If you use SDL Trados Studio, you may have already upgraded to Studio 2014, or you may be thinking about upgrading. I purchased the upgrade a few months ago, and here are some thoughts on it:
- I use only the basic features in Studio (create projects, use TMs and glossaries, use the concordance and filters), but in general I like Studio 2014. I don’t use SDL Language Cloud or any MT or QA plugins, or any of the project management features, so I can’t really comment on those. But for the features I use, the upgrade to 2014 was fairly painless, and the ribbon-style interface is easy to use.
- My biggest mental block with Studio is still the darned dynamic menus. Multiple times, I’ve been beating my head against the desk, trying to figure out why the “Add files” menu item was greyed-out or impossible to find, only to remember that you have to be in the source language view for that option to show. I know that this is a deliberate decision by SDL, but I’m still getting used to it.
- Blessedly, the Java applet associated with MultiTerm is being eliminated in SP2, which SDL plans to release in about a week. This will be great; the Java applet is slow and aggravating (and I have a slow computer, so it’s really, really slow) which creates a disincentive to add terms on the fly.
- I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if you’re switching to Studio from a simpler tool, or if you’re learning a TM tool for the first time and starting with Studio, do not try to learn to use it on your own. Think of it like learning Photoshop or InDesign; it’s not something that you just install and learn how to use in a couple of hours. Either hire a trainer (Tuomas Kostiainen offers remote training on your own computer; several of my students have used him and raved about it) or buy the manual (see below) and go through it step by step.
I’ll reserve a special mention for Mats Linder’s Trados Studio Manual. It’s truly awesome. Disclosure: Mats provided me with a free review copy of the manual when he released it. You can purchase the manual for US $49 from Mats’ website or for the same price from the SDL OpenExchange website. It’s no wonder that this manual has *all* five-star reviews on the SDL site and has been downloaded almost 1,800 times. Whether you’re wondering where you type the translation (as I wondered when I first opened the software), or how to write regular expressions for use in Studio, this manual literally has it all.
Readers, other thoughts on Studio 2014?
I used to *hate* xBench, but with the add-in for Studio 2014 it is a painless procedure to use it. I like Studio, especially the fact that you can use many TMs and glossaries. But I still think that for very small jobs Studio is a bit cumbersome. Those go a lot quicker in the old Trados.
Thanks Ria! Interestingly, I heard someone at ATA55 comment (about the big-name translation tools in general) that they are getting to the point where a freelancer version is needed, because they are overloaded with features that you don’t really need if you’re translating a simple Word document.
Just one little comment to ease your aching head 😉 If you drag and drop the files you wish to add then you don’t have to switch the language as this will happen automatically. But you will have to switch the language back to your chosen target language after running the prepare batch task. This is because potentially you could have multiple target languages and Studio doesn’t know which one you want to use… although it would have been nice if it could see you only had one (if you have one) and just take you to it. But at least that will be one less bang on the table!
Awesome!! Thank you!!
Great tip, thanks Paul. Was also struggling with the greyed-out “Add files” menu item (where is it, where is it ! :-)).
My views on Studio 2014, based on using it almost exclusively for final QA on translations over the last year or so. Declaration of interest: I do not work for Atril, the providers of the Deja Vu translator’s tool (current version DVX3), or receive any payment or reward for promoting that tool.
Speed
Studio 2104 is so slow, compared with any favour of Atril’s Deja Vu in the last 15 years, that we have a company policy of never translating more than 50 words in it at once. This is partly to do with memory management (see below) and also due to missing and ineffective functionality (see below for some examples).
Assembly
You will find this function in Atril’s Deja Vu tool: the tool takes known, approved terminology and inserts authomatically in the selected segment. It’s then the translator’s job to fix the grammar -what humans are good at! Nothing like machine translation: just terminology database lookup and recogntion, and insertion. Studio apparently doesn’t do this, so you type more, and have to physically select terms found in the Term Recognition window, to paste them into a segment. This costs time.
Studio QA: finding and fixing inconsistent transations
This is an excellent thing to want to do! In the technical texts we translate, consistency across multiple files and releases is essential.
Yet Studio has the most annoying QA function I’ve ever seen –
imagine you’re checking multiple translated files, at the end of a job. (So you’re under time pressure!) You want to compare them with each other to ensure cross-file consistency. So you “Verify” the files (F8), and you get a message that a particular segment is translated inconsistently with another one, earlier in the same file, or in an earlier file.
