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Excel files with character limits
Thread poster: Lara Van der Zee
Lara Van der Zee
Lara Van der Zee  Identity Verified
Local time: 18:34
English to Dutch
+ ...
Jul 31, 2015

I am working with a new client who is sending me excel files. The translation should fit within a certain character limit. Sometimes this means that a sentence has to be split in two parts.
I have tried doing this by splitting the segment in Trados 2011, but when I 'save target as' the split segments are put into one excel cell.
Is it possible to get the split segments in separate cells?
 
RWS Community
RWS Community
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:34
English
This is impossible... Aug 1, 2015

Lara Van der Zee wrote:

I am working with a new client who is sending me excel files. The translation should fit within a certain character limit. Sometimes this means that a sentence has to be split in two parts.
I have tried doing this by splitting the segment in Trados 2011, but when I 'save target as' the split segments are put into one excel cell.
Is it possible to get the split segments in separate cells?



... probably in any CAT tool. You are asking it to be Excel! The only way I can think to do this is to specifically edit the excel file before you start and add the additional cells with a copy of the source, or just double up on all the cells in Excel to start with, and then remove the ones where you didn't need the additional cells afterwards when you save the target.

Regards

Paul
SDL Community Support
 
Roy Oestensen
Roy Oestensen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 18:34
Member (2010)
English to Norwegian (Bokmal)
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Splitting segments in Trados does not split cells in Excel Aug 1, 2015

Lara Van der Zee wrote:
Is it possible to get the split segments in separate cells?


I can only see the following solutions to your problem:
- Ensure that the translation keeps within the limit of each cell (255 characters?)
- Save the Excel file as an xlsx file, and then import the file into Studio. Then you should not be hamperede by the problem.
- Duplicate each cell and do as Paul suggests, though I think that's the least satisfying solution.

Roy
 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 18:34
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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Split afterwards Aug 1, 2015

Lara Van der Zee wrote:
Sometimes this means that a sentence has to be split in two parts. ... I have tried doing this by splitting the segment in Trados 2011, but when I 'save target as' the split segments are put into one Excel cell.


One solution is to split the cells afterwards, using a macro. The second macro on this page works for me. You must specify which column to split (at "Set Column to split"), i.e. column A = 1, B = 2 etc. And you must select all cells that you want to split, before running the macro. Don't select the entire column -- select only the cells with content in it. The macro will split all selected cells by line break (if a cell has no line break, the macro will leave that cell as one cell). The macro writes the output onto a separate worksheet, so you'd have to copy/paste it back.

You can also make the macro split by another character. For example, if you simply put "#" between the lines that should be split (in Trados itself), and then replace "vbLf" with "#" (with quotes), then the macro will split cells on "#".


[Edited at 2015-08-01 08:41 GMT]
 
Lara Van der Zee
Lara Van der Zee  Identity Verified
Local time: 18:34
English to Dutch
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Simple solution Aug 3, 2015

Thank you all for your help.

The macro was a good idea, but I'm afraid it was beyond my capabilities. However, the website in the link gave me some suggestions on where to look for further answers and the solution turned out to be very simple:
Copy/paste the column to Word and then copy/paste back into Excel. That's it!
 


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Excel files with character limits







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