PPT translation on Mac: Wordfast, Heartsome XLIFF Araya, Omega T Thread poster: Anne Patteet
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Hello everyone,
I'd appreciate a lot your insight on this (I work on a Mac OS X 10.3.9 - G5):
I have been using Wordfast until now, have used it for PPT, and it has worked fine until recently (I've had some trouble with pdf docs, but that's another story).
Last week I had a more complex and animated PPT to translate, and it was a mess.
On the same screen, different texts were appearing one after another (which often happens), but they were appearing o... See more Hello everyone,
I'd appreciate a lot your insight on this (I work on a Mac OS X 10.3.9 - G5):
I have been using Wordfast until now, have used it for PPT, and it has worked fine until recently (I've had some trouble with pdf docs, but that's another story).
Last week I had a more complex and animated PPT to translate, and it was a mess.
On the same screen, different texts were appearing one after another (which often happens), but they were appearing one on top of the other, hiding the previous text. It seems that Wordfast couldn't handle that, and I had to try to manually extract those different text boxes to translate them, which didn't always work as they were very well hidden sometimes! I had to apologize to the client and ask for the text that I couldn't extract.
Also, when the text in the boxes was a bit long, once I had translated it, it didn't completely go back to the text box in the PPT doc (only a few lines and then it stopped, so I had to copy-paste my translation and copy the different formats whenever there was such a long text).
Has anyone had these problems before or know why they happened? Is Wordfast on Mac not able to handle these elaborated PPT? I have downloaded this WF version only two months or so ago, so I don't think the version is the problem.
Following this issue, my colleague who was translating the same text into her own language, told me she was very satisfied with the way Déjà Vu went through that PPT, but I see that Déjà Vu doesn't work on Mac. As I don't really want to have a virtual PC, that's not an option for me, nor is the Heartsome XLIFF Araya, that apparently needs a Mac OS X 10.4. I guess I'm left with Omega T.
I would like to know if you think there is a remedy to my Wordfast problem (I like Wordfast and if I don't absolutely have to switch to another CAT, I won't), and if Omega T would be able to handle this kind of situation.
Many thanks in advance,
Anne ▲ Collapse
| | | | Sonja Tomaskovic (X) 
Germany
Local time: 23:03
English to German
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As an OmegaT user I am satisfied with how the software works and the way it handles PPT (ODP) files in general. However, OmegaT has a totally different approach than Wordfast. As such, you may encounter first problems when you start working with it. I strongly advise against just jumping in at the deep end when a client sends a file, but to test the software before you receive a real translation job.
Regarding PPT files, generally speaking, most CAT tools that extract the text rathe... See more As an OmegaT user I am satisfied with how the software works and the way it handles PPT (ODP) files in general. However, OmegaT has a totally different approach than Wordfast. As such, you may encounter first problems when you start working with it. I strongly advise against just jumping in at the deep end when a client sends a file, but to test the software before you receive a real translation job.
Regarding PPT files, generally speaking, most CAT tools that extract the text rather than work on the original file will probably do a good job. OmegaT is among these tools that extracts the text and leaves formatting information (for the most part) untouched.
Please bear in mind that OmegaT does not support PPT natively. You have to convert your PPT with the help of OpenOffice.org (or NeoOffice) to be able to use it with OmegaT. And that is the most likely source of problems: the conversion from PPT to ODP is not perfect. If your PPT file is very complex - and it looks like the one you mentioned in your posting was - than chances are good that you will spend a lot of time restoring the original formatting.
It is therefore mostly a matter of deciding what will cause you less headache: not being able to extract text from your source document and asking the client for help, or having all the text for translation but spending more time on the formatting.
HTH.
Sonja ▲ Collapse
| | | | Mulyadi Subali
Indonesia
Local time: 04:03
Member
English to Indonesian
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| omegat - seconded | Sep 18, 2007 |
i don't recall using it for complex ppt, but i think it's worth a try.
| | | | esperantisto
Local time: 00:03
Member (2006)
English to Russian
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SITE LOCALIZER | I haven't had so far any problem with PPT -> ODP -> OmegaT -> back to PPT | Sep 18, 2007 |
but must confess, I did not have really many PPT files to translate and they were not really complex.
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 23:03
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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| There are a few issues | Sep 18, 2007 |
esperantisto wrote:
I did not have really many PPT files to translate and they were not really complex.
There are a few issues (I think PPT files that use images for bullet lists may suffer a little), but the advantage of being able to translate PPT as if it were plain text certainly outweighs the fact that a little post-editing is required. You may also find issues with font sizes being misguessed, etc, but you don't translate PPT in any other CAT tool without also checking it afterwards, right?
| | | | Anne Patteet
Local time: 16:03
English to French
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TOPIC STARTER | Thank you all for your answers | Sep 19, 2007 |
Thank you Sonja, I'll keep your advice in mind and try OmegaT on something not urgent.
Samuel, you are absolutely right. It was text with bullets. My problem being that if the CAT doesn't extract the "hidden" text boxes, I can't translate them (if I even know they are there: I discovered som of those hidden boxes by watching the PPT presentation after translating it all, or so I thought: I started seeing some "new" text in the source language!)... I wonder if OmegaT will be able to ... See more Thank you Sonja, I'll keep your advice in mind and try OmegaT on something not urgent.
Samuel, you are absolutely right. It was text with bullets. My problem being that if the CAT doesn't extract the "hidden" text boxes, I can't translate them (if I even know they are there: I discovered som of those hidden boxes by watching the PPT presentation after translating it all, or so I thought: I started seeing some "new" text in the source language!)... I wonder if OmegaT will be able to do that. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 23:03
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| OmegaT and hidden text | Sep 19, 2007 |
Anne Patteet wrote:
Samuel, you are absolutely right. It was text with bullets.
The bullets are not an issue (most PPT presentations have bullet lists, don't they?). The issue is using images as bullets.
My problem being that if the CAT doesn't extract the "hidden" text boxes, I can't translate them... I wonder if OmegaT will be able to do that.
If I've been unclear, allow me to restate: OmegaT will extract all text and you can translate it all. The downside is that OmegaT will extract all text, even if the author of the PPT document "removed" the text by moving it to the side (off-canvas, in other words) so that it is no longer visible.
Also note that OmegaT may not extract text from embedded objects like embedded spreadsheets -- for that, you need to disembed the spreadsheet, translate the spreadsheet in OmegaT (or your favourite tool) and manually re-insert the spreadsheet when the translation is finished.
| | | | | Embedded files not accessed through OmegaT ? | Jan 3, 2008 |
Samuel Murray wrote:
Also note that OmegaT may not extract text from embedded objects like embedded spreadsheets -- for that, you need to disembed the spreadsheet, translate the spreadsheet in OmegaT (or your favourite tool) and manually re-insert the spreadsheet when the translation is finished.
Samuel,
Are you talking about specific issues that sometimes do not allow the embedded contents of PPT files to be accessed ? Or something more general about embedded contents ?
When I work with OmegaT/OpenOffice I first ensure that all embedded data is converted to OOo format (that is a dialog in the OOo options -> Load/Save -> MS Office).
Last time I tried, I had access to all the embedded Excel contents in my Word files.
Another "problem" with embedded files is that sometimes there is _too much_ contents available through OmegaT (or any other tool that processes files in a similar way). The reason being that the "visible" parts that are supposed to be translatable are know known to the application and thus even the invisible parts are available in the tool. But that is a different story and it is totally independent from OOo/OmegaT workflows.
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