But even in a case such as above, you can always rely on given semi-standards to clean out your files of variables and other non translatables, all you need are anchors you can hold onto, such as underscores, single words with no upper case, backslashes, square brackets and such.

Opening pattern: data\s*=\s*\w*\(.*?,\s*”
Closing pattern: “\)

Excel is good if you are going to translate directly there but is not friendly with most CAT tools compared to plain text formats that can be tackled using regex (in most of them, the trick is to figure out the syntax and establish patterns and you’re good to go).

We would use the Regular Expression File Filter in SDL Trados Suite/Studio to handle these files. This filter allows you to specify the text to be translated using regular expressions.

You’ll have to set up the following opening pattern , ” and closing pattern “. This way you don’t get the name value.

HTH
Thomas

I find that small and huge clients don’t mind wading into the muck of localizing these things – the former because they don’t realize what they’re getting into, and the latter because they can throw a phalanx of global legal talent at it.

The mid-range clients are circumspect and prefer to leave things in English. Sort of a doughnut-hole.

To add my perspective to the question that you have raised – I used to manage projects for a client who localized their legal content in many languages for multiple markets – and the complexity around contracts application in local legislatures, special terminology translation and acceptance by in-country users was overwhelming. The clause that you quote could have definitely benefited them.