If you need to send your documents to another system, you need the Bilingual export wizard. It will export the selected documents in bilingual files. You can choose from three formats: memoQ XLIFF, TRADOS-compatible bilingual Word, and two-column RTF. This topic explains each of them, along with the options you can use to save the documents.
How to get here
Open a project. In Project home, choose Translations. Select a documents or view - or more of them. On the Documents ribbon, click Export, and choose Export Bilingual.
What can you do?
Send standard XLIFF documents to a different translation tool
XLIFF is a standard bilingual document format. Almost every other translation tool can open and save XLIFF files. XLIFF stands for XML Localization Interchange File Format.
To save an XLIFF file, so that another translation tool can work with it:
- Click the memoQ XLIFF radio button.
- Click Plain XLIFF for other tools, next to the radio button.
This clears all check boxes below the memoQ XLIFF radio button. memoQ will save an XLIFF file that doesn't contain the parts that only memoQ can use. The exported file won't be zipped. The extension of the file will be MQXLIFF.
You can check any of the check boxes in that section. For example, you can save a zipped file that still doesn't contain anything memoQ-specific.
Send a bilingual document to another copy of memoQ without losing anything
memoQ's native bilingual document format is XLIFF, too. But memoQ's XLIFF contains parts that make sense for another copy of memoQ only. The XLIFF standard doesn't say how a tool must include extra information that helps the export and the preview of the translated document.
To save an XLIFF for another copy of memoQ:
1. Click the memoQ XLIFF radio button.
2. Make sure that all check boxes are checked:
- Include skeleton and preview check box makes memoQ save data that it needs for exporting and previewing the translated document
- Include major version history makes memoQ save previoius versions of the document, not just the current one
- Save a compressed file makes memoQ save a zipped file with the MQXLZ extension. If you include the skeleton or the version history, memoQ will always save a zipped file.
Save a bilingual document that can be edited in Word, and then imported back into memoQ
memoQ can save a Rich Text (RTF) file that contains the bilingual document in a table. This is called the Two-column RTF format.
You can send the exported file to someone who doesn't have a translation tool. They edit it in Word, and send the edited file back to you. You can import this file into the same project in memoQ: memoQ updates the document in the project.
To save a two-column Rich text file:
- Click the Two-column RTF radio button. If you check the Open exported bilingual file in Word check box, memoQ shows you the document in Word immediately after it is saved. Click Next.
- The second page of the wizard appears. In this page, you can fine-tune the contents, the layout, and the format of the exported bilingual file.
Fine-tune the columns:
- Export comments check box: Check this to make memoQ create an extra column in the table. This will contain the comments from the document. This is checked by default.
- Export segment status check box: Check this to make memoQ add an extra column that shows the segment status. The extra cells show both the color and the match rate. This is checked by default.
- Two target columns in table check box: Check this to make memoQ export the target column twice. In Word, the reviewer should leave the first target column as it is, and modify the second target column only. Normally, both target columns contain the translation. Check the Leave second target column empty check box to have an empty second target column. Both check boxes are checked by default.
Fine-tune the formatting:
- Format tags with the "mqInternal" style check box: In the exported file, the characters in formatting tags will be formatted with the mqInternal style. Make sure this check box stays checked. For memoQ, it's easier to import or update documents that have this style. It's easier to spot formatting errors in Word, too.
- Export the full text of inline tags check box: memoQ exports every attribute in inline tags. Don't check this check box, unless you absolutely need to. This makes the document extremely difficult to read in Word.
Set other options:
- Export all selected documents in a single RTF file check box: If you export several documents, memoQ can save them in a single RTF document. Check this check box to make memoQ create one single RTF file, with the contents of all the selected documents. The table has multiple headers, so that you can identify each memoQ document inside. This check box is cleared by default.
- Include locked segments in export check box: memoQ can omit locked segments from the exported RTF file. The reviewer won't be able to accidentally change text that should not be changed. But it's difficult to review text if you can't see the whole of it. By default, memoQ does export locked segments.
Delicate document: The RTF file contains identifiers (long numbers) for each document and for each segment. The document ID appears below the document title. The segment IDs appear next to the segment numbers, in a font size of 1 point (unreadable). These identifiers must not be changed or deleted in Word: otherwise memoQ won't be able to update the project from the RTF file.
Tracked changes are exported: If tracking changes is turned on, and there are tracked changes in the document, they are exported to the RTF document as proper tracked changes. They will appear in Microsoft Word as tracked changes. If there are tracked changes in the source text, they are also exported as tracked changes. This works for every source document format, even if the final export format cannot handle tracked changes.
This is how tracked changes appear in a multi-column RTF document
Save a bilingual document for SDL Trados Translator's Workbench (SDL Trados 2007 and earlier)
This type of bilingual document is a Word file that contains the source segments and their translations. The source text is hidden. The document uses special styles, hidden text and text protection. Such files are created by SDL Trados Translator's Workbench, version 2007 or earlier. This type of document is no longer used in SDL Trados Studio 2009 and higher. But in many organizations, this type of Word document is still a standard way of transferring bilingual documents.
memoQ can save all the formatting with these files - if the source document was already a Trados-compatible bilingual Word file, and it was previously run through Trados. From other documents, memoQ saves a bilingual Word document that has no formatting, but has all the markup of a Trados-compatible document.
Don't use this format for reviewing: If you need a document that will be reviewed in Word, export a two-column RTF file instead. See the previous section.
Don't use this format at all unless you need to: In general, don't save Trados-compatible documents unless you need to send them to Trados Translator's Workbench.
To export a Trados-compatible Word document:
- Click the Trados-compatible bilingual DOC radio button.
- Fine-tune the export using these three check boxes:
When you finish
To actually export the documents: Click Export.
In the second wizard page, click Back to return to the first page and select the bilingual document format again.
To update your memoQ project later: When you receive an edited bilingual document, simply open your project, and import the document. memoQ will recognize that it's a bilingual document. And, from the identifiers in the document, it will find the document that needs to be updated.
