SDL Trados 2015 - Merge segments option can not be used
Thread poster: Ali Bayraktar
Ali Bayraktar
Ali Bayraktar  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Member (2007)
English to Turkish
+ ...
Nov 17, 2015

Hi,
I am having troubles with merging segments in SDL Trados 2015
I am doing all instructions as described in written materials but when I select segments (with CTRL) merge segments option remains in grey. It is not clickable.

How to make it clickable?

Thanks in advance for your helps.

Regards,

M. Ali


 
Walter Blaser
Walter Blaser  Identity Verified
Switzerland
Local time: 08:21
French to German
+ ...
Your probably tried to merge over paragraph boundaries Nov 17, 2015

Ali

Most probably the two segments you tried to merge were in different paragraphs. You can check this by looking at the source document.

Studio does not allow you to merge segments across a paragraph boundary (also referred to as a "hard return"). You can only merge segments within a paragraph.

There is a heavy and controversial debate going on about this and many Studio users would like SDL to change this behaviour. On the other hand, the basic reasoning
... See more
Ali

Most probably the two segments you tried to merge were in different paragraphs. You can check this by looking at the source document.

Studio does not allow you to merge segments across a paragraph boundary (also referred to as a "hard return"). You can only merge segments within a paragraph.

There is a heavy and controversial debate going on about this and many Studio users would like SDL to change this behaviour. On the other hand, the basic reasoning behind this is that you should not need to merge paragraphs because if you do, this means that the source text has been badly formatted, e.g. a sentence should never be divided by hard returns. Although this is true in theory, the reality shows that we are very often confronted with such situations, due to the fact that many authors do not format their documents adequately (due to lack of basic knowledge of text formatting) and we have to live with it.

Currently, the only way to solve this problem is to reformat the source document to make sure you don't have any hard returns where there shouldn't be any and to reopen this corrected document in Studio.

Walter
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Ali Bayraktar
Ali Bayraktar  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Member (2007)
English to Turkish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Bilingual Excel Nov 17, 2015

Walter Blaser wrote:

Ali

Most probably the two segments you tried to merge were in different paragraphs. You can check this by looking at the source document.

Studio does not allow you to merge segments across a paragraph boundary (also referred to as a "hard return"). You can only merge segments within a paragraph.

There is a heavy and controversial debate going on about this and many Studio users would like SDL to change this behaviour. On the other hand, the basic reasoning behind this is that you should not need to merge paragraphs because if you do, this means that the source text has been badly formatted, e.g. a sentence should never be divided by hard returns. Although this is true in theory, the reality shows that we are very often confronted with such situations, due to the fact that many authors do not format their documents adequately (due to lack of basic knowledge of text formatting) and we have to live with it.

Currently, the only way to solve this problem is to reformat the source document to make sure you don't have any hard returns where there shouldn't be any and to reopen this corrected document in Studio.

Walter


Thanks for your reply and detailed explanation Walter.
I did not know about paragraph boundaries, really thanks for that.

MY file is not a doc or docx file.
It is a biligual excel.
Source located at column D and I am entering translations into column E.
Is there any similar resctrictions in excel files too? Such as not merging the different rows etc?

Best,

M. Ali


 
Roy Oestensen
Roy Oestensen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 08:21
Member (2010)
English to Norwegian (Bokmal)
+ ...
Excel cells are not allowed to be merged in Studio Nov 17, 2015

Ali Bayraktar wrote:

MY file is not a doc or docx file. It is a biligual excel.
Source located at column D and I am entering translations into column E.
Is there any similar resctrictions in excel files too? Such as not merging the different rows etc?

M. Ali


Well, there you have the explanation. Studio does not allow segments belonging to different cells to be merged.

Again, if the Excel file is badly formated, so that copy belonging to the same paragraph is split on two or more cells, the only way to solve this, is to fix the format in Excel.

By the way, Studio is not alone with this limitation, and it is a way to ensure that you don't make problems with the file so that you won't be able to export the translation.

Roy

[Edited at 2015-11-17 20:48 GMT]


 
Ali Bayraktar
Ali Bayraktar  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Member (2007)
English to Turkish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
X3 can Nov 17, 2015

Roy Oestensen wrote:
Well, there you have the explanation. Studio does not allow segments belonging to different cells to be merged.

Again, if the Excel file is badly formated, so that copy belonging to the same paragraph is split on two or more cells, the only way to solve this, is to fix the format in Excel.

