Forum: SDL Trados support
Topic: PDF file in Trados Studio 2014 - How do I procede? (New to Trados)
Poster: SDL Community
Post title: I think I would have to say...
[quote]Paula DeFilippo wrote:
The client has specified that I should not OCR the file, so that seems like an issue as well.
[/quote]
... that your client is a little uneducated in this area. PDF files are not translatable formats. They are formats created to allow a user to read the content on any computer without requiring the native application that was used to create the original source. Nobody creates material directly into a PDF. So they would do you a big favour, and themselves, if they were to listen to you and provide you with the original source instead.
If you don't OCR then these are your options (or variations on these I think):
[list=1]
[*]Retype the text and return them a text only file
[*]Run it through a CAT which will probably convert the PDF to DOCX or Text anyway. the DOCX will be a "best attempt" approach to matching the formatting in the PDF
[*]Use something like [url= [url removed] ]InFix[/url] which will attempt to extract the text to a TXT or XML format. You then translate this file instead and finally import it back into the PDF. Potentially the best results and the client gets the PDF back.
[/list]
The sort of content you have now will make the first option impossible without scanning the images to add into the Text. The second option will attempt to extract the images and put them into the DOCX so you can tidy it up afterwards. The last option would be better if it works... worth a try using the free trial first.
If the DOCX is the preferred route for you then I would open the PDF in Studio and immediately save the source file (or the target if you don't fill it with translations from your TM). This will give you the DOCX. Now tidy up the DOCX to get rid of all the incorrect paragraph breaks, silly kerning that adds uneeded tags etc. Then translate the tidied up DOCX instead.
But as I said at the start ... ask your client to stop being silly and give you the source file. I hope you charge them for all the messing around!
Regards
Paul
[url= [url removed] ]SDL Community Support[/url]
Topic: PDF file in Trados Studio 2014 - How do I procede? (New to Trados)
Poster: SDL Community
Post title: I think I would have to say...
[quote]Paula DeFilippo wrote:
The client has specified that I should not OCR the file, so that seems like an issue as well.
[/quote]
... that your client is a little uneducated in this area. PDF files are not translatable formats. They are formats created to allow a user to read the content on any computer without requiring the native application that was used to create the original source. Nobody creates material directly into a PDF. So they would do you a big favour, and themselves, if they were to listen to you and provide you with the original source instead.
If you don't OCR then these are your options (or variations on these I think):
[list=1]
[*]Retype the text and return them a text only file
[*]Run it through a CAT which will probably convert the PDF to DOCX or Text anyway. the DOCX will be a "best attempt" approach to matching the formatting in the PDF
[*]Use something like [url= [url removed] ]InFix[/url] which will attempt to extract the text to a TXT or XML format. You then translate this file instead and finally import it back into the PDF. Potentially the best results and the client gets the PDF back.
[/list]
The sort of content you have now will make the first option impossible without scanning the images to add into the Text. The second option will attempt to extract the images and put them into the DOCX so you can tidy it up afterwards. The last option would be better if it works... worth a try using the free trial first.
If the DOCX is the preferred route for you then I would open the PDF in Studio and immediately save the source file (or the target if you don't fill it with translations from your TM). This will give you the DOCX. Now tidy up the DOCX to get rid of all the incorrect paragraph breaks, silly kerning that adds uneeded tags etc. Then translate the tidied up DOCX instead.
But as I said at the start ... ask your client to stop being silly and give you the source file. I hope you charge them for all the messing around!
Regards
Paul
[url= [url removed] ]SDL Community Support[/url]