How to prepare a txt subtitle file for translation in Studio?

Question

Hello everybody, I've been sent a couple of txt files that seem to be converted from a subtitle software. The text looks like this: {tf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\cocoartf1561\cocoasubrtf200 {\fonttbl\f0\fswiss\fcharset0 Helvetica;} {\colortbl;ed255\green255\blue255;} {\*\expandedcolortbl;;} \paperw11900\paperh16840\margl1440\margr1440\vieww26700\viewh18280\viewkind0 \pard	x566	x1133	x1700	x2267	x2834	x3401	x3968	x4535	x5102	x5669	x6236	x6803\pardirnatural\partightenfactor0 \f0\fs24 \cf0 1\ 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:20,000\ \pard\pardeftab708i-386\partightenfactor0 \cf0 Dear trader\ \pard	x566	x1133	x1700	x2267	x2834	x3401	x3968	x4535	x5102	x5669	x6236	x6803\pardirnatural\partightenfactor0 \cf0 \ 2\ 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:30,000\ \pard\pardeftab708i-386\partightenfactor0 \cf0 Are you fully aware of the information you are required by law \ \pard	x566	x1133	x1700	x2267	x2834	x3401	x3968	x4535	x5102	x5669	x6236	x6803\pardirnatural\partightenfactor0 \cf0 \ Obviously, the only thing to translate here are the sentences "Dear trader" and "Are you fully aware of the information you are required by law". Can someone suggest ideas how to prepare these files in Studio, so as to extract only the text for translation? 
 I tried adding " \cf0 "as an opening pattern and "\" as a closing one in the document structure for txt files but the back slash doesn't seem to be accepted as an end of a pattern. I also changed all "\" to "$" and reintroduced the patterns with the dollar sign - again nothing. 
 As a last resort, I might try to hide unnecessary stuff with Transtools, but I have to do it manually and I am afraid of skipping sentences accidentally. 
 TIA

Evzen Polenka · Accepted Answer

OMG, which software created this? This is obviously RTF, not plain text! Change the file extension to .rtf, then open it in Word and save as real plain text file (the actual subtitles format is SRT, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SubRip). BTW, translating subtitles using CAT tools is basically pointless as a) by the nature of subtitles it's pretty unlikely to find any reusable texts, and b) again due to the subtitles nature are sentences divided to multiple parts (as the parts are displayed one-by-one at different times), i.e. the sentences are nonsensically broken down to multiple separate segments.

Paul Filkin · Answer

Hi Ekaterina Kroumova 
 That is a pretty horrible format. SRT isn't the only subtitle format, but I checked the 16 most common and not one of them look like this so I think Evzen is probably right that this is someones attempt to extract text for translation and they haven't done it very well. I don't know how to handle this as RTF but I can use a regex delimited filetype for it. One rule like this: 
 Opening pattern: 
 ^\cf0\s 
 Closing pattern 
 \$ 
 This is obviously based on the very simple example you provided but perhaps it'll help.

Paul Filkin · Answer

Evzen Polenka said: BTW, translating subtitles using CAT tools is basically pointless as a) by the nature of subtitles it's pretty unlikely to find any reusable texts, and b) again due to the subtitles nature are sentences divided to multiple parts (as the parts are displayed one-by-one at different times), i.e. the sentences are nonsensically broken down to multiple separate segments. 
 Hi Evzen, 
 I don't completely agree with you here. We have many clients who use CAT tools for subtitling and even though the things you say are not true for all texts the more important part is that using a CAT supports a more controlled process. I even have a TQA model for subtitling, although it does need a preview developing (way down my list unfortunately as I'd love to do it) to allow the finer points of working with subtitling to be applied.

Paul Filkin · Answer

Hi Ekaterina Kroumova 
 Sounds like you have the best approach, but just in case you want to know here's how it's done:

Trados Studio > 7. Subtitling

How to prepare a txt subtitle file for translation in Studio?