Point of departure:
Many advertising agencies use DTP to produce their initial German language literature and send Adobe PDF files to other contributors.
For translation providers, PDF files are a source of visual information only. The text in a PDF file cannot be overwritten, or processed in a TM system. As a result, data have to be converted or recopied to allow word processing. This is tedious and time-consuming, but is the only way to provide a workable basis. Conversely, the DTP user also faces the problem of transferring the translated data back to the original application. Both sides have unnecessary work.
Solution:
Using SDL Trados Studio, many data formats can be scanned directly. With InDesign, the DTP market leader, data are exported using the interchange format. All formatting information (style templates, fonts, format attributes) is delivered in protected tags which cannot be changed in any way during the translation process. The translator works through the text segment by segment. The finished IDML file can be scanned at the touch of a button, and each block of text ends up in the right place. No more copy and pasting!