memoQ Help - Bilingual DOC/RTF

Bilingual DOC/RTF was the primary bilingual document format of older versions of Trados® and Wordfast®. Bilingual DOC/RTF files can be read and translated or edited in Microsoft® Word® and similar word processors even without specialized translation software, but some translation tools, including memoQ, make it more efficient to work with them. A Bilingual DOC/RTF file contains segments of translatable source text, their translatable equivalents, and special segmentation codes that separate these. The source text and the segmentation codes are hidden, making it possible to easily scan the translated text in a word processor when hidden text is not displayed. Displaying hidden text in the word processor application reveals the structure and source text.

By exporting a memoQ translation document to this format, you can enable users of some other translation tools to work on a document or project prepared in memoQ. You can also use memoQ to translate or proofread bilingual DOC/RTF files created in other tools, which means you can take part in translation projects that were not prepared using memoQ.

Translating or editing bilingual DOC/RTF files in memoQ

You can use memoQ to translate or edit existing bilingual DOC/RTF files. These are files that are created from original monolingual DOC/RTF files (or other formats) in other translation tools. These bilingual DOC/RTF files can be imported into memoQ using the Import or Import with options options, and can be exported in monolingual or bilingual form (or both) after translation or proofreading/editing. To export a monolingual document (which is often referred to as a “clean” file), use the Export (dialog) or Export (stored path) command. To export in bilingual form (or create an “unclean” file), use the Export bilingual command, choose the Trados compatible bilingual DOC option and make sure that the Simple formatting check box is not checked.

Note: You might encounter partially segmented bilingual files, in which only some of the segments contain target language equivalents, and the rest of the source text is included without segmentation codes. These documents are not supported in memoQ: use a fully segmented bilingual file, or the original monolingual source language document for translation.

Important: To export your work in a fully formatted bilingual Word document, the original document must be a pre-segmented Trados-compatible bilingual Word document.

Exporting bilingual DOC/RTF files from memoQ

In many cases, memoQ users need to cooperate with users of other translation software products. For example, you might want to have your translated document proofread by a non memoQ user. Or a project manager might need to work in a team where some of the translators cannot currently use memoQ. In this case, a translation document can be exported into bilingual DOC/RTF format, and handed out to the non memoQ translator or proofreader. To create the bilingual file, click the Export bilingual command, choose the Trados compatible bilingual DOC option and make sure that the Simple formatting and the Export markup for empty translations check boxes are checked. When the finished work is received, you can “merge” the translated or proofread segments back into the memoQ translation document by selecting it in the document list and clicking the Import with options command link.

Note: To make sure that the bilingual document exported from memoQ can be “merged” back into memoQ using the Import with options command, always use the Simple formatting option when exporting bilingual documents for use outside memoQ. If you do not, you create a bilingual DOC/RTF file containing rich formatting, in which case the update function is not guaranteed to work.

Note: When Microsoft® Word® or similar word processors are used to edit a bilingual DOC/RTF file, the document is less “protected” than in standalone translation tools like memoQ. If segmentation codes are damaged or deleted, or the document structure is otherwise changed in the word processor application, the update step might fail in memoQ.