Ask ChatGPT – June 22, 2023

My Conversations with ChatGPT
Machine Translation (MT) and translations generated by AI have brought about a paradigm shift in the translation industry. The output of MT will continue to improve, especially when associated with clients’ translation memories and human editing. Language Service Providers are adapting and are including MT in their processes, when MT is applicable. While linguists will continue to be essential in the process, their role will shift from that of translators to validators of content generated by MT. At Excel Translations, we wanted to know what AI thinks about all of this and decided to have an open conversation on the matter with ChatGPT. I will regularly publish a question and ChatGPT’s response, uncensored.

QUESTION 13:

Can machine translation process files in InDesign?

ChatGPT’s Response:

Machine translation systems do not directly process files in InDesign format. InDesign is a complex desktop publishing software used for designing and formatting documents with rich graphical elements, layouts, and specific typography. Machine translation systems typically operate on plain text or text-based file formats such as .doc, .docx, .txt, .xml, or .html.

If you have an InDesign file that needs to be translated, there are several steps involved:

1. Exporting Text: The text content of the InDesign file needs to be extracted. This can be done by exporting the text from the InDesign document to a format that can be processed by machine translation systems, such as .txt or .xml.
2. Machine Translation: The extracted text is then fed into the machine translation system for translation. The translated text will be generated by the machine translation system.
3. Formatting and Layout: After the translation is complete, the translated text needs to be imported back into the InDesign file. This step involves manually reformatting and adjusting the layout to match the original design, considering factors like text expansion or contraction due to translation.
4. Review and Editing: Machine-translated content may require human review and editing to ensure accuracy, fluency, and adherence to specific stylistic guidelines or industry standards.

It’s important to note that while machine translation can speed up the initial translation process, human involvement is crucial for quality assurance, especially when dealing with complex layouts, graphical elements, and maintaining consistency with the original design.