Working with InDesign files in MemoQ
Thread poster: Gwendal Le Fol
Gwendal Le Fol
Gwendal Le Fol
United States
Local time: 11:57
English to French
+ ...
May 8, 2020

Hi all,

Not new to ProZ but recently registered an account and planning on making better use of it.

So here we go, I recently got a large contract but the original file was done on InDesign. I don't have InDesign and since this is quite important and time-sensitive I didn't feel like trying to translate the native file with MemoQ (MemoQ is my CAT platform). Anyway, the client sent me a Word document that was extracted from the original and gosh darn it's full of paragra
... See more
Hi all,

Not new to ProZ but recently registered an account and planning on making better use of it.

So here we go, I recently got a large contract but the original file was done on InDesign. I don't have InDesign and since this is quite important and time-sensitive I didn't feel like trying to translate the native file with MemoQ (MemoQ is my CAT platform). Anyway, the client sent me a Word document that was extracted from the original and gosh darn it's full of paragraph segmentations and other headaches. It's ok, I'm resourceful and well paid for this, so I'm biting the bullet and reviewing all 200 pages prior to feeding the doc into MemoQ. It'll take a few hours but I should be able to get a mostly clean doc to work from, and I can refine it at the end before submitting. No big deal.

Anyway, my main question was whether some of you had experience working directly from InDesign files in MemoQ. Is it straight-forward or very tricky? I saw that there are many parameters available during import. How is the result and what is your success-rate? Meaning, how much formatting work do you have to do post-final export? Any tips? Pitfalls? Thank you. Take care and good luck 🍀
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gfichter
gfichter  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 14:57
English
+ ...
An excellent combination May 8, 2020

I have been working on big InDesign projects in many languages for the past seven years, and find it an excellent solution. If you make your paragraph and character styles hierarchical, all based on [Basic paragraph], you can switch fonts, kerning, hyphenation, and myriad other settings once for all your styles. Diagrams come out perfect, everything just works.
Be sure to save as .idml, which actually means save as meta (xml).


Aline Amorim
 
Gwendal Le Fol
Gwendal Le Fol
United States
Local time: 11:57
English to French
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you May 8, 2020

Thanks a lot for that. I'm updating my version of MemoQ to 9.1 and will use my Antidote subscription inside MemoQ. Perfect. Will also subscribe to InDesign for a couple of months while I work on this to be able to control the quality of the exports. I guess I'm going to learn a new piece of software, that's really exciting! Take care

[Edited at 2020-05-08 22:44 GMT]


 
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 19:57
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Works beautifully with IDML files! May 9, 2020

Translating a Word file instead of directly an IDML file sounds terrible. You can very easily work with InDesign content in memoQ! Just ask for an IDML file. After you deliver your translation the client can simply open the IDML file and sabe it as a native InDesign file in 2 seconds!

laurgi
MollyRose
 
Gwendal Le Fol
Gwendal Le Fol
United States
Local time: 11:57
English to French
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
That's great news! May 9, 2020

Thank you so much for these additional clarifications. Yes, that is the route I am taking now and am very excited about that. I am very used to translating Word documents on MemoQ, but have never tried an .idml
I've had some very negative experiences with .pdf files in the past due to a litteral avalanche of tags and other artefacts. That is my worst fear.. Should I expect the experience of translating from an .idml to be similar to what I am used to with Word, or are there extra steps and
... See more
Thank you so much for these additional clarifications. Yes, that is the route I am taking now and am very excited about that. I am very used to translating Word documents on MemoQ, but have never tried an .idml
I've had some very negative experiences with .pdf files in the past due to a litteral avalanche of tags and other artefacts. That is my worst fear.. Should I expect the experience of translating from an .idml to be similar to what I am used to with Word, or are there extra steps and tricks that I will have to learn and master along the way?? My hope is that the process will be the same as with a Word document of course.. Thanks!
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laurgi
laurgi  Identity Verified
Local time: 19:57
German to French
Pdf in memoq May 12, 2020

A few years ago, thanks to José Enrique Lamensdorf on this thread: https://www.proz.com/forum/memoq_support/322049-translate_in_memoq_starting_from_a_pdf.html
I tried with Infix. It worked fine.


 
MollyRose
MollyRose  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 13:57
English to Spanish
+ ...
graphic designer May 12, 2020

Since you don´t have InDesign on your computer, when you send the translation to the client, they might have to make some formatting adjustments, such as resizing textboxes so that your translation fits in them correctly. That was the case for me when I tried it. But I had to use .indd instead of .idml with the Language Terminal.

I suggest you do a short test with a couple pages before tackling the whole thing, to see what works best for you.


 
Gwendal Le Fol
Gwendal Le Fol
United States
Local time: 11:57
English to French
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you May 13, 2020

Thanks Laurgi and Molly for this additional information.

Laurgi, I will check out that link, I appreciate it very much, thank you.

Molli, I am actually going to lease InDesign, they offer a ~$30/month formula that could fit my purpose quite well. That way, not only can I preview my work and format it prior to sending, I'll also be able to learn that software. Besides, the final formatting is the client's responsibility, so I'm in the clear, I'll just have to make sure i
... See more
Thanks Laurgi and Molly for this additional information.

Laurgi, I will check out that link, I appreciate it very much, thank you.

Molli, I am actually going to lease InDesign, they offer a ~$30/month formula that could fit my purpose quite well. That way, not only can I preview my work and format it prior to sending, I'll also be able to learn that software. Besides, the final formatting is the client's responsibility, so I'm in the clear, I'll just have to make sure it looks clear and clean before sending, but I don't have to tailor it exactly to their template; they'll do that.
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Working with InDesign files in MemoQ






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