Tips

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.

Sometimes you have a memoQ XLIFF file (with .mqxlz extension), but it is much easier for you to work with .xlf file. (For example, .xlf files, unlike .mqxlz ones, allow performing the QA checks in the free version of Xbench.)

The trick described below helps:

1. First, you should know that .mqxlz file is actually the renamed .zip archive. Add the .zip extension to .mqxlz file:

my_memoQ_file.mqxlz -> my_memoQ_file.mqxlz.zip

2. Extract everything from this .zip file. There are two files inside the .zip:

• document.mqxliff
• skeleton.xml

3. Add the .xlf extension to .mqxliff file (you do not need skeleton.xml at all):

document.mqxliff -> document.mqxliff.xlf

So, you get the .xlf file containing the same bilingual text.

Enjoy!