It’s 2012 and you are still using Trados 2007?

The translation process dates back to ancient times but technology has changed our jobs and working methods quite a bit. CAT (Computer-assisted translation) tools make our jobs easier, more accurate and more efficient. Nowadays, in order to provide the client with a quote, the files first need to be analyzed, and based on word repetitions and matches against a TM (Translation Memory) or a previously translated document, the rates can be more competitive. For the sake of exemplifying how a CAT tool can save you a lot of grief, we’ll refer to one of our most recent upgrades: SDL Trados Studio 2011.

Since the launch of its previous version in 2009, we’ve been aware of the mixed reactions in regards to this software. We’d grown attached to Trados 2007 and also, we’d grown attached to our translators, who handled the same software as we did. Studio 2009 had come and gone, and only a few had dared to venture into its somewhat unknown territory. Also, translators can be tough cookies. The idea amongst a considerable amount of people was, and still is: If a tool works, why replace it? Why spend money on an upgrade you’re not sure you need?

I’m a baby compared to other people and their experience in this industry. When I started working full-time in translation, I was introduced to both Trados 2007 and Studio 2009. As I got to know both versions in an unbiased manner, I soon became baffled on how people continued working on a version that is now 5 years old. At this point in the history of technology, 5 years is a huge amount of time!

So, for all of you out there, still dancing around with the idea of upgrading from a 2007 version, (or older…or none of all!) here is a list of what are my whole-hearted honest opinions, experiences and discoveries about Studio 2009 and 2011, in contrast with Trados 2007. I am in no way the expert and truly welcome all the more knowledgeable people on the subject to speak out!

• Fully Integrated Interface: nothing made more sense to me but to have everything on one same platform. With Studio you can roam around like the master of the castle: all your projects, files, reports, TMs in one same place and easy to handle.
• In Trados 2007 I soon discovered that a false move can be devastating. Big accidents can happen. (And I mean big!) Studio is far from being accident-free but at least it blocks your path every time something wrongs pops up. However, discovering the error can be a hassle. I remember going ballistic on a project that I had gone back to edit after 6 months of having it marked as completed. I attempted to create new target translations but the options where grayed out. It had been a long day, the deadline was imminent and the minutes that I struggled not knowing what to do, were horrible. What was the problem? I had forgotten to “Reactivate” the project. Just a click.
• Tags could be a great problem when cleaning files in Trados 2007. In Studio, there is no way you can mess with them. You can even take them out from your sight if you don’t want to see them (Format>Tag Display Mode.) And if you want to input them into the target text, you can either copy the source to target or use the “QuickPlace” function, which applies formatting just by highlighting what you want where you want it.
• Much less DTP work with Studio! No more nightmares about tables, text boxes or bullet points.
• Need to make sure that you use a consistent translation? In Studio, you can filter segments out in either the source or the target text, in order to see every instance where a word or words are used.
• Use several TMs at the same time.
• Get leverage not only with the TM, but at the paragraph and document level.
• You can easily upgrade your old TMS to Studio based TMS (.sdltm)
• Pretranslate segments and lock them so that nothing that was reviewed and approved once is reviewed again.
• The concept of packages allows you to send out and return translation or review projects. It creates a folder structure, a package per target language, lets the user define tasks for individual packages and it allows to recompute word count or analysis for cross-file repetitions.
• Once your heart is set on something, override translations easily and maintain a clean TM.
• Multilingual projects.
• Track changes. This feature is only available in Studio 2011. It allows reviewers to mark their changes that can later be accepted or rejected.

I realize I may have spoken more about the positive attributes than the negative aspects. Not everything is sugar and cotton candy with Studio; there is still a lot of room for improvement. For example, I cannot speak for the increased functionality between Studio 2009 and 2011, as nothing has impressed me just yet. For some reason, my 2011 version is much slower than its predecessor. The project set up process seems a little more convoluted than it needs to be, especially for translators. And obtaining an analysis should be simpler.

