Is there a good interface for proofreading and editing translations?
Thread poster: translatorpolly
translatorpolly
translatorpolly
Hong Kong
Jun 14, 2016

Hi there,

I am a freelance translator familiar with the use of CAT tools such as WordFast Pro. I have recently received a number of cases where I am responsible for proofreading/ editing a translation done by a third party translation team. Both the source and the translation documents are in Microsoft Word .docx format. I am looking for a software that can align the text in the two .docx documents side-by-side for editing, while remembering all its original style formats. Ideally,
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Hi there,

I am a freelance translator familiar with the use of CAT tools such as WordFast Pro. I have recently received a number of cases where I am responsible for proofreading/ editing a translation done by a third party translation team. Both the source and the translation documents are in Microsoft Word .docx format. I am looking for a software that can align the text in the two .docx documents side-by-side for editing, while remembering all its original style formats. Ideally, I would be able to edit the text in the interface and can eventually output a Microsoft Word .docx that preserves all the original formatting of source .docx for my client.

Any suggestions are welcome. Many thanks in advance for your input.

Best regards,
Polly
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Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 18:45
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Won't Word do all of that? Jun 14, 2016

I'm no IT geek so I could be way off here but it sounds to me as though you could display the two texts side by side by splitting the window, set them to scroll in sync, and then edit the target. You could either work on a copy of the target (I imagine we all work on copy files anyway, just in case?) or you could use the tracking tool and then create a second file where you accept all changes, while rejecting them in the original t... See more
I'm no IT geek so I could be way off here but it sounds to me as though you could display the two texts side by side by splitting the window, set them to scroll in sync, and then edit the target. You could either work on a copy of the target (I imagine we all work on copy files anyway, just in case?) or you could use the tracking tool and then create a second file where you accept all changes, while rejecting them in the original target file. If the files are very different in length then you may need to scroll the longer one independently once or twice when they get too out of sync.Collapse


 
CafeTran Training (X)
CafeTran Training (X)
Netherlands
Local time: 19:45
YouAlign? Jun 14, 2016

Perhaps you could do some tests with the free http://www.youalign.com service?

 
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 19:45
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
Paper! Jun 14, 2016

I have to admit I am a dinosaur and maybe on the way out... I am also getting less and less willing to review/edit/QA other people's work these days. There are still translators who really know what they are doing, but many who do not.

Either way, I print out the target text and check it on paper - I see things there, which I miss on screen. Whether I print the source or not depends, but when I do, I can then slide the sheets up and down on the table and use a ruler to follow betwee
... See more
I have to admit I am a dinosaur and maybe on the way out... I am also getting less and less willing to review/edit/QA other people's work these days. There are still translators who really know what they are doing, but many who do not.

Either way, I print out the target text and check it on paper - I see things there, which I miss on screen. Whether I print the source or not depends, but when I do, I can then slide the sheets up and down on the table and use a ruler to follow between them.

This rests my eyes from the screen, and I feel more confident about finding everything that needs to be changed.
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translatorpolly
translatorpolly
Hong Kong
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you Jun 14, 2016

Thank you everyone for your kind input and suggestions. I truly appreciate it.
Sheila, I tried the side-by-side view in Microsoft Word for editing as you suggested. Unfortunately, the method does not work very well for my situation as my source and target files are of different lengths and sometimes different parts of the document will be displayed using the synchronized scrolling method. Nonetheless, many thanks for the suggestion.

CafeTran, Thanks. I will give Youalign a try
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Thank you everyone for your kind input and suggestions. I truly appreciate it.
Sheila, I tried the side-by-side view in Microsoft Word for editing as you suggested. Unfortunately, the method does not work very well for my situation as my source and target files are of different lengths and sometimes different parts of the document will be displayed using the synchronized scrolling method. Nonetheless, many thanks for the suggestion.

CafeTran, Thanks. I will give Youalign a try and see it this works out. If not, I may have to use the paper method Christine suggested. Many thanks for all your help and input!
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Tina Vonhof (X)
Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 12:45
Dutch to English
+ ...
My way Jun 14, 2016

My way for both translating and proofreading/editing is to have two monitors. It has made my life so much easier, I don't think I could do without them anymore.

 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:45
Member (2008)
Italian to English
My way Jun 14, 2016

Tina Vonhof wrote:

My way for both translating and proofreading/editing is to have two monitors. It has made my life so much easier, I don't think I could do without them anymore.


My way is to have one large monitor with the two documents side by side.


 
philgoddard
philgoddard
United States
German to English
+ ...
I've never heard of synchronised scrolling. Jun 14, 2016

translatorpolly wrote:
Unfortunately, the method does not work very well for my situation as my source and target files are of different lengths and sometimes different parts of the document will be displayed using the synchronized scrolling method.


I imagine that's for when the same document is in both windows, which is not the case here.

You just need to open the source document in one window, the translation in another, resize them so that they fit the screen, and click back and forth between them to scroll up and down.

[Edited at 2016-06-14 18:04 GMT]


 
Joakim Braun
Joakim Braun  Identity Verified
Sweden
Local time: 19:45
German to Swedish
+ ...
It's called Jun 14, 2016

Paper.

(at least for proofreading)


 
CafeTran Training (X)
CafeTran Training (X)
Netherlands
Local time: 19:45
Paper: yes, but please only unique sentences Jun 14, 2016

Joakim Braun wrote:

Paper.

(at least for proofreading)


Indeed. Nothing goes beyond paper. But (assuming that each and every segment has been translated in its context correctly) please, only unique sentences. In other words: boring repetitions and numbers-only segments should be filtered out before printing.

At least, that's what I prefer.

Probably most CAT tools can filter like that. Here's the relevant dialogue box from Transit, as an example:



 
Sheila Critchley
Sheila Critchley
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:45
Member (2014)
French to English
+ ...
You can turn off synchronous scrolling in Word Jun 16, 2016

If synchronous scrolling is unhelpful due to the different sizes of the document, you can turn it off, while still viewing the documents side by side. In Word 2010 the option is under "view side by side" in the View tab.

(I tried to take a screen print to show you this but I can't get it to paste here!)


 
Huw Watkins
Huw Watkins  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:45
Member (2005)
Italian to English
+ ...
Win align Jun 16, 2016

That's generally what I use in your case when you only have two word files and you don't want to work straight in Word (which I try to do if I can to be honest). I've used it since the Trados 6 days and to be honest it hasn't changed a great deal since then even in the new flashy versions of SDL Trados Studio. You can open the app in the home page of SDL Trados Studio

You basically align the documents in the programme and then work your way down segment by segment, much like in Stud
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That's generally what I use in your case when you only have two word files and you don't want to work straight in Word (which I try to do if I can to be honest). I've used it since the Trados 6 days and to be honest it hasn't changed a great deal since then even in the new flashy versions of SDL Trados Studio. You can open the app in the home page of SDL Trados Studio

You basically align the documents in the programme and then work your way down segment by segment, much like in Studio. Once you are happy you can confirm all segments and even create a Translation Memory out of your finished work. Sometimes you have to play around with misalignment, but generally it works well. The synchronised scrolling (by corresponding segments) it affords will meet your needs I am sure.

P.S. I second two monitors. I'd go for two monsters if I could. The more real estate the better! 2 x 24" minimum though.


[Edited at 2016-06-16 15:52 GMT]
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Is there a good interface for proofreading and editing translations?







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