wildcards

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WILDCARDS & REGULAR EXPRESSIONS


This is a guide for the use of regexes in Word. Wildcards seem different according to the program you use them in (Google, Memoq,…)

Memoq has its own regex search feature (Auto-translatables window), but better use Word (easier + live double-checking)


Why?

Processing a fair word count

Preparing files for translation


Why?

Non-translatables = Numbers References in a catalogue Names Company registration names etc


What?

Wildcard= a keyboard character that you can use to represent one or many characters.

example: * in *.doc

Regular expression= a combination of literal and wildcard characters that you use to match patterns of text.

example: media[0-9]{3} matches media309, media110, etc


Common wildcards

? = a single character

* = any number of characters

! = any but the character that follows


Markers

< = beginning of a word > = end of a word ^13 = ¶


Ranges

-> [ ] [0-9] = any number [3-6] = any number between 3 and 6

included [a-z] = any lower case letter [A-Z] = any upper case letter [aAiI] = a or A or i or I etc


Repetitions

-> { } t{2} = tt 5{6,7} = 555555 or 5555555 [A-Z]{4} = any sequence of four capital

letters [0-9]{3} = any sequence of three

numbers

@ = one or more occurrences of previous character


Note

If you want Word to find the actual characters usually used as wildcards, you have to type \ before these characters.

\? \< \@ etc


Example


Copy-paste in WORD

Note: the search option does not support wildcards in the Notepad (TXT files).


Find and Replace window

Ctrl + H

Click More > > button


Find and Replace window

Tick Use wildcards box

Enter a space in the Replace with field


Deleting all numbers?

-> [0-9]

BUT:References made of numbers + capital letters will be left.

-> [A-Z] ?NO! For some titles are written with an upper case.

PLUS: •Translators could argue about dates, values, etc•Numbers in title


Word count in MemoqTRADOS-LIKE WORD COUNT DOES NOT COUNT NUMBERS (ISOLATED SEQUENCES OF NUMBERS)


Though…


Regular expressions• UX[0-9]

• [A-Z]{4}[0-9]{2,3}[A-Z]{2}[0-9] ([A-Z]{4})([0-9]{2,3})([A-Z]{2})[0-9] -> You can add brackets to make it clearer. They will not be taken into account in the search. But you cannot add spaces, for they are searched for as characters. If you want to search for brackets, you have to put them between square brackets.


[A-Z]{4}[0-9]{2,3}[A-Z]{2}[0-9]*^13

·x·


Conclusion

Look through the whole document for different non-translatable patterns

When creating a regex, make sure it will not delete anything you need to count

Still a rough count, unless you spend time going into details (counted as repetitions then)


Links

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/ha010873051033.aspx

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA010873041033.aspx

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/UsingWildcards.htm








In Memoq (Auto-translatables)


In Memoq (Auto-translatables)

PATTERN: (\d) = any number (\d+) = any number of numbers

REPLACEMENT RULE: $1 $2 -> according to position in digit

sequence $3 …


Link

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/CAT-Tools/MemoQ/Tips_and_Tricks#Using_auto-translatables_for_number_format_conversion

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/CAT-Tools/MemoQ/Tips_and_Tricks%23Using_auto-translatables_for_number_format_conversion



wildcards

Self Improvement

number of characters

fair word count

better use word easier

wildcard characters

common wildcards

use of regexes

actual characters

rough count