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Converting Bilingual Excel File into TMX for import into translation memory

23 September 2012 · Computer-aided Translation

My clients frequently provide me with bilingual terminology files that need to be implemented into translation. Sometimes, these are classic terminology files (1 up to 5 words per item), but sometimes they contain whole sentences. For classic terminology, I usually convert these data into a (SDL Multiterm) termbase. However, if these files contain whole sentences (or longer items), I usually import them into a translation memory. This is how to convert the bilingual Excel file into TMX for import into your favorite CAT software.

Prerequisites:
  • MS Excel
  • SDLX (a part of SDL Trados 2007 suite; if you purchased SDL Trados Studio, you should have this software available)

Conversion steps:

  1. Create XLS with two columns. Column A contains source text and column B translated text.
  2. Save the XLS as Unicode Text File (txt). Close the XLS.
  3. Start SDLX. Choose Maintain component.
  4. Create a new SDLX translation memory. Select TM > New. Proceed according to instructions on the screen.
  5. In Maintain component, select TM > Import > Delimited Files. In displayed window, choose Add. Click Add Selection. Select the Unicode text file you exported previously from Excel. Click Open. Click OK and Next.
  6. In Import Wizard, select source and target languages and appropriate encodings. Click Next. In File Options screen, select Tabs option. If your Excel file contains column headers (names of languages), check the "First line contains column headers" checkbox. Click Next.
  7. In the next window, click on Source item in Available box, and click the right arrow to move it to the Selected box. Repeat the same for Target item. Click Next.
  8. In the next screen, select the "Add a new segment to the Translation Memory" radio button and click the Finish button.
  9. In the Create Indexes window, click OK.  In Select Languages box click OK, if displayed languages are correct.

We now have a SDLX translation memory with the data from the Excel file. We will export the SDLX TM into TMX file. This is a fairly simple task.

Select TM > Export > TMX Format. Select All Languages and click OK. Click Next twice, select the export file (Browse, select location, and enter the file name (click Save)) and finish the process by clicking the Finish button.

Voil?, we now have a TMS file containing the data from Excel file ready for import into your favorite CAT software.

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