How to translate a TagEditor file in Wordfast Classic
Here I briefly describe a way to translate ttx files in Wordfast Classic:
Scenario: you are sent a ttx file or are asked to translate a Ms Word or Excel document and are required to deliver it in TagEditor but prefer to work in Wordfast Classic.
Steps:
Open TagEditor
Open the file to translate in TagEditor.
Save it as ttx.
Close the file.
Open Trados and pretranslate the ttx file using the option “Segment unkown segments”.
Re-open the segmented ttx in TagEditor.
In TagEditor go to bilingual view, select all the text and copy it.
Open Ms Word, create an empty document, paste in what you copied from ttx.
Make sure the internal and external tags (red and gray) are actually in the corresponding Trados style. Internal tags might be shown in red but this does not mean they are in internal style. If the style is not properly set, you need to fix it.
To fix the style:
Open an existing Trados-segmented Word document and copy a portion containing internal and external style.
Go to the document you are working on, paste it at the beginning. You need to do this otherwise the internal and external will not be available in the replace box in Ms Word.
Change the MS Word View settings so the hidden text is displayed.
Show hidden text.
Open the Search and replace dialog in Word.
Search for text in red and replace it with internal Trados style.
Search for text in grey and replace it with external Trados style.
Now you are ready to work using Wordfast Classic on the Ms Word file.
Once you complete the translation:
Close the MS Word document translated using WordFast.
Create an empty Trados TM.
Clean the MS Word document translated using WordFast in the Trados TM.
Open the ttx file in TagEditor.
Translate to no match, the tool will stop at segments which might have some formatting issues and therefore are not recognized as 100% matches, they should not be many.