Translator Tools Newsletter #51: TransTools+ v.2.8 — redundant bookmark removal and numerous improvements in various tools

Welcome to the 51st edition of Translator Tools Newsletter!

In this newsletter, I’m pleased to announce TransTools+ v2.8 which brings several valuable enhancements. These include:
1. A redundant bookmark removal feature in the Pre-flight Checker to help you reduce tags in CAT tools.
2. Several useful improvements in tools like Multiple Find & Replace which rely on search expression lists.
3. Various minor enhancements and bug fixes across all tools.

I’m confident this update will boost your productivity – read on to learn more.

Redundant bookmark removal with Pre-flight Checker

Pre-flight Checker is a versatile tool that lets you flag and correct various issues in Word documents before they are translated in CAT tools or delivered to a customer. For example, it finds paragraphs that have font / size / color variations (which cause excessive tags in CAT tools), tab characters (which can result in potentially incorrect segmentation in CAT tools and text misalignment in the final document), hidden text (i.e. text that was mistakenly left hidden in final documents), excessive spaces (which cause reduced translation memory matches and imply poor style), and a number of other issues.

With the new version, Pre-flight Checker can find and remove redundant bookmarks. In Word, bookmarks are used to reference content in various parts of a document, such as jump to a section from a table of contents, or specify the page number where specific text is located. However, bookmarks can cause excessive tags in CAT tools, which can hurt translators’ productivity:

Fortunately, most bookmarks can be removed before translation without affecting the document’s structure and functionality. These are:
1. Bookmarks used by tables of contents and tables of figures – these bookmarks are recreated automatically when tables of contents/figures are updated in the final document.
2. Bookmarks no longer cross-referenced from hyperlinks and fields, which is common if content is copied from other documents or when hyperlinks/fields are deleted.
3. OLE LINK bookmarks, which serve no useful function in Word documents and can be deleted safely.

Finding and removing redundant bookmarks is easy:

1. Open Pre-flight Checker by clicking the Pre-flight Checker button on the TransTools+ tab in the ribbon.
2. Select an existing profile that is configured for bookmark removal, such as the built-in profile called “[TransTools] Before CAT tool import (pre-CAT)”. If you use your own profile, you may need to configure it once ‐ select the profile, click the Manage button and activate the appropriate settings in the Redundant Bookmarks section, then click the Save button:
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3. With the correct profile selected, click the Check Document... button.
4. Navigate to the Redundant Bookmarks section under the Results tab and make sure that the bookmarks to be removed are marked with checkboxes in the Correct? column and with the Remove action in the Action column. If you do not want to remove specific bookmarks, uncheck them or change the action in the Action column to Ignore.
5. Click the Process Selected Issues button to update the document.

Redundant bookmarks found in a sample Word document

Learn more about the Pre-flight Checker tool and the new redundant bookmark removal feature here.

Download the latest version of TransTools+ now.

Other features in the new version

TransTools+ 2.8 includes several new features to boost your productivity:

• Multiple Find & Replace, Highlighting Tool and Hide/Unhide Text tools provide a number of enhancements that make them more powerful and easier to use:

  • You can now disable individual search expressions to ignore them. This way, you don’t have to create an ad-hoc list for a specific document: simply open an existing list of all possible search expressions, disable the ones you don’t want to use, run the tool, and then do not save the list.
    
  • You can now add several search expressions to a list at once by using the new Add Multiple Entries window, accessible with the Add Multiple button or from the right-click menu:
    
  • When editing a search expression in Regular Expression mode, you can now open the new Regular Expression Testing Ground window in order to test the regular expression against sample text and update it if modified:
    
    For Multiple Find & Replace tool, this window also enables you to preview how text will be replaced.
  • It is now easier to enter long search expressions in the Search Expression editor window.
• Pre-flight Checker and Spacing, Punctuation and Symbol Correction Tool are now bundled with built-in profiles called “Excessive space removal”. You can use this profile in order to find and remove excessive spaces while skipping all other checks.
• In Selection mode, all tools now process text located in shapes (text boxes) within the selected text.
• Various usability, UI improvements, and bug fixes have been incorporated across all tools.

Download the latest version of TransTools+ now.

I would appreciate your suggestions for new features and improvements that could enhance your productivity and benefit other language professionals. Please let me know by replying to this newsletter or by using the Support Form.

I hope you have found this information useful. To stay up to date on TransTools+, TransTools suite and Forget-me-not, don’t forget to subscribe to the Translator Tools social media channels on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn.

See you in future newsletters.