By the way, Studio is not alone with this limitation, and it is a way to ensure that you don't make problems with the file so that you won't be able to export the translation.

Roy

[Edited at 2015-11-17 20:48 GMT]


Thanks Roy for your reply.

I see

I worked before in X3 (sometimes still continue) and it can merge all segments by adding a tag between them.

I thought that Studio does the same thing by adding tags in merged segments.

Regards,

M. Ali


 
Roy Oestensen
Roy Oestensen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 08:21
Member (2010)
English to Norwegian (Bokmal)
+ ...
DVX3 can merge Excel cells? Nov 18, 2015

Ali Bayraktar wrote:

I worked before in X3 (sometimes still continue) and it can merge all segments by adding a tag between them.

I thought that Studio does the same thing by adding tags in merged segments.

That was news to me. I thought Dejavu still would not merge cells in spreadsheets. Useful to know, since it's a big nuiscance when a sentence spreads over multiple cells.

But I don't think Studio does allow that still.


 
Ali Bayraktar
Ali Bayraktar  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Member (2007)
English to Turkish
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TOPIC STARTER
Yes, Nov 18, 2015

Roy Oestensen wrote:

Ali Bayraktar wrote:

I worked before in X3 (sometimes still continue) and it can merge all segments by adding a tag between them.

I thought that Studio does the same thing by adding tags in merged segments.

That was news to me. I thought Dejavu still would not merge cells in spreadsheets. Useful to know, since it's a big nuiscance when a sentence spreads over multiple cells.

But I don't think Studio does allow that still.


Here how it look like

Excel file



Separate Segments in X3



Merged Segments in X3



But X3 has other things that annoys you.

I am looking for perfect CAT Tool for very long time but cant find one.

But I can say that Trados is the most suitable for me.

Best,

M. Ali


 
Roy Oestensen
Roy Oestensen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 08:21
Member (2010)
English to Norwegian (Bokmal)
+ ...
Thanks. I know how Dejavu adds tags Nov 18, 2015

Your information regarding the tags was nothing new, just that DVX3 actually could merge Excel segments. Thought that was useful to know.

I have used Dejavu since 1995, while Trados and Studio about 10 years, and I like them both, as I find them complementing each other.


 
Ali Bayraktar
Ali Bayraktar  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Member (2007)
English to Turkish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Yes Nov 18, 2015

Roy Oestensen wrote:

Your information regarding the tags was nothing new, just that DVX3 actually could merge Excel segments. Thought that was useful to know.

I have used Dejavu since 1995, while Trados and Studio about 10 years, and I like them both, as I find them complementing each other.


X3 can merge different cells, different paragraph ends.
I cant understand why Studio does not allow that.


 
Walter Blaser
Walter Blaser  Identity Verified
Switzerland
Local time: 08:21
French to German
+ ...
It is the same situation as paragraphs in Word Nov 18, 2015

Ali Bayraktar wrote:
X3 can merge different cells, different paragraph ends.
I cant understand why Studio does not allow that.


Ali

A sentence split among several cells in Excel is basically the same as as sentence in WORD split over several paragraphs. A sentence (= a logical linguistic entity) should not be separated by "hard returns", this is a basic rule that should be followed when writing text (as a general rule, not only because of subsequent translation in a CAT tool).

If the source text is not formatted correctly, you'll need to correct it before opening it in your CAT tool.

Walter


 
Ali Bayraktar
Ali Bayraktar  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Member (2007)
English to Turkish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
You are right, bu still Nov 18, 2015

Walter Blaser wrote:

Ali Bayraktar wrote:
X3 can merge different cells, different paragraph ends.
I cant understand why Studio does not allow that.


Ali

A sentence split among several cells in Excel is basically the same as as sentence in WORD split over several paragraphs. A sentence (= a logical linguistic entity) should not be separated by "hard returns", this is a basic rule that should be followed when writing text (as a general rule, not only because of subsequent translation in a CAT tool).

If the source text is not formatted correctly, you'll need to correct it before opening it in your CAT tool.

Walter


We build houses not for burning them but we all have fire excape stairs in our houses.
They are not for daily use.

The same rule should be applied here.
In case of emergency.

Best,

M. Ali


 
Joel Ted
Joel Ted
Cameroon
Local time: 08:21
English to French
Merging sergments accross paragraphs Sep 22, 2019

Found a great article that explains how to do just that: https://multifarious.filkin.com/2016/11/21/bridging-the-divide-merging-segments/

 


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SDL Trados 2015 - Merge segments option can not be used







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