Do not spell check in external style text when working with tagged Trados files

[spiros]

Problem

You have a prepared rtf file which you are going to translate with Trados (or any other Word-based CAT tool like Wordfast, Metatexis, etc). It is marked with external (tw4winExternal) and internal styles (tw4winInternal). When you perform a spell check in your "dirty" (unclean) Trados file, the spell checker also checks all the external and internal styled text which is not translatable and significantly delays the spell checking procedure.

What are internal and external styles?

Trados documents that you translate may contain formatting so that Trados "knows" what is to be translated and what not; what you can move around and what not. External style (tw4winExternal) is something that you normally never mess up with and does not come up when you open a translation unit. Internal style (tw4winInternal) is a style that is applied to placeables (i.e. non translatable items which are usually formatting instructions like

Code: [Select]

<b> for bold or

Code: [Select]

<i> for italics).

Solution

1. Go to View→Task Pane (or simply press Ctrl+F1). The task pane appears on the right hand side.
2. Click on the arrow of the Task Pane and select Styles and Formatting.
3. Scroll down and find the style tw4winExternal.
4. Right-click on it to display the menu.
5. Select Modify.
6.  Click Format→Language and select the language of the tagged text (usually English).
7. Check the box Do not check spelling and grammar (it has to have a dark check sign, not a grey one)
7. Click OK and again OK.
8. Right-click again on the tw4winExternal style.
9. Select Update to match selection.

This is it! Now when you spell check the "grey" text will be omitted. You can repeat the same procedure for tw4winInternal if you have many "placeables" (non-translatable elements) in your segments.

The easy way

This sounds like too much work to you? Well, I have done all the hard work and you can reap the benefits!

Download the zip file, unzip it and open it. (It is a Word file)

1. Click Tools→Templates and Add ins.
2. Click Organizer.
3. Click the tab Styles.
4. You will see there, among others, tw4winExternal and tw4winInternal.
5. Make sure that in the list Styles available in: the normal.dot template appears.
6. Click on tw4winExternal.
7. Click Copy (to normal.dot).
8. Repeat the same procedure with tw4winInternal.

Now these styles are always available in your normal.dot template and you can see them whenever you open an existing document or create a new one.