Forum: SDL Trados support
Topic: Number checking with trados and TM software
Poster: Tony M
Post title: Number checking with Wordfast
I use Wordfast Classic, and that handles numbers in most cases transparently — hence little if any further 'checking' is needed.
If numbers occur in isolation, they are not even presented for translation, but are simply left untouched as in the source.
If numbers occur in combination with letters, this MAY cause them to be interpreted as segments (e.g. model numbers, etc.) As long as the letter part does not require translation, you can simply copy the source segment into the target segment, so once again, no errors can occur.
If you have sentences that contain numbers, and these recur from your TM, then NORMALLY the numbers are treated as placeables, and so transfer automatically to the target segment in the correct place. So for example, if I have a source segment "The red bucket contains 18 green balls", the '18' wil be offered to me during translation as a direct placeable (hence no need to re-type it); if then I have a subsequent sentence "The red bucket contains 23 green balls", the TU will be suggested from my TM, BUT the figure will have been adapted accordingly — so again, no need to re-type and no possibility of error.
This works fine, until there is some change in the word / number order, or in the syntax, which can lead to the software's getting muddled up; usually, if your source text uses consistent, accurate syntax, this is not too much of a problem — I have mainly encountered it, for example, where a source text sometimes uses a non-breaking space between figures and units, but sometimes doesn't; in this case, 350 ml for example will behave correctly, offering '350' as a placeable or correctly automatically inserting when recovering a TU from the TM; and if you then have 820 ml, you will be offered 820.
But 350[nbsp]ml will get treated as a word, and so the figures will not be offered as a placeable next time round.
I'm sure there are ways of configuring the software to suit your source text, but I've never needed to look into them. Since the demo version of Wordfast is fully functional, I can only suggest you give it a try with a typical document, and see if its behaviour suits your particular needs.
Note that I have no experience with the behaviour of either Wordfsat Anywhere or Wordfast Professional.
[Edited at 2013-07-27 06:16 GMT]
Topic: Number checking with trados and TM software
Poster: Tony M
Post title: Number checking with Wordfast
I use Wordfast Classic, and that handles numbers in most cases transparently — hence little if any further 'checking' is needed.
If numbers occur in isolation, they are not even presented for translation, but are simply left untouched as in the source.
If numbers occur in combination with letters, this MAY cause them to be interpreted as segments (e.g. model numbers, etc.) As long as the letter part does not require translation, you can simply copy the source segment into the target segment, so once again, no errors can occur.
If you have sentences that contain numbers, and these recur from your TM, then NORMALLY the numbers are treated as placeables, and so transfer automatically to the target segment in the correct place. So for example, if I have a source segment "The red bucket contains 18 green balls", the '18' wil be offered to me during translation as a direct placeable (hence no need to re-type it); if then I have a subsequent sentence "The red bucket contains 23 green balls", the TU will be suggested from my TM, BUT the figure will have been adapted accordingly — so again, no need to re-type and no possibility of error.
This works fine, until there is some change in the word / number order, or in the syntax, which can lead to the software's getting muddled up; usually, if your source text uses consistent, accurate syntax, this is not too much of a problem — I have mainly encountered it, for example, where a source text sometimes uses a non-breaking space between figures and units, but sometimes doesn't; in this case, 350 ml for example will behave correctly, offering '350' as a placeable or correctly automatically inserting when recovering a TU from the TM; and if you then have 820 ml, you will be offered 820.
But 350[nbsp]ml will get treated as a word, and so the figures will not be offered as a placeable next time round.
I'm sure there are ways of configuring the software to suit your source text, but I've never needed to look into them. Since the demo version of Wordfast is fully functional, I can only suggest you give it a try with a typical document, and see if its behaviour suits your particular needs.
Note that I have no experience with the behaviour of either Wordfsat Anywhere or Wordfast Professional.
[Edited at 2013-07-27 06:16 GMT]