Overview: Working with Tags

Tag Types

Tags contain information about formatting and structure in your document. How this information is represented differs from one file format to another; this is why most tags are file format-specific. However, certain general characteristics apply to all tagged formats and their representation in SDL Trados Studio.

SDL Trados Studio classes all tags as inline tags or structure tags, depending on their function.

Tag Display Mode

Tags are usually shown with some text on them, to make it easier to understand what they represent. SDL Trados Studio allows you to choose whether tag text is displayed fully, partially or not at all by using the commands from the Format > Tag Display Mode menu. By default, tag text is only partially displayed.

NOTE	By default, SDL Trados Studio settings specify that recognized formatting tags are hidden, therefore even if you change the display mode the tags will remain hidden.

Applying Correct Tag Formatting to your Translations

SDL Trados Studio provides a variety of ways to apply the correct tag formatting to your translations:

You can select tags from a source segment and insert them into any target segment in the document.
You can display a list of tags appropriate to the current segment and select tags from this list.
You can use QuickPlace to quickly apply text formatting, tags, placeables and variables.
You can copy and paste tags.
You can insert tags from the QuickInsert toolbar.
You can create tags and add them to the QuickInsert toolbar.

NOTE	By default, SDL Trados Studio settings specify that recognized formatting tags are hidden, therefore tags remain hidden when inserted and instead the text is formatted in the style shown in the Editor window.

QuickInsert Tags

QuickInsert tags are displayed as buttons on the QuickInsert toolbar. Each QuickInsert button corresponds to a different tag, tag pair or special character. These buttons allow you to quickly and easily insert tags and special characters into target segments during translation.

Tags Spanning Segments

If you select text to insert tag formatting and the text spans more than one segment, then the tag will be split across segment boundaries. This means that at the end of the segment the tag will close and it will open again at the beginning of the next segment.

Ghost Tags

A ghost tag is a marker tag that is automatically added to a segment when the segment contains an incomplete tag pair. For example, if you delete a tag that is one half of a pair, the system will automatically display a ghost tag until you replace the missing tag. Ghost tags only occur in tag pairs, as only tag pairs require a beginning and an end tag to function correctly.

Tag Protection

You can turn on tag protection to protect inline tags and ensure that they stay in place during translation.