Cleaning up Word files is usually a breeze, but at times it may present some complications. Depending on whether the file contains images, charts, tables, if it is a .doc (Office 97-2003) or .docx (Office 2007 or 2010) file, the cleaning can be done without any problems or, on the other hand, it may present one of a handful of error messages.
Below are some of the errors that may be given when cleaning files:
The source language of the input file is incompatible with the current TM’s source language: this error is clear and simple to fix. Normally this is when you are cleaning a .ttx file that was created from a Word file, and you are using a TM that has a different language pair than the one that was used to create the .ttx file. In order to clean the file, simply recreate the .ttx file or change the language pair within the .ttx file you already have.
Can’t process RTF format: classic error of incompatibility between Trados 2007 and Microsoft Word 2007 (or later). To clean a .docx file, be sure to use Trados versions after 2007, because this version of the CAT Tool usually works only with .doc files (i.e., versions prior to Office 2007). If you are unable to upgrade Trados, another alternative is to try converting the file to Rich Text Format (.rtf) as Trados converts files to .rtf before cleaning. While this may work in some cases, is does not guarantee a successful cleaning of the document.
The target document cannot be created because the tag structure in the TagEditor document is invalid: another error that usually occurs in trying to clean .ttx files originated from a Word. Normally, when a .ttx is created from a .doc or .docx file, for some reason this error prevents us from cleaning the document. This is because labels structures are altered and damaged during the file conversion, which prevents the generation of the source file. An effective solution to this problem is to generate the .ttx again with the TM of the editor. Thus, when generating the .ttx again and running the memory with the option Translate to Fuzzy, we make sure to respect the order and the general structure of the file. After running the memory, the file can be cleaned.
As you can see, these problems are very common when it comes to Word files that are converted to .ttx as a result of a convenience in translation. We must pay close attention to different variables that are essential to generating the source document. It is always important to note two facts which in the end are very effective in solving these problems: either run the TM on the original Word file, or generate a new .ttx and run the TM from zero. Either of these two options guarantees a successful cleaning in most cases.
(Versión en español: https://www.trustedtranslations.com/algunos-errores-clasicos-al-limpiar-archivos-word-2012-05-18.html)
