pptx in Trados 2022

Question

Dear RWS community, 
 We have some problems with .pptx files in Trados Studio 2022. We can create a target file before translating and after having translated some segments, but often there is an error message when we try to create a target file after having translated the whole project. 
 In order to use the translation, we create a project specific TM and insert the xliff file, then create a new project with the .ppt (and not .pptx) file and then apply the TM, but this is quite time consuming. 
 Do you know why this happens and how to solve this problem? 
 Thanks a lot for your help! 
 Kind Regards

Paul Filkin · Accepted Answer

Seraina Hartmann said: I thought tags just need to be there in order to create a working target file, maintaining tag order is not crucial though? 
 It depends on the tags and what they do. But generally:

Each purple tag in Studio represents a pair of markers in the underlying XML: one that opens the formatting (or hyperlink in this case) and one that closes it.

Those pairs must appear in a strict order:

Open A

Open B

text

Close B

Close A

That way, the XML forms a tidy, tree‑like structure that PowerPoint can read.

In the faulty segment the order was swapped. The translator placed a &ldquo;close formatting&rdquo; tag before the hyperlink had finished. The sequence became:

Open A

Open B

text

Close A&emsp;&larr; wrong place

Close B

This creates overlapping tags, something the XML standard forbids.

PowerPoint therefore sees the slide as malformed. When it tries to open the file it detects the overlap, declares the slide corrupt and either (a) refuses to open the presentation or (b) removes the entire text box during its self‑repair step... and in this case the complete slide

Fixing the tag order restores the file. Put the tags back in the correct sequence, re‑export the PPTX, and PowerPoint opens it without complaint.

So looking at your specific file, since tag 60 is opened around tag 59 instead of inside it, the two pairs overlap rather than nest. When Studio generates the underlying xml for the powerpoint file it converts this structure into DrawingML runs that overlap, and PowerPoint rejects the slide. If you were to unzip the pptx and look at the underlying slide.xml you'll see lots of runs that carry the attribute ' dirty="1"'. These were produced while Studio tried to salvage the overlap but could not produce valid markup, so it flagged the runs as dirty  . 
 So the shorter answer is... tag order does matter and you can easily validate this by running a tag verification, or pressing F8 when the file is open in the editor!

Paul Filkin · Answer

Cyril A. 
 Have you tried providing these target files to your client, or did you create the original powerpoint and then translate it? Sometimes this is a result of different versions of Office and you might see a problem that your customer does not.

Paul Filkin · Answer

Seraina Hartmann 
 Can you send me four files: 
 
 the target file that does not open 
 the corrected target file that does 
 the translated sdlxliff that creates a non-opening pptx 
 the translated sdlxliff that creates an opening pptx 
 
 You can send them to pfilkin at sdl dot com if that's appropriate for you?

Paul Filkin · Answer

Seraina Hartmann 
 Thanks Seraina, I downloaded the files and the solution is simple. Run a tag check! Go to segment #38 and you'll see that in the "bad" sdlxliff there are tag errors because the translator has the tags the wrong way around. In your "good" file you actually left that segment blank (it was just an email address anyway). 
 So if you copy source to target for #38, or correct the tag order, or delete the target translation altogether, then the target file is fine.

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pptx in Trados 2022

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