Great!
How do you then find that earlier segment and compare the transation in it with the found inconsistency? Presumably you have to filter on the source text, and display the 2 or more segments with identical source text, but different target text, and fix the error. (Or I have failed to find the really obvious, easy way to do this that every Studio expert knows about? perhaps – it happens!)
Then you have to try and persuade Studio to stop filtering on the source text you entered in the Review tab “Filter on” box (if I remember rightly), by emptying the box, and then clicking multiple times on “Reset filter”, other source texts etc. until Studio forgets about filtering. This will eventually happen, but you have to do it every time there is an inconsistent translation. And that’s a terrible waste of time!
Possible solutions:
1. obvious really – a dialog box could open and display the earlier (perhaps more correct, but certainly different) translation, and its source text, so you can compare it with the found inconsistency, or
2. You could have the option of sorting all segments in all files in alphabetical order and then you would find the inconstent segments much more easily, and could fix them without using the painful and unreliable filter function.
Every favour of Atril’s Deja Vu in the last 15 years has been able to do the 2nd solution.
Memory management
Because Studio loads sdlxliff files (or other source files) and holds them in RAM, it generates more memory management problems, and fails to function properly more often, than any other non-online translation tool i’ve come across. (No pun intended – I really don’t mean “Across”, which for me merely precedes “translator!)
Contrast with tools that load the translatable contents of source files into a database file – they seem, in my experience, to run more quickly, and if they crash, the work you’ve just done isn’t lost. We once had a catastrophic power failure (an electrician pulled the wrong circuit breaker) while we were using Atril DVX on 2 workstations: when we rebooted, not a single keystroke was lost.
The Review Window
Maybe I’m just poorly informed about how to set up my windows in Studio 2014, but it seems to me that I have to close the Review window, after it slides out and opens when I don’t need it, at least 10 times a day. The icon for opening the Review Window is right next to the one you click on to close a file you’ve been translating or editing i.,e the one you’re going to click on ever time you close a file in the Editor. It would be nice if there could be a permanent setting to move the Review window away from where it lurks!
False QA errors
Terminology verification – using the default settings during QA checking (Verify – F8) I’m surprised how often the terminology verification generates errors claiming that a term has not been used, when it really has, depsite the fact that the singular form of the term is present in the translation, and not modified by a capital letter or full stop at the end.
Opening a package and saving the project files
Maybe I’ve just set Studio up wrong, but if I open a package, to save its contents to a specific folder, Studio doesn’t even suggest the folder I most recently opened (at least a reasonable suggestion), but insists on defaulting to a random job folder (currently one we did in June). Why? Have I failed to find the place where I can set a default path for saving package contents to?
It’s depressing that Studio doesn’t apparently offer what I consider to be fairly straightforward, basic functionality. I’m sure half the things I’ve mentioned above
are possible, but I don’t know how to set them up (despite looking in the Help, reading in online forums, and asking other users). Consequently, I can’t recommend Studio 2014 as anyone’s main translation tool. As a project management tool, for an agency that gives work out to freelancers, I’m sure it has many benefits – but that’s not what we, or most freelancers, use it for.
Thanks, Corinne! Yesterday I spent almost two hours trying to fix this problem with Multiterm. I recently did a Java update and, as a consequence, the term editor no longer works! Glad to know this will be solved soon because otherwise it’s a great tool.
Thanks Danielle! Yes, when the SDL rep made that announcement at the Roadshow in Denver, there was an audible sigh of relief from the audience. My impression is that the developers hate the Java applet too, and everyone’s eager for it to be out of there. I had the same experience as you; updated Java and now Studio freezes every time I try to add a term on the fly.
I upgraded to SP2 and it works like a charm. No more error messages from the wrong Java version!!
I have been a Trados user for 10 years now, and I made the decision to stay with Trados to build upon my acquired knowledge of using this TM system.
However, there are other good tools out there, such as memoQ for instance. It is just a question of finding the right tool(s) for your particular situation, and there are now plenty of TM systems to choose from, much more than 10 years ago.
I also invite every Studio user to visit SDL OpenExchange at least once and carefully review the app or plugin descriptions. There are little gems that will undoubtedly make your life easier.
Especially for you Corinne as French to English translator, I suggest you have a look at the Terminotix plugin for SDL here: http://www.translationzone.com/openexchange/app/terminotixplug-inforsdl-632.html#62063.
I would also like to mention other information resources on Studio from a European perspective.
