SDLXLIFF, SDLTM, and SDLTB in CafeTran 2015

[Originally posted on ProZ. For Studio packages - SDLPPX files - see the CafeTran Wiki]

Editing an SDLXLIFF file in CafeTran is easy. I did hundreds of them.

• Run CafeTran
• Drop the SDLXLIFF file on the Dashboard
• The correct language codes are automatically selected
• Click "Next" to start working ("locked" segments remain locked)

To add a Studio translation memory for segments - SDLTM, an SQLite database:

Studio's termbase - SDLTB - is a bit more complicated. It's an MS Access file, and fortunately, Access is not available for OS X.

• Download Axxess (free) from the App Store
• Open the SDLTB file in Axxess

• Select the source language
• File | Export to Excel
• Open the spreadsheet (in Excel, Numbers, etc.)
• Delete all nonsensical columns
• Repeat for target language
• Copy target language column into the spreadsheet for the source language
• Save as tab delimited text file
• Import in a new CafeTran TMX memory for terms (or use as tab delimited glossary if you are that way inclined)
• Back to work

Updates: 1. Axxess isn't free anymore. 2. I was lucky, the SDLTB I converted was very simple. For SDLTBs with alternative translations, or with more languages, please sort on "conceptid" (thanks to HansL for pointing it out).

CafeTran 2015 For Switchers

CafeTran 2015

for Switchers

In this introduction, I take it you are familiar with the basics of CAT tools.

• Run CafeTran
• The user interface will appear, showing the Dashboard, with from left to right a column for Translation Memories (for segments, “TM”, *.tmx), TMX Termbases & Glossaries (*.tmx files for terms and phrases, “TB” -- tab delimited text files for terms and phrases, “Glossaries”), Resources (integrated Internet resources, e.g. IATE), and your Project.
• For a number of reasons, it’s a good idea to enable the Project Memory, and adjust the settings for it by clicking the Settings icon. Select your language pair for this job.
• Drop your job on the Dashboard. The job can be a Document (monolingual files, various formats, a Project (bilingual files in various formats: XLF, XLIFF, SDLXLF, SDLPPX, TXML, and TTX), a TMX file to edit, and more. Check if the language settings correspond with the setting you selected in the previous step. They should. Please also check the Segmentation field. For most source languages (SL), Automatic Segmentation will be the obvious choice.
• Click OK.
• The project will be loaded into the top-left pane, your editing space is the pane next to it, whereas below you’ll see your enabled resources in a tabbed pane.
• You could start working now, but I think it’d be wise to add and check a few things first:

1. Go to Menu | Edit | Options, and check at least if the settings in General, Workflow, and Memory are set according to your way of working. In Memory, increase the Java heap if you work with large TM files.
2. Add any tmx TMs, in Menu | Memory | Open Memory, and fine-tune their settings.
3. Add any tmx TBs, in Menu | Memory | Open Memory, and fine-tune their settings.
4. Add any Internet resources if you didn’t add them in the Dashboard earlier, Menu | Tools
5. Add any Glossaries if you didn’t add them in the Dashboard earlier, Menu | Glossary | Add Glossary, and import them in a tmx TB to make use of the more advanced features of TMs.
6. Add any resources the client sent you by importing them in Menu | Memory | Import. You can import various file formats, including SDLTM and TBX. You can later save them as TMX files. It’s probably a good idea to set those resources to Read-Only so you can’t add segments or terms and phrases to them.
7. Add a DBMS file or import a TMX file or a database in plain text. (Advanced)
8. Check if you’re happy with the lay-out of the GUI. CafeTran’s UI is highly customisable.

• Click the coffee cup with the green arrow and Next next to it to start working.
• Tags in CafeTran are placeholders, the numbering always starts with ₁ in every segment, and entering them is as easy as typing the number and hitting the Esc key.
• CafeTran offers spell checking on-the-fly. You may have to add a free Hunspell dictionary for your target language.
• If you enabled Auto-Assembly and Automatic insertion of matches, perfect TM matches and the most likely candidates for your TL will appear in the TL pane. Other ways to add words and phrases to the TL pane are typing, typing using Auto-Completion, selecting terms or phrases in your resources (selecting only will do the trick, no deed to copy/paste).
• Click the coffee cup with the green arrow again to save the segment and go to the next one. Warning: the translated segment pair will be added to all TMs (for segments) that are not Read-Only. Mind your Settings! They are all-important.
• Add words and phrases to your TBs by selecting both the SL and the TL word(s) and clicking the coffee cup with the tiny plus sign. Unless you disabled it, a pop-up window will show up where you can make any corrections or add information. You can also uncheck any TBs you don’t want to add terms to. Mind your Settings! They are all-important.
• Continue till the last segment, after which - in the case of the translation of a document - a pop-up window will appear to ask you if you want to perform a QA or want to export the translated document. You can find your translation in a folder CafeTran created in the location of your choice, with the language code of your TL added to it. In that folder, you will also find a copy of the SL document (again with the language code of your SL added to it), and any TMs (ProjectTM, for example) you saved to that location.   If you translated a Project (bilingual), you will have to choose QA in the Menu.

October 2012 Update

New in CafeTran Espresso 2012 in Igor's words:


1. Refreshed Find and Replace panel.
2. Multiple segments filter allowing to perform multi-step filtering both of Project and TM segments.
3. QA filtering of spelling mistakes.
4. New Auto-assembling panel replacing the previous pop-up window.

Click to enlarge

5. Enhancement in the Auto-assembling feature. 
6. Single-click mouse tag placement (activation via target window context menu).
7. Deciding on the Project location when creating a CT project.
8. New filter for Transit XML files and improvements in the SDLXLIFF filter.
9. No more segment breaks on format change (bold, italics, underline) in the Excel filter.
10. Import of TBX terminology.
11. Some changes in CT Terminology (Auto-assembling replaces Autotranslation, Fragments term is now used for exact subsegment matches)