Upgrading can be tricky if not everyone is on the same page. We are not going to dismiss all the translators whom we like and who deliver quality work, just because they haven’t upgraded. Sometimes, everyone on the translation team will have Studio, but not on the editing team. For these cases for example, there is such a thing called the SDL XLIFF Converter for Microsoft Office. The “user is then able to use MS Word application to review/edit the exported document and use the tool to import these changes back to the original SDL XLIFF file.” Pretty cool!

Like for a lot of translators out there, our company’s transition into Studio has been difficult. It has been slow, challenging, surprising, happy, frustrating and a million other things. It’s been complicated, but we have learnt to love the tool and we now wonder how we ever lived without it. A piece of advice, don’t be afraid to give it a try…


Tania Varela and the BeatBabel Team

It’s 2012 and you are still using Trados 2007?

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

On native languages and hometowns...

Spanish is my native language. That is the language my parents spoke to each other when they fell in love, the language in which I said my first word, the language I learnt to love. It is the epicenter of my identity. However, identity is a complicated matter, especially if you come from a complicated place…

I was probably not even a year old the first time I traveled to a country other than the one where I was born. In those days, it wasn’t much of a hassle to cross the border to San Diego, and so we did it all the time. Sunday mornings meant ten people cramped in my Great Grandmother’s tiny apartment in the corner of California, eating the traditional Mexican breakfast she would cook for us.

McDonalds was a natural element of my geography before McDonalds actually spread to every hole in the world. On Sundays, I would get five dollars for my “Domingo” (my allowance: I came to know about exchange rates at a very young age)…and probably the first hundred movies and books that I came to know were in English.

My family is a combination of people who came from the center of the Mexican Republic and people who were native inhabitants of California, before California actually belonged to the United States, 163 years ago. For that reason, I was born with the right to a dual citizenship in a place where I am still to discover the culture I belong to. The languages for these two countries (or at least the languages de facto for these two countries) came naturally to me.

I have had the opportunity to live in and adapt to different places. I grew up bilingual and bicultural in a territory of Mexico’s political division, even though I’ve always said that Tijuana (my hometown) is an in-between place that doesn’t quite know where it belongs.

If you were to plan day trips to each of the opposite borderline communities, you would indeed catch a glimpse of the differences sustained by the imaginary line that divides them. We share the same weather, the same flora and the same fauna. We can even use the same currency. You could say that the fundamental divergence is the economic level of each region, but of course, it goes much further than that.

True, I know San Diego like I was born here. I love how there’s always a new place to discover a delicious meal, the feeling of driving on a well known freeway at 80mph (Oops…I meant 65,) and thinking that it will take you anywhere you want. I love the open spaces, the beaches, the tall buildings, the shopping centers (a true San Diegan will call them malls,) Balboa Park, getting the munchies at four in the morning and knowing something will be open, leaving the house in my pjs, and how people don’t understand what cold really feels like. But for me, San Diego wouldn’t be as lovely it if I couldn’t escape from it every once in a while.

I love my Tijuana, because ironically, there’s no place I feel safer. I love the feeling of freedom, not the kind of freedom you read about in books and treaties, but the one that you can actually identify in real life. I love that the city possesses a beauty that is hard to understand, one that you must look for and keep like a priceless gem; a gem so special that will only expose itself to those willing to look for it. I love the people, the constant struggle to define existence, the contrasts.

One thing I am certain of: it was the combination of elements, the historical disposition of events and my love for the undefined, heterogeneous, and ever-growing existence that persists in this area, that which made me end up here, in a profession of multiculturalism and languages.

Maybe I am spoiled. Because I can go back and forth, because I am a wanderer and I feel, precisely, that San Diego is a city where wanderers like to settle down every once in a while. But to tell the truth, one of my favorite things about living here is that I am able to adopt contrasting cultural roles and meet in between every so often. All in the same geographic space. And then I’ll go to work, and cheat time and space by working alongside colleagues in France, Portugal, Germany, Russia, Argentina… you name it.

Spanish is my native language and English comes very close after it. I was born in one city, but I grew up in two. My geographic locations, as my languages, have been a trampoline to the world.

I am sure that there is certain warmth in belonging to a specific place with a specific culture, language and traditions…

But to be honest, I like jumping on this crazy trampoline. I just love it....

Tania Varela - BeatBabel

On native languages and hometowns...