Troubleshooting DTD and INI problems in TagEditor and creating a new .ini file

Trying to open a .xml/.htm/.whatever file in TagEditor, but it reports a missing .ini file?

First check with the client whether they have an .ini file to be used. TagEditor will report the root element of the missing .ini file in the error, and sometimes even the name of the missing .ini. If an .ini file is not available, there are two options:

• You can try to force the file to use the Predefined HTML settings .ini file in TagEditor. This sometimes opens the files OK so that all text to be translated is formatted as text, and not as tags. Check the file carefully. If some translatable text is formatted as tags, you cannot use this .ini file. And of course you need to get the client's OK for this method.
• You can create your own .ini file based on the elements in the source file(s).

Creating an .ini file

Open TagEditor and go to Tools > Tag Settings. Select New.... This will open the Tag Settings Wizard. Click Next.

Give your new .ini file a descriptive name in the Settings name field. Select New Settings for XML in the Settings type field if the source file is .xml, and New Settings for SGML/HTML if the source file is .sgm or .htm. Click Next.

In Import Tag Definitions you can either import existing .dtd settings or the source .xml/.sgm/.htm files to act as the basis of your new .ini file. Click Import.... Navigate to the location where the .dtd file or the source file(s) are located, select them, and click OK.

Click OK in the list of tag definitions. Click OK for the import result and then click Next.

Click Next in the Default Plain Text Formatting window.

In the Elements and Attributes window, you will need to change the Properties of some of the tag types if your client requires some content to be translated and some not. All the tag types in the list are by default marked as tags, and the text within these tags marked as translatable content. If you need to mark text within a certain tag as non-translatable, tick the Root box beside the tag, and go to Properties.

In the Type field, select whether you want the tag to be Internal or External. In the Element Content field, select whether the text between the starting and closing tag is non-translatable or translatable. Click OK.

Go to Advanced, and change the following in Advanced Settings:

• Tick Do not change charset value in tags
• Tick Keep all line breaks in Display options

Click OK and then click Next.

Leave Convert entities ticked in Conversion of Character Entities. Select Added Latin1 from the Entity sets list, and leave any other selections as they are.

Select Internal as the Preview application in Previewing, and then click Finish.

Name your new .ini file and save it in the location of your choice. It will be automatically added in TagEditor's Tag Settings list, and you should be able to open the source files without problems.

What are DTD files?

The DTD file is just that: a DTD file, not a DTD Settings file. Trados now calls DTD Settings files Tag Settings files to avoid any confusion. The DTD file is not used by TagEditor, but by the XML format itself (it is required when opening the XML file in Internet Explorer, for example).

A DTD file will help you open the original .xml file. If you get an error message when trying to open the source .xml file in IE, save the DTD file in the location the error message points you to. If the file still doesn't open, check whether there is a reference not only to a DTD file, but to an XSL file (eXtensible Stylesheet Language, used to format XML as HTML for display). If you don't have this file, you cannot view the file in IE without manually modifying the XML file itself.

If you're confident manually editing the XML file, you can open it in NotePad and comment out any lines specifying external files. To comment out a line in XML, you simply add the below red-marked characters, save the file and try viewing it again.

Before delivering to the client, you simply remove the comment markers from the file.