Translating websites
Thread poster: Gabriele Demuth
Gabriele Demuth
Gabriele Demuth  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:01
English to German
Feb 24, 2016

A client asked me to translate/update the text on their website, there is however no extracted text available, just the website. The delivery format should be Word. What would be the best way of doing this?

All I can think of is going through all the pages and links, and to copy the text into a Word document, and going through the old version of the website and aligning any text that is already available or that may have been edited slightly into my TM?

I would be grate
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A client asked me to translate/update the text on their website, there is however no extracted text available, just the website. The delivery format should be Word. What would be the best way of doing this?

All I can think of is going through all the pages and links, and to copy the text into a Word document, and going through the old version of the website and aligning any text that is already available or that may have been edited slightly into my TM?

I would be grateful for any ideas!
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Vadim Kadyrov
Vadim Kadyrov  Identity Verified
Ukraine
Local time: 19:01
English to Russian
+ ...
I believe Feb 24, 2016

somewhere there is a copy of this website available off-line. People who own web-sites should (and, most definitely, do) have it (e.g., I have the "freshest" copy of my own web-site).

Just ask them for it.

You can tell them that this is the best way to do this job, otherwise you can overlook certain pages (well, we are all humans, after all) when downloading them, etc.

They have direct access to their server, where the pages are neatly structured into fo
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somewhere there is a copy of this website available off-line. People who own web-sites should (and, most definitely, do) have it (e.g., I have the "freshest" copy of my own web-site).

Just ask them for it.

You can tell them that this is the best way to do this job, otherwise you can overlook certain pages (well, we are all humans, after all) when downloading them, etc.

They have direct access to their server, where the pages are neatly structured into folders.

[Edited at 2016-02-24 08:19 GMT]
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Michael Beijer
Michael Beijer  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:01
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
if the client is too stupid to provide the required files ... Feb 24, 2016

Download the entire site with https://www.httrack.com/ ...
and possibly convert the relevant .html/.htm pages to .docx (MS Word opens them nicely and can convert them).

[Edited at 2016-02-24 09:02 GMT]


 
Gabriele Demuth
Gabriele Demuth  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:01
English to German
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks!!! Feb 24, 2016

I have already asked the client, and no, only the websites are available, but I will try your method Michael!

 
Gabriele Demuth
Gabriele Demuth  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:01
English to German
TOPIC STARTER
Great! Feb 24, 2016

Thanks, that seems to work and I assume all the HTML files should contain all the text.

 
Kirsten Larsen (X)
Kirsten Larsen (X)
Spain
Spanish to Danish
+ ...
Gabriele, Feb 24, 2016

Not long ago I was asked to do the same kind of job. After surfing the client´s web page and finding a lot of links and a lot of information that would not work for other nationalities I ended up saying "No thanks" to the job. Ask them to provide you with a text file. Any other thing will just lead to frustrations and a lot of unpaid working hours.
That has been MY experience.

Cheers,
Kirsten


 
Michael Beijer
Michael Beijer  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:01
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
You're welcome! Feb 24, 2016

Gabriele Demuth wrote:

Thanks, that seems to work and I assume all the HTML files should contain all the text.


Yes, they usually should contain all the text. At least, all text that is visible to site visitors and thus relevant to you. Of course, there is always a small chance that you might miss something using this method, but if the client wanted to be 100% sure, they would have provided you with the files themselves.

Regarding missing stuff, quite a bit of text can also be hidden in such html files, such as in the "title" tags (= the text that appears when you hover over a link), etc. There are special programs for localising websites*, which can handle all of the underlying code, etc., but worrying about all that would constitute a whole new level of work.

* e.g. "CatsCradle 4"
see:



"Key Features

• Fast and easy to use.
• Extracts all the text that requires translating from a web page, including hidden text, image alt-text etc. Just type your translations along side each line of text in the table.
• When done, click 'save' and your translated text is automatically put back into the web page.
• Instant preview of original and translated pages in your web browser at any time.
• Built in automatic glossary panel suggests words and phrases while you are typing - with a single key press to accept a suggestion. Helps you keep key phrases and terminology consistent throughout a project.
• Project Catalogue facility provides a single list of all pages in a project with word counts and translation status to help keep track of progress on larger projects.
• Supports .hhc & .hhk help index and contents files - so can be used to translate .chm help files also.
• No pre or post processing of files - once translation has finished, you have a complete translated web site.
• Safe: no worrying about fonts, page layout, hyperlinks, html code, or hidden text. It's all taken care of."
(from CatsCradle website)

https://www.stormdance.net/software/catscradle/overview.htm

See also this useful thread: http://www.proz.com/forum/localization/297023-website_localisation.html

[Edited at 2016-02-24 10:26 GMT]


 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 18:01
French to English
pretty painstaking job Feb 24, 2016

Gabriele Demuth wrote:

All I can think of is going through all the pages and links, and to copy the text into a Word document, and going through the old version of the website and aligning any text that is already available or that may have been edited slightly into my TM?



I did this a while back for a client: I spent 30 min or so creating a Word file containing all pages then sent it to the client for them to check that I hadn't missed anything.

They said all was fine, just go ahead and translate that.

Turned out I translated several pages that didn't need translating (the trickiest ones at that!). But the client had okayed my file in writing so they coughed up.
I expect they'll check more carefully when they update it

I didn't specifically charge for the time spent creating the file since I hadn't yet had a go-ahead, new client and so on. But they accepted my best rate (i.e. highest) without any hassle so I figured it was well worth it.


 
Gabriele Demuth
Gabriele Demuth  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:01
English to German
TOPIC STARTER
At Michael Feb 24, 2016

I seem to have been able to copy the website, and the files appear in the tree within https://www.httrack.com/, however, I can't copy/move them? In my own directory there is only a .whtt file (it doesn't appear to contain anything) and an index html file with about 200 words.

I am not sure how to access the files now?


 
Michael Beijer
Michael Beijer  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:01
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
Hmm, if all went well... Feb 24, 2016

Gabriele Demuth wrote:

I seem to have been able to copy the website, and the files appear in the tree within https://www.httrack.com/, however, I can't copy/move them? In my own directory there is only a .whtt file (it doesn't appear to contain anything) and an index html file with about 200 words.

I am not sure how to access the files now?


...there should be a folder in there somewhere containing a number of .html files.


 
Gabriele Demuth
Gabriele Demuth  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:01
English to German
TOPIC STARTER
Yes Feb 24, 2016

There is a folder in WinHTTrack with all the files, I can open the HTML files there but have not worked out how to save them to anywhere else.

However, I have downloaded the free version of CatsCradle and managed to import them there ... looks good, there is a glossary and apparently a TM, which I cannot see (Help says: Memory-New)? Is that maybe only available in the paid version?

Its all work in progress and a steep learning curve....
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There is a folder in WinHTTrack with all the files, I can open the HTML files there but have not worked out how to save them to anywhere else.

However, I have downloaded the free version of CatsCradle and managed to import them there ... looks good, there is a glossary and apparently a TM, which I cannot see (Help says: Memory-New)? Is that maybe only available in the paid version?

Its all work in progress and a steep learning curve.
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Gabriele Demuth
Gabriele Demuth  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:01
English to German
TOPIC STARTER
Found the folder Feb 25, 2016

Just an update - I have found the folder with the extracted/copied HTML files (it was not where I thought it would be) and I am translating them in Trados, where I can get an accurate word count etc.

Thanks all!


 


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