Tips

A Wordfast TM file has .txt extension. Actually, it is an usual .txt file delimited with tabs in a special way. Converting it into TMX format that allows TM exchange between all other CAT tools can be done in several ways. The easiest and quickest way involves Xbench (either free or paid version).

Step 1: Load your Wordfast TM into Xbench. There is a special file type Wordfast Memory there:

Do not forget to set the checkbox Ongoing translation.

Step 2: In Xbench, select Tools > Export Items, or simply press CTRL + R.

Export Items dialog box appears. Specify the settings in Output section: what languages are considered to be source and target, and the path and the file name for the .tmx file of the TM.

Press OK button. The .tmx file you get is the converted Wordfast TM.

The main “problem” with this operation is not to perform the converting itself, but to find when the necessary button actually is :)

1. Select the table you want to convert into text, or just place the text cursor into any of its cells. On the ribbon, Layout menu appears. (It is missing when the text cursor is places outside of a table.)

2. Select Layout > Convert to Text.

3. A dialog box appears where you can choose how cells are divided in the resulting text: with paragraph signs, tabs, semicolons or some others (you can choose yourself).

Passolo files (they have tbulic extension) are not convenient for some operations: it is not easy to add the translations they contain to the existing Trados translation memory, to perform QA in Xbench etc. Free Passolo Translator's Edition does not allow that at all; Professional version allows them, but the export procedure is rather complicated.

The export of translations from Passolo file becomes possible with a help of auxiliary macros, attachable to the program.

By default, the macros files are downloadable from here:
http://translation-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Passolo.zip

To enable macros for export in Passolo, please perform the following steps:

Unpack the archive and copy .bas files it contains,

• PslAutoProjectFromFolder.bas
• TEK_Passolo2TMX.bas
• TEK_Passolo2Xliff.bas
• TEKPassolo2TTX.bas

to the Passolo macros folder. The path can be different depending on your Passolo and Windows version, for example:

Windows Vista/7/8:

• c:\Users\Public\Documents\Passolo Translator\2011\Macros\
• c:\Users\Public\Documents\Passolo Essential 2011\Macros\
• c:\Users\Public\Documents\Passolo 2011\Macros\

Windows XP:

• C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Passolo Translator\2011\Macros

etc.

Now you can export the translation from Passolo into text format.

In Passolo, press CTRL + M or select Tools > Macros. The dialog window Macros appears. It contains macros beginning from TEK...

— TEK_Passolo2TTX.bas macro is for exporting text into TagEditor (TTX) format.

Note: When you try to open the resulting .ttx file in TagEditor, the message about missing .ini file appears. You can choose any .ini file from the existing ones. Changing .ini file affects nothing, because the text is already segmented.

— TEK_Passolo2TMX.bas macro is for exporting text into TMX format.

— TEK_Passolo2Xliff.bas macro is for exporting text into XLIFF format.

To run a macro, select the necessary one in the list and press Run button. The resulting file with exported text is created in the folder where the original .tbulic Passolo file is stored.

From the recent posts in this blog, we know how to enable spelling check with Microsoft Word spelling engine in the following programs:

• Word itself (sometimes you have to enable spelling check manually)
• Trados Studio
• memoQ
• Wordfast
• Passolo
• Browsers (Chrome or Firefox)

Now we turn to Xliff Editor. This CAT is a part of Translation Workspace system, and it works with usual “offline” files by connecting to online  resources (translation memory, termbases etc.). The standard file extension of Xliff Editor file is .xlz.

By default, spelling check “on the go” is not enabled in Xliff Editor. To enable and adjust it, please do the following:

In Xliff Editor, select Tools > Spelling Check Configuration...

Spell Check Configuration dialog window opens. There, select the check box Use MS Word Spell Checker check box. Then, choose the language in the Language list. If you want to underline incorrectly written words immediately after they are typed, set the Check Spelling As You Type check box.

After that, restart Xliff Editor. All erroneous words are now underlined with red lines, like in Word.

We have already set the spelling check in Word, memoQ, Wordfast, Trados Studio and Passolo. All these programs are standalone software for PCs. But there are many CAT tools that are so called SaaS = "Software as a Service". Actually, they are not software: they are rather services providing the online access to servers allowing you to perform translations. There are many of them; the most popular are MateCat, smartCAT, MemSource, SmartLing, CrowdIn, Google Translator Toolkit (aka GTT) etc., and their popularity grows.

To access such SaaS-based CATs, you use your regular browser. So, a browser turns to a CAT. There are pros and cons in this, but the fact is we face a problem: how to check spelling right in a browser, and it is desirable to do this in the same way we do this in Word.

Of course, the most of online CATs allow you to export the text in some file, and then you can check spelling in this file with your “offline” spelling tools and then implement corrections in the correspondent places in your online document. But this workaround inconvenient.

Much more simple way exists: if you use Chromе or Firefox, install LanguageTool extension. LanguageTool is a free open-source tool that fights with spelling mistakes.

After installing, LanguageTool browser extension begins underline all unknown (to it) words with red, just is the way Word does this. This happens in all fields where you can enter text. For example, here is how the text I am typing looks like:

As you can see, LanguageTool is not familiar with CAT tools: all their names are underlined :)

Multi-language users have advantage: LanguageTool allows to perform spelling check in several languages simultaneously.

Here is the official LanguageTool web site where you can download the standalone LanguageTool program and its extensions for different platforms: https://languagetool.org/

LanguageTool page in Chrome Web Store: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/languagetool-grammar-and/oldceeleldhonbafppcapldpdifcinji

LanguageTool Firefox add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/ru/firefox/addon/languagetool

In earlier posts, we configured spelling checks in Word, memoQ, Trados Studio, and Wordfast. Today our point of interest is Passolo.

Passolo is a CAT tool developed by SDL to enable the translation of user interfaces (UI) and video games. It is available in several editions:

• SDL Passolo Translator Edition
• SDL Passolo Essential
• SDL Passolo Professional Edition
• SDL Passolo Team Edition
• SDL Passolo Collaboration Edition

In all of them, the method of configuring is the same:

In Passolo, select Tools > Options. Options dialog box opens. Click Spelling Check on the left pane. Then, choose the language you need on the right pane, in Settings for drop-down list. Then choose the Microsoft Word spelling engine in Spelling Checker: drop-down list:

Then, click OK :)