7.2 - Handling Tags

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Inserting Single Tags

Sometimes, the original source documents in MS Word or similar format use special features like footnotes. That usually means that the relevant portion of text is preceded by a special tag.

Tags represent special elements such as links to footnotes, index markers, fields, etc.

When the source document is transformed into SDL Trados translation format, the presence of a footnote is signaled as follows:

The current segment has identical content to another one that you translated previously. However, you need to insert the tag into the target segment before you proceed. Otherwise, the footnote reference would be missing in the target document. To do that follow these 2 simple steps

1. Place the cursor at the position of the target segment where the tag needs to be inserted.

2. Move the mouse over the tag in the source segment and click it while keeping the Ctrl key pressed.

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Reflection #1: What would happen to your target file if you deleted a tag in your translation editor?

 

Inserting Tag Pairs

The next segments contain two tag pairs. Tag pairs consist of an opening and a closing tag, which enclose a portion of text. In the example below the enclosed string is a Web address.

To translate this segment take the following steps:

1. First, translate the segment. Just ignore the tags for now.

2. Then highlight the Web address in the target segment.

3. Move the mouse pointer over one of the csf tags in the source segment. (select either the opening or closing csf tag.)

4. With the Ctrl key pressed click one of the csf tags.

5. This will insert the csf tags around the Web address in your target segment. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the field tag pair.

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Reflection #2: Where else could you see tag pairs?


Ghost Tags

Now let us introduce the concept of GHOST TAGS. Very often tags occur in pairs, i.e. an opening tag and a closing tag. Deleting a closing tag, for example, while leaving the opening tag in the translation is likely to cause problems in your target document. SDL Trados Studio 2009 offers an effective way of drawing your attention to such problems. Try the following:

1. Try to remove the last (i.e. the closing) field tag, e.g. with the Backspace key.

2. Note that the tag is not deleted. Instead, it becomes transparent. This is what is called a ghost tag. The ghost tag will actually only be removed if you delete its opening counterpart as well. Turning tags into ’ghosts’ is a way of warning users that what they are doing can cause serious problems in the document layout.

3. To restore the tag that you tried to delete, highlight the ghost tag, and click the right mouse button. Then select Restore Tags from the context menu, which will restore the tag pair.

A ghost tag is a marker tag that is automatically added to a segment when the segment contains an incomplete tag pair. For example, if you delete a tag that is one half of a pair, the system will automatically display a ghost tag until you replace the missing tag. Ghost tags only occur in tag pairs, as only tag pairs require a beginning and an end tag to function correctly.

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Reflection #3: Could you also create a ghost of a single tag (i.e. one that is not part of a tag pair)?

For suggested answers to reflection questions click the following button: