Partial Translation of Documents and Spreadsheets

Preparing files is an important step in translation projects with computer-aided or -assisted translation (CAT) tools. Optimised files can even simplify your team's post-translation processing and eliminate hours of repetitive operation across multiple languages.

Files received from the requester might not be ready for translation. In some cases, only some parts of the original document need translation. One option is to create a new document with the specific part pasted, but this will create a copy-paste work after translation. How can this be avoided?

Hide the non-translated part in office applications

With a slight formatting change, the original file can directly be used in CAT tools if you hide the sections not needed for translation during the project preparation phase. Microsoft Word has a text format called Hidden, so select the part you want to hide. Next, open the Font dialogue box from the Format menu, and click the Hidden checkbox.

Assign a shortcut key or a Quick Access button if you have many sections needing the Hidden format.

Tip: To display the hidden text, go to the Word application's View preference, and select the All checkbox under Show Non-printing Characters.

In case of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, hide the rows and columns that need to be excluded from the translation scope. Simply select the row or column, then right-click and select Hide.

Tip: If the spreadsheet file has both the source and the empty target columns, paste the source text to the target column, then hide the source column. This way, the pasted words in the target column can be used for translation.

Load the file into CAT tool with options

Start your CAT tool and load the file in your project with appropriate options. For example, memoQ has an import option for excluding the hidden text. From the Documents menu, select Import, and Import With Options. Once you select a Word file, the Document import options window appears. Click the Change filter & configuration link. Make sure the Import hidden text checkbox is unchecked in the Document import setting window.

memoQ's import settings for Word file

Similarly, the Excel file's import settings have a Skip hidden rows and columns checkbox, so make sure to select this when excluding the hidden parts from translation. This allows translators to work only on the needed sentences efficiently using CAT tool's intelligent features.

Unhide the excluded text

After the translation, export the translated file from the CAT tool and simply clear the hidden text format or unhide the rows and columns. This will be quicker and less error-prone than the copy-paste work from a separate, translation-use temporary file, especially if the project involves many languages.