ProblemYou 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
<b>
for
bold or
<i>
for
italics).
Solution1. 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 wayThis 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.