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Columns created by tabbing
Thread poster: Louisa Berry
Louisa Berry
Louisa Berry
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:56
Member (2009)
German to English
Jul 7, 2010

Hi

I have received a Word file from a customer via an ageny to translate. It is a Word 2007 file and I have 2003, so I'm not sure if this is causing the problem or the original also looks this way.

When the file was created it looks like the person creating it wanted a column of text running down the left hand side, with a right hand side column with writing it in in places.

However he has done this by tabbing across when he is in the middle of one sentenc... See more
Hi

I have received a Word file from a customer via an ageny to translate. It is a Word 2007 file and I have 2003, so I'm not sure if this is causing the problem or the original also looks this way.

When the file was created it looks like the person creating it wanted a column of text running down the left hand side, with a right hand side column with writing it in in places.

However he has done this by tabbing across when he is in the middle of one sentence to type the text on the right hand side, and then the original left hand text continues on the next line etc.

If I put this straight into a CAT tool (I use Across) the sentences all get jumbled up and will make for a bad TM and will take a lot longer to translate.

Is there an easy and fast way of getting rid of the tabbing without doing it manually? (the sentences are complicated so I would have to spend a long time checking I have put the correct parts of the same sentence togather.

Thanks

Louisa

(PS if this should be on the Across forum, sorry moderators wasn't sure which one to put it in!) ▲ Collapse
 
Tony M
Tony M
France
Local time: 09:56
Member
French to English
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
One idea... Jul 7, 2010

I think I follow what you're describing, and what a pain it must be!
I haven't tried this idea out, but here's what first sprang to mind:

If you can select all the offending text, and then 'convert to table', using 'tab' as your delimiter, then that should produce some hard columns, albeit a bit shuffled around; if you can then delete any completely empty columns (depending on how many tabs have been used), and do a bit of manual shifting around of the remaining text cells (wh... See more
I think I follow what you're describing, and what a pain it must be!
I haven't tried this idea out, but here's what first sprang to mind:

If you can select all the offending text, and then 'convert to table', using 'tab' as your delimiter, then that should produce some hard columns, albeit a bit shuffled around; if you can then delete any completely empty columns (depending on how many tabs have been used), and do a bit of manual shifting around of the remaining text cells (which shouldn't get too muddled up, not like if you were doing it totally manually), then you should end up with a 2-column table with all the text in the right places; you might even find you can leave it like this, so that the end result is more as it ought to have been in the first place!

I hope I'm not leading you up the garden path!

[PS: if you want to send me the file, I'll play with it for you if you like]

[Edited at 2010-07-07 11:46 GMT] ▲ Collapse
 
Louisa Berry
Louisa Berry
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:56
Member (2009)
German to English
TOPIC STARTER
>PDF and back again! Jul 7, 2010

Hi Tony

Thanks for you quick response. I did as you suggested and I got 4 columns!!

So I had a quick word with my PM, he guessed what the problem as soon as I said I had a problem with the formatting! (Which was good as I wasnt looking forward to explaining it in German!)

He ran the document into ABBEY PDF converter and it converted the tabs into two columns, and when he converted back to Word again, it stayed in two columns. As this seems the quickest sol... See more
Hi Tony

Thanks for you quick response. I did as you suggested and I got 4 columns!!

So I had a quick word with my PM, he guessed what the problem as soon as I said I had a problem with the formatting! (Which was good as I wasnt looking forward to explaining it in German!)

He ran the document into ABBEY PDF converter and it converted the tabs into two columns, and when he converted back to Word again, it stayed in two columns. As this seems the quickest solution so far I will go with that

Thanks again for your suggestions and your kind offer of help!

Louisa ▲ Collapse
 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 09:56
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Two approaches Jul 7, 2010

Louisa Fox wrote:
When the file was created it looks like the person creating it wanted a column of text running down the left hand side, with a right hand side column with writing it in in places. ... However he has done this by tabbing across when he is in the middle of one sentence to type the text on the right hand side, and then the original left hand text continues on the next line etc.


1. If you're lucky, you can convert it to a table, but first you have to remove extra tabs. Do this: find ^t^t, replace ^t, find all. You also want to search for ^t and a space, for a space and ^t, in case the person added spaces. When you've removed all doubled tabs, select everything and convert it to a table. If you can, copy it to Excel and back again, to ensure that you have a hanging tab in lines that don't have something in the second column.

2. If you're less lucky, try block-copying. Press Alt and click in the top left-hand corner of the second "column", and then drag your mouse (while holding Alt) down to the bottom right-hand corner. Make sure you don't chop off any characters on the right. Then cut and paste it into a new document. In this way, you can fix what is broken.
 


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Columns created by tabbing






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