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Saraswati33985476h28w
Participant
December 6, 2023
Question

When importing in Trados, IDML is full of cf tags

  • December 6, 2023
  • 4 replies
  • 1582 views

When we are importing the IDML file (exported from InDesign) in Trados for translation, we get to see lot of cf tags all over the file. The translation team is having a hard time, instead of 1 hour task, it is taking them almost 8 to 9 hours to clean the file. 

I have attached the snip of the issue.

Please guide. 

 

 

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    4 replies

    Joel Cherney
    Community Expert
    Joel CherneyCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    December 6, 2023

    Back when I worked with Trados, this was unfortunately pretty typical. You can reduce the tag cleanup a fair bit by starting with an InDesign file that's actually been prepped for translation with styles carefully applied thoughout. You can see from the tag contents that it's all locally applied formatting instead of proper paragraph and character styles. 

     

    So, proper preparation before processing in Trados is part of the issue, here. But also there's a setting in Studio that I can't remember the exact name of, it's something like "Show formatting but hide recognized tags" that will make it make a bit more sense to your translators & minimize post-Trados tag cleanup. Maybe View -> Options -> Toggle something? 

     

      Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
      Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
      Legend
      December 6, 2023

      It appears that you're seeing the result of manual formatting (local overrides) being used in the INDD layout file, rather than Paragraph and Character styles.

       

      Whoever (or whatever automated technology) created the INDD layout file needs some training in how to format and lay out the document using only Paragraph and Character styles.

       

      Manual formatting gets embedded into the text content stream inside the file, which is what is shown in your screen capture. Causes severe problems for all technologies and prevents them from easily, quickly, and accurately processing the text content.

       

      To view where in the INDD layout that manual formatting/override has been used, turn on the Style Highlighter button in the upper right of the Paragraph Styles panel. It will show all overrides in blue-green, and once identified, the InDesigner can then deal with them appropriately (such as replace the overrides with styles). Switch the highlighter button on/off to view the overrides:

       

       

       

      I've attached a sample INDD and IMDL file for you to test with your publishing system.

       

      I don't know how your system works with files, but you might still see indicators of where styles were used. However, they will be consistent throughout the document and should be very easily searched/replaced/deleted if you don't need them at all, or mapped to your system's utility to format the text.

       

      Let us know if this identifies the problem you're having.

       

      |    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
        S
        Saraswati33985476h28wAuthor
        Participant
        December 7, 2023

        Thanks Bevi for the details. I am afraid I can't download the attached files. Can you please share them again.

        Thanks again!

        Robert at ID-Tasker
        Robert at ID-Tasker
        Legend
        December 6, 2023

        Why do you have to "clean" those tags? You should ignore them and translate everything between those tags ?

         

          Joel Cherney
          Community Expert
          Joel CherneyCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          December 6, 2023

          Usually, after finishing a translation, the translator has to process the whole file and confirm the location of all tags or format painting or whatever. It's an additional step that a) isn't textual in nature, and b) usually has some kind of clunky interface where it takes Way Too Many Clicks to finalize. So translators are often reluctant to perform it, and cleaning it up as a non-translator after the fact can be a hassle. 

           

          If you look at the OP's sample, pretty much every sentence is surrounded with "no character style" tags. So in an ordinary situation, the translators would only have to go through the tag cleanup clicks for the Bold-RED style, two cleanup bits in the sample presented. Instead, it looks like every single sentence is surrounded with useless tags, radically increasing the post-TRX cleanup work. 

           

          Which reminds me!  There's a tool for this problem. @Saraswati33985476h28w  you should go to the Trados app store and download "Cleanup Tasks". It has a tool for removing tags, and I think you could just remove all instances of the cf tag with maybe three clicks. 

           

          Robert at ID-Tasker
          Robert at ID-Tasker
          Legend
          December 6, 2023

          But removal of those tags - will remove applied formatting - and returned file will be "useless"? 

           

          Steve Werner
          Community Expert
          Steve WernerCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          December 6, 2023

          This is not something InDesign users can help you with. You should contact Trados tech support to get help with the issue.

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