Translators Talk Trados - Making Studio work for you

As an Approved Training Center (ATC) for SDL Trados Studio, we are lucky to have had the opportunity to meet and train many freelance translators over the years. Since we first started offering courses (back in the days of Studio 2009), we’ve seen lots of different ways of working with the tool. In much the same way that freelance translators fit their work around other commitments, such as family life, hobbies and a general work-life balance, we find that they use Studio in ways that best suit them, just as we do here at Alexika. We use the features that are most relevant to us and our clients to enable us to work more efficiently, and freelancers often want to focus on how Studio can help them work smarter. So when SDL asked if we’d like to help them create a series of videos and posts to help freelancers, we had plenty of ideas for content, and jumped at the chance to get involved. Pleased to be part of a team of Studio experts comprising fellow super-users Emma Goldsmith and Nora Díaz, Alexika’s Gemma Smith set to work on ideas. In total, there are 10 videos and 3 blog posts in all, covering PDF translation, projects and a top 7 features summary.

Here is a summary of what you can expect to find:

The projects functionality is sometimes thought to be solely the realm of PMs, when actually, this powerful feature is just as useful to translators. This video shows you how to set up a project and is accompanied by a detailed blog post which can be used as a step-by-step guide as you begin to get to grips with this feature or as a reminder for future reference.

If you’ve ever been left wondering what to do when a Studio package lands in your inbox, have a look at this video.

It’s also possible to remove, add or change your resources (i.e. translation memories, termbases and AutoSuggest dictionaries) at any point. So, when your client emails you with that extra reference TM when you’re already 2,000 words into 10,000 words, you can simply add it to your setup and start to use it straightaway.

Have you ever wondered whether there is a way to open several documents at once? Well, there is and it’s called QuickMerge, allowing you to virtually merge documents within a project. Check out this video to see how.

We now come to Gemma’s last video, which is all about that Translation Memories view in Studio. Contrary to what you might at first think, this is not where you open your TMs for use during translation, but is a place for running, what we like to call, maintenance operations. This video will explain a little more about some of the things you can do in this view.

We hope you enjoy the videos and blog post and welcome any feedback.

View other blog posts from: Jan, 2017