If you can read German, I strongly recommend Renate Dockhorn’s book: ‘SDL Trados Studio 2014 für Einsteiger und Umsteiger, Bild-zu-Bild-Anleitung mit MultiTerm’ (http://www.bdue-fachverlag.de/fachverlag/publikationen/detail_book/81).
Renate offers training seminars for translation memory and terminology management systems here: http://www.docktrans.de/training.html
Another self-study resource is this English book: http://it-ebooks.info/book/3878/
If you want to get professional training for translation memory systems, I also recommend the German company Loctimize GmbH: http://www.loctimize.com/en/training-workshops/product-training.html
They offer training courses for various TM systems and workshops on translation and localization-related tools and processes.
I hope it helps.
Eric
Would be interested to know which manual is betterâ„¢: Mats’ book (which I bought when I switched from Trados 2007 to Studio 2011 and which was of greatest help when doing that switchover) or Renate’s new book. Perhaps there’s someone around here who has read both of them and could provide a comparison.
Sorry, Eric, but Terminotix plugin doesn’t work. At least not with Studio 2011. I installed it, followed all instructions, but when I press F3, I only get my own TM results, but nothing from the one provider I had selected in the Terminotix plugin (that is, Linguee). I also tried other providers in the plugin, but none works. So, it’s useless and I will delete it.
I also like the Quick Merge feature that allows one to virtually “glue” multiple together and work on them together in the Editor window. Great for QA or for search and replace operations across the entire project.
Project templates is another time and human error-saving useful feature for recurring projects. The ability to create a new project based on an existing project (adding everything except for the files for translation) is an often overlook, yet quite convenient feature for “cloning” projects without having to set them up manually,
You mentioned that you computer is slow, Corinne.
There could be multiple reasons for it, but is your machine is about 5 years old (or newer) there is usually quite a cost-effective way to breath new life into it. The immediate suspects are RAM and the storage device. If you have fewer than 4GB of RAM, upgrading to at least 4GB is a good idea.
The biggest difference, however, is usually achieved by replacing the platter based hard disk drive with a SSD.
SSDs are superior due to their shorter random access time (what most productivity users — translators included — benefit from). The drawback is that their capacity is limited. So, it is generally recommended that the SSD should hold your operating system, software and working file, and everything else (pictures, videos, archived project files and other business information) should be stored separately on a hard disk drive). It depends on the use case, but generally speaking, today the 256GB capacity SSDs give the most balanced value.
Any SSD with a sufficient capacity will do really, but I suggest looking at the Crucial MX100 256GB, which I found to give a great value in the 256GB category.
I suggest keeping an eye on SSD sales in the upcoming Black Friday because this is a very cost-effective way to breath new life into an older machine.
Excellent tips for ugrading a PC! As for SSDs, read/write performance (esp. random write) can vary across capacities of the same model, so great tip you recommend the 256GB capacity. ‘Cheap’ 128GB models are not the best choice (i knew that when i bought my MacBook Air w/ a 128GB SSD…).
Hybrid drives (SSHD – traditional HDD with a small amount of flash memory) could also be considered if there’s room only for one drive, such as in a laptop and storage capacity is needed at a lower cost per gigabyte but it remains a mechanical drive and is slower than a SSD.
As for Studio, i also do a lot of QA on multiple files, and really appreciate the virtual merge function, but also the QA Checker templates that i can quickly import in project settings. Not to mention the very useful SDLXLIFF Toolkit (from the OpenExchange app store): http://multifarious.filkin.com/2013/09/25/the-sdlxliff-toolkit/
What I really like about Studio is that there is extremely rarely any pressure to use the dreaded, productivity-killing “online TMs”. You cannot avoid this with across anyway, but even people requiring MemoQ often won’t let you use it without connecting to a server.
I love the analogy to InDesign! I more or less taught myself InDesign. Someone actually showed me how to use it to do layout for a job I was doing, and I just couldn’t understand how to do anything until I spent a few hours watching tutorials and how-to videos on how to use InDesign.
Luckily the workshops they offered on Trados in my master’s were a really helpful introduction to the software. It’s such complex software, however, that I feel like no matter how much you know you’re always discovering new features. Take regular expressions, which are quickly becoming my best friend with manuals and technical documents and making sure dates/times are formatted consistently throughout. I’ve also recently discovered the power of termbases and have started creating one of my own. I can’t believe I ever used spreadsheets for my glossaries!
Thanks Jonathan!