Merge cell contents |
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This command is extremely helpful if you need to translate improperly formatted Excel files that contain blocks of continuous text (i.e. paragraphs) scattered around adjacent cells (see Figure 1 below):
Figure 1:
Instead of putting a paragraph of text in one cell, the author placed the text in several different rows and even columns!
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When you deal with such text, there are several options:
- Manage to translate the text so it fits in the same cells and looks okay in the final document.
- Reformat the text so that it is contained in one cell only. This is especially necessary if you are using CAT software like SDL TagEditor, Wordfast Professional, etc. This is a tedious process, especially if the document contains several paragraphs like this.
The proper method is to reformat the document before translating it. Although Microsoft Excel already includes a special command called 'Merge cells', this command is not suitable. Why? The Merge Cells command creates one merged cells out of the selected cells, but the new cell contains the contents of the top left cell only. Data from the rest of the cells is deleted. Show example
Unlike Excel's command, TransTools 'Merge cell contents' merges the selected range to form a single merged cell containing the text from all the cells you selected.
How to use:
Step 1: Select the cells to merge and run 'Merge cell contents' command.
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| The command's progress will be shown in Microsoft Excel status bar at the bottom of the window (50% complete). |
Step 2: After running the command, the new cell will contain the data from all the cells you selected.
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Step 3: Make sure to reformat the new cell contents to remove unnecessary line breaks.
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