Using a CAT tool to translate the SRT file : Participatory Culture Foundation

SafeTex

started a topic almost 12 years ago

Hello

This question may not make much sense except to people who know CAT tools. Sorry in advance.

WFP = WordFast Pro and the ID numbers in the image are not the same as the numbers I'm missing in the source segments of course

I joined Amara today to try to learn how to subtitle videos.

One of the ways to do it off line is to download an SRT file.

On my computer, it wouldn't open at first so I tried to open with it with Word and hey presto, there it was.

In the SRT file (opened in Word), I could see for instance (extract)

1

00:00:04,600 --> 00:00:09,307

This is your life.

2

00:00:09,307 --> 00:00:11,140

Do what you love

3

00:00:11,140 --> 00:00:14,353

and do it often.

But WFP couldn't see the SRT file in the folder as it is not a supported format.

So I saved it as a .docx file and everything got saved ok as far as I could see INCLUDING the numbers 1, 2, 3 etc

But when WFP opened the file as a txml, the numbers were lost.

Yet they are not hidden text. How is it possible for WFP not to have seen these numbers? Does this have sth to do with the fact that it was an SRT file?

Thanks in advance

SRT in Word...

(56.4 KB)

C

Claude Almansi

said almost 12 years ago

Hi, Safetex,

I don't use WordFast Pro, though I tried it on a friend' computer. But the issue you describe is apparently the same discussed in Translating srt files in the WF_PRO yahoo group. And the last message in this discussion indicates a simple workaround: use the .sbv file instead of the .srt file. And you won't even have to convert the .srt file to .sbv, as the poster did, because you can download Amara subs directly as .sbv, and upload the translation as .sbv too.

Now, if I understand correctly, the machine translation of WFP seems to be Google's, which is indeed much better than Bing's, offered in the Amara widget, which should never be activated when a translation is done collaboratively.

So unless you have connection problems, you could try the online Google Translator Toolkit which also also works with .srt files (and, btw, is what the YouTube Request Translations feature uses): it also creates a personalized translation memory.

Claude
(just an Amara user)

PS this forum's software doesn't show .gif attachments, and when I downloaded yours, my Mac's Preview app wouldn't open it. So if you can, it's better to post picture attachments saved as .jpg here.

SafeTex

said almost 12 years ago

hello Claude

I did look at the post but the problem isn't the same (never mind). The translation was not actually a MT but mine. The reason I want to translate off line is that as a translator, yes, I do have TMs for clients and can't access them so easily on line.

I will use the widget sometimes but want to master both options

Nice to see that there are other CAT tool users on line here

Thanks for your help

How can we help you today?