Fixing tag errors and tag issues

Matecat uses tags for two reasons:

• Preserve the structure of the files and avoid conversion issues;
• Guarantee that the target files have the same layout and formatting as the source files.

If a tag is omitted, duplicated, or misplaced, a warning symbol appears on the QA icon.

 

In case of a tag error, the symbol is red.

 

Click on that icon to move to the segment where the tag issue has been found.

Understanding tag issues

 

Matecat warns about three types of issues:

1. Tag mismatch
2. Tag order mismatch
3. Tag ID mismatch

1.❗Tag mismatch

 

Matecat alerts users when a tag from the source segment, is missing in the target segment. This generated a tag mismatch and a warning message. 

 

The tag is missing in the target segment.

This kind of error needs to be fixed, otherwise, untranslated content will be generated in the target file.

 

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2. ❕Tag order mismatch

 

Matecat also alerts users when tags from the source segment are not placed in the same position as the target one. A light orange warning message appears under the target segment.

 

 

Tag ​ in the target segment is placed in a different position than in the source.

Tag order mismatches generally don't prevent the download and don't create formatting issues in the target file.

We do suggest any way to fix order mismatches.

Notice that in some cases the translator would need to change the tag order in the target segment, generating a tag order mismatch, because of target language grammar or expressive rules.

Let's make an example

In this case in the target segment, we need to generate a tag order mismatch, to respect the sentence grammar order, that is different from Italian to German.

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3. ❗Tag ID mismatch

 

Matecat alerts users when tag IDs from the source segment do not correspond to the tag IDs in the target.

Warning message: Tag ID mismatch: Check and edit tags with differing IDs. In this case the opening tag 2 is missing and there is another opening tag 1 in that position.

This is a tag error so, if ignored, it will generate untranslated content in the target file.

How to fix tag issues?

There are basically four ways to correct tag issues:

1. ➡️Place the cursor next to the location where the tag is missing and insert the < symbol or use the short cut Alt+t.

A window will open. Click on the tag you need to add to your translation.

2. ➡️Click on the tag in the source segment to select it, then drag and drop it into the target segment;

3. ➡️Press on the

icon to copy the tags from the source to the target segment (the tags are added to the end of the text in the target segment and appear in the same order as in the source), as you can see below: 

4. ➡️Copy and paste the tag from the source segment to the target one, place it in the correct position and delete the tag in the wrong position.