our blog

How to Create a Clean Trados Word File Without Trados

How to Create a Clean Trados Word File Without Trados - 1

You can easily remove the source text from Trados Word files, even without Trados

When your translation performed in Word with Trados (to be exact, Translator's Workbench) is finished, you create a translated file that contains the translation. I.e., you eliminate the source text and leave the translated text (target) only. This operation is called “cleaning”, as you “clean” your file from the source, leaving the target only.

Usually, you do it using the Translator's Workbench: you select Tools > Clean Up, then you choose the Word files and press Clean Up. Translator's Workbench deletes the source text so you get the translated files.

How to Create a Clean Trados Word File Without Trados - 2

But sometimes something goes wrong and the Translator's Workbench fails to clean the files. This usually happens if there are problems with segmentation in the file you are cleaning. Or, you try to clean the files of Word 2007 and higher (.docx files). Or, you need to clean the file from the source on a PC where Trados is not installed at all. Then, the following trick helps.

1. Usually, you see only visible text in Word, like this:

How to Create a Clean Trados Word File Without Trados - 3

You see the translated text only, while the source text is present in the file as well, but it is hidden. To see the source text, you need to make hidden Word text visible: press How to Create a Clean Trados Word File Without Trados - 4 button on the Word ribbon or press Ctrl + Shift + 8 (just 8, not F8). You will see something like this:

How to Create a Clean Trados Word File Without Trados - 5

2. To get rid of the source text is in fact to get rid of the hidden text. This can be done right in Word, without Trados. To do this, press Ctrl + H to open the Search and Replace dialog window, then press More, then press Format button > Font > Hidden:

How to Create a Clean Trados Word File Without Trados - 6

Then, press OK and Replace All.

This command deletes all hidden text from a Word file, leaving only the visible one — i.e., only your translation.

Recommended content

How to Create a Clean Trados Word File Without Trados - 7

How to Get Rid of the “Attempted to Divide by Zero” Error in MultiTerm

This error appears not only in Trados Studio We wrote about the Attempted to divide by zero error in Trados Studio before, and now it has been caught by MultiTerm, a free app for processing termbases. The error appears right during simple scrolling through term records. What causes this error, typically, is unknown, but it […]
How to Create a Clean Trados Word File Without Trados - 8

How to Translate TXLF Wordfast Files in Trados Studio

Trados Studio can be used to translate .txlf Wordfast files If you do not have or do not like or do not work in Wordfast, you can translate its files in Trados Studio. Trados Studio knows well how to process different file types (Word, Excel, HTML and many, many others). To teach your Trados Studio to work with TXLF Wordfast files means to […]
How to Create a Clean Trados Word File Without Trados - 9

How to Identify a Character Code in Word

About the great yet little-known Word command In Word, there is a great yet little-known Alt + X command: it shows the hexadecimal code of the previous character or converts the hexadecimal code of a character to that character.   See more interesting posts in our Telegram channel.
How to Create a Clean Trados Word File Without Trados - 10

How to Move a Trados Studio Project from One Folder on Your Computer to Another

Notes on moving a Trados Studio project from one folder on your computer to another By default, Trados Studio saves all projects in the depths of Windows, in the following folder: C:\Users\<User>\Documents\Studio <version>\Projects But sometimes, it makes sense to move one or more projects to another folder: for example, to free up your nearly full […]
How to Create a Clean Trados Word File Without Trados - 11

How to Enable Spelling Check by Word Spell Checker in Trados Studio

About switching the spelling check to Word spell checker in Trados Studio By default, Trados Studio checks spelling using the free Hunspell dictionaries, but you can enable the Word spelling module in Trados Studio instead. This is how to do it: We recommend checking the Check spelling as you type checkbox: Trados Studio will highlight […]