to provide the original file format (e.g. InDesign), I would be able to process it in Trados without having to worry about formatting? Could I still handle the file in Trados even if I don't have such programs (InDesign or Quark Xpress) installed in my PC?



Exactly. That's the beauty of a CAT tool. You don't worry about formatting and you don't need to have the original program on your machine.


 
Catarina Lopes
Catarina Lopes  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 15:14
Member (2013)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
That's great to know, Emma! Aug 20, 2014

I really have to develop my skills as a CAT tool user in order to take advantage of all the possibilities it offers

 
Recep Kurt
Recep Kurt  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Local time: 18:14
Member (2011)
English to Turkish
+ ...
InDesign and Trados Aug 21, 2014

If the InDesign file is .indd and not .idml, Trados won't open it, as it works with .idml files only.
You can use InDesign to open the .indd file and save it as .idml.
OR
There is an excellent tutorial that will help you to convert InDesign files to .xliff (which can be handled by almost any CAT) and then convert them back to InDesign (using the free languageterminal.com site maintained by the producers of MemoQ):

<
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If the InDesign file is .indd and not .idml, Trados won't open it, as it works with .idml files only.
You can use InDesign to open the .indd file and save it as .idml.
OR
There is an excellent tutorial that will help you to convert InDesign files to .xliff (which can be handled by almost any CAT) and then convert them back to InDesign (using the free languageterminal.com site maintained by the producers of MemoQ):

http://www.game2s.org/movies/l9D6w044aT4.play


Good luck

[Edited at 2014-08-21 11:12 GMT]
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Catarina Lopes
Catarina Lopes  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 15:14
Member (2013)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you, Recep. Aug 21, 2014

Thank you very much for the useful information and the link.

 


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Using Trados to translate a large PDF with pictures







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