Note: I'm only a very occasional user of Phrase.
Most questions in the Phrase/Memsource subforum are by/from translators who work with Phrase via agencies, and not who use Phrase as their own CAT tool (i.e. using the Team Start license).
BabelOn-line wrote:
A client sent me a 13k job, initially in Word and Excel. They later sent me the same job, but as a a series of files named e.g. name_of_file.mqxliff.xlf (hence MemoQ). ... I thought the file extension looked weird – should it have been either .mqxliff OR .xlf?
The file name probably says something.xlsx.mqxliff.xlf, right?
I'm confident that the client had opened the Excel file (called something.xlsx) in MemoQ and created the MemoQ XLF file (so then the file's name was something.xlsx.mqxliff) and then they took that XLF file and opened it in another XLF program (we don't know which one... it could be the one Stephan mentions, or some other program) and then created the XLF file that you've just received from the client (and that program added it's own file extension to the end of the file name, leading to something.xlsx.mqxliff.xlf).
However, I'm 99% sure that as far as Phase is concerned, this file is a generic XLF file. Phrase will open it as a generic XLF file, you'll translate it, and then you'll save/export the translated file as generic XLF. Phrase doesn't care that the file had previously been opened in MemoQ or whatever the client's other XLF program is.
Client request the delivery in XLIFF format. This is a bit of a novelty for me, but I know that Phrase handles and exports XLF format. So far, so good.
From Phrase, you'll save the translated file, and it will be an XLF file.
Just make sure the file that is exported from Phrase is named .XLF and not .MXLIFF. If the file is named MXLIFF, then your client may still be able to use it, but I wouldn't count on it. MXLIFF is Phrase's bilingual review XLF format, which is not the final XLF format. If you create a final, translated XLF file from Phrase and the file is an MXLIFF file, you've use the wrong method of saving the file.
(Note the difference: MQXLIFF = MemoQ, MXLIFF = Memsource/Phrase.)
Turns out there are a number of differences in the header, tags, etc.
This doesn't matter. One can write XML in many ways that all mean the same thing, and good XLF programs should be able to deal with it if such changes are made to the file. We don't know what XLF program the client uses, but let's assume he's not using a hobby project, so these types of changes should not affect your delivery.
In your experience, are all "flavours" of xlif files mutually and directly compatible?
It depends on what you mean, but given your next question, I think the answer is "yes", if you mean that it won't matter to Phrase what program the client used to create the XLF file.
If the file your client sent you is a "real" XLIFF file (we assume so), then Phrase is going to create a file that is in the same XLIFF format as the format that your client sent you. Even if Phrase can be used to export an export version of XLIFF (i.e. the MXLIFF file), that is not the file that you're going to send to your client.
Phrase will take the client's XLF file, convert it to its own internal format (which may or may not be XLF), and then (after the translation) convert it back to the client's XLF format.
If I work on these files and deliver Phrase XLIFF to my client, they will be able to open them without any further processing?
Here's an idea: create a test project in Phrase using a small test Excel or PowerPoint file. Then machine-translate it, and then save the translation. If the translation is an Excel or PowerPoint file, then congratulations -- you're using the correct way of saving the translation. If the translation is an MXLIFF file, then you're using the wrong method of saving the file.
Are here any precaution one should take – or can I simply upload the mqxliff in Phrase and get on with the job?
You should be able to upload your client's file directly to Phrase -- no precautions necessary.
However, to avoid confusion when communicating with the helpdesk, don't refer to it as an MQXLIFF file or a "MemoQ file", because it's not an MQXLIFF file -- it's an MQXLIFF.XLF file, i.e. it's an XLF file from an unknown XLIFF program. The file that your client sent you may have been inside MemoQ at some point, but it is not a "MemoQ file" right now.
[Edited at 2023-08-20 07:50 GMT]