There are two standard ways to insert tags: using QuickPlace or with mouse and keyboard only.
To insert a single tag such as that representing a footnote in the following screenshot:
- QuickPlace method: Place your mouse pointer at the insertion point in the target segment and press Ctrl + , to display a QuickPlace formatting list. Select the appropriate tag in the QuickPlace list and press Enter to insert it in the target segment, as described in the earlier section titled Inserting formatting. This example is from Segment 4 of the sample file. The footnote text itself appears in Segment 5.
The tag currently selected in the QuickPlace list changes to a darker color in the source segment to show you that the tag is currently selected for insertion in the target segment.
- Mouse method: Click in the target segment at the insertion point, then hold down the Ctrl key and click the relevant tag in the source segment.
Note that, in addition to the methods described in this section, you can also copy and paste single tags from source to target.
Tip
As a general rule, you should ensure that any tags that you insert have the same number of spaces around them in the source and target segments (although you may come across situations when this does not apply, such as when word order differences between source and target require that you place the tag in a different position in the target). In the preceding screenshot, for example, the footnote tag is preceded immediately by the word sentences and not by a space. SDL Trados Studio will tend to alert you to spacing errors when you confirm the segment if the position of spaces before and after tags is not identical to the source.
Tags often work in pairs surrounding a piece of text, with an opening tag pointing right to indicate the start point of the formatting or functionality and a closing tag pointing left to indicate its end, as shown in the hyperlink formatting in the following screenshot from Segment 6:
The methods used to insert a single tag can also be used to insert a tag pair, as follows:
- QuickPlace method: When using QuickPlace to insert tags in a pair, first type the translation in the target segment and then select it. With the text selected, press Ctrl + ,. Select the tag pair from the QuickPlace list, referring to the highlighting in the source segment to ensure that the appropriate tag pair is selected, as shown in the following screenshot. Press Enter to insert the tag pair around the text.
- Mouse method: First type the translation in the target segment and select the text to be included in the tags. Hold down the Ctrl key and click anywhere in the relevant tag pair and text combination in the source segment to insert the tags around the selected text and thereby format it to match the source.
The Tag Display Mode buttons in the View tab (shown in the following screenshot) allow you to display different levels of detail about what the tags represent. The default setting, selected here, is Partial Tag Text:
The bigger the diamond symbol, the more information about the tag is displayed. The following screenshot shows the tag pair in Segment 6 with the Full Tag Text button selected, which displays more detailed information about the hyperlink:
The No Tag Text option can also be used to reduce the space taken up by the tags. We discuss the Tag Id setting on the right-hand side of the previous screenshot showing the Tag Display Mode buttons in the next sections.
The Tag Id setting is useful when it is difficult to work out which tags go where in a segment, as may be the case in Segment 8. The Tag Id setting switches the display of the tags to an ID number unique to each individual tag or tag pair. This makes it easier to identify which tags are part of the same pair and apply them to the corresponding target text, as in the following screenshot, which shows part of Segment 8 with the tag IDs displayed:
Segment 8, shown in the following screenshot, contains many tags:
The easiest approach to segments such as this is often to copy the source text into the target segment and overwrite the text between the tags with the translation.
The best way to do this is to use the Copy Source to Target command.
To copy the entire content of the source segment into the target segment, from the Home tab, in the Segments Actions group or from the right-click menu, choose Copy Source to Target (Ctrl + Insert), as shown in the following screenshot. You can also find the Copy Source to Target button in the toolbar at the top of the Translation Results window.
You can use this technique again in Segment 10 to copy the file hyperlink (which is not recognized as a placeable and translated automatically because it is not a web link beginning with http://).
To copy the content of all source segments in the open SDLXLIFF file to their target segments from the Home tab, choose Copy All Source to Target (Alt + Shift + Insert).
Note
The Copy Source to Target command overwrites whatever is already in the target segment, even if the segment has been confirmed or signed off (though not if it has been locked). If you need to restore the overwritten target segment(s), press Ctrl + Z. The Copy All Source to Target command only affects empty target segments, whatever their status, unless they are locked.
To clear a target segment of all content, from the Home tab, in the Segments Actions group, choose Clear Target Segment (Alt + Del).
To remove all the formatting and tags in a segment, first ensure that, in the Advanced tab, the Protect Tags option is not selected, as this will prevent you from removing the tags. Click in the target segment and, from the Home ribbon, in the Formatting group, click the dropdown arrow under the Clear Formatting button, and choose Clear All Formatting, or press Ctrl + Alt + Space. In the sample file, try this in Segment 11 (use Copy Source to Target to copy the text from source to target before you do so).
To remove individual pieces of formatting and/or tags, first select the text (including any tags on either side) and then from the Home ribbon in the Formatting group, click the Clear Formatting button (shown in the following screenshot) or press Ctrl + Space.
In the sample file, try this in Segment 12 on the target word for formatting.
When using the Clear Formatting command to remove formatting such as in Segment 12, it is advisable to display and select the tags first, as shown in the following screenshot:
To do this, in the View tab, press the Toggle formatting tag display button (located in the Options group of the ribbon) shown in the following screenshot (or press Ctrl + Shift + H) to display the tags:
Selecting only text without the tags displayed can leave hidden tags in the segment, as shown in the following screenshot (we have toggled the tag display on after removing the formatting for illustration purposes). Hidden tags can always be visualized by clicking Toggle formatting tag display.
Formatting that appears in visual form rather than in tags, such as when you use shortcuts such as Ctrl + B to apply formatting, is actually controlled using hidden tags and can also be removed in this way.
Ghost tags are a method of reminding you to keep both halves of a tag pair intact in your target segment. If you delete one half of a tag pair, or fail to insert both halves, the missing half does not disappear, but is displayed in a paler pink color to remind you that it needs to be restored (or the other tag needs to be deleted too). To delete a tag, select it and press the Delete key on the keyboard. To try this, go back to Segment 6 and delete the second tag, as shown here:
To restore the missing tag, select it, and then right-click and choose Restore Tags (Ctrl + Shift + G) or go to the Advanced ribbon and, on the left, click the Restore Tags button. Alternatively, press Ctrl + Z to undo the delete operation.
By default, SDL Trados Studio will check each segment for tag errors as you confirm it with Ctrl + Enter. If you omit (or position incorrectly) tags that affect the functionality of the document, such as hyperlinks and footnotes, you will see a red error notification icon like that in the following screenshot. In most cases, it is not possible to generate the translated document if this happens.
To display information on the reason for the error icon appearing, place your mouse pointer over the red error notification icon in the status column. The following screenshot shows the message in Segment 13 when the footnote in the source segment has not been added to the target:
To test this out, omit the footnote tag in Segment 13. Confirm the segment and try to generate the target document by choosing File | Save Target As. You will get a message saying Failed to save target content. Now insert the footnote tag and confirm the segment. The error notification icon will disappear and you will be able to generate the target document.
Tip
If SDL Trados Studio does not otherwise allow you to generate the translated document, you may, in some cases, be able to do so using the Export Files batch task described in Chapter 7, Working with Projects.
By default, omission of tags that represent formatting (as opposed to functionality) does not produce an error. It is up to you to decide whether the formatting is important. To modify the tag verification settings, choose Project Settings (to change the settings for the current translation) or File | Options (to do so for all subsequent work based on the new global profile setting). Choose File Types and select the relevant file type. For example, if this is a .docx file, choose Microsoft Word 2007-13 | Tag check. To activate checking of formatting tags, for example, uncheck the option Ignore formatting tags.
Note
For information on the difference between the settings under Project Settings and File | Options, see Chapter 7, Working with Projects.