5 things you might not know you could do in SDL Trados Studio 2017




Greater than 6 minutes, my friend!

Dear friends!

This December we’re partnering up with our friends from SDL to promote the newest version of SDL Trados Sudio 2017 Freelance.

Trados Studio is the most popular product for freelance translators providing all the tools needed to create and review translations use terminology and get the most out of machine translation in one simple desktop application.

Make sure to check out their website and get your hands on a special offer for all readers of The Open Mic.

Or you can check out the article below to learn more about this exciting product. Thank you so much in advance!

Hugs from Toronto!

~ Dmitry

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5 Things You Might not Know You Could Do in SDL Trados Studio 2017

Just over a year ago, we released SDL Trados Studio 2017. For those of you who are already using this version, we hope you have been enjoying the exciting new features, including AdaptiveMT, our self-learning machine translation engine and upLIFT technology for your translation memories.

In October this year, we attended ATA 58 in Washington D.C. and it was great to speak with so many freelance translators (hopefully you were one of them). During the event, we were asked many questions about SDL Trados Studio 2017 and if certain features and functionality were available.

Today, we are going to answer 5 of the most common questions we received at ATA 58. Hopefully these answers will highlight some features you might not have been aware of or even thought were possible.

1. “Can I translate a scanned PDF in SDL Trados Studio?”

Are you regularly asked to translate PDF documents? We are dedicated to providing translators with the right tools to handle even the trickiest of file types (scanned PDFs definitely being one of them.)

Did you know SDL Trados Studio 2017 handles both editable and scanned PDFs?

We have a fully integrated OCR (optical character recognition) within SDL Trados Studio 2015 onwards. All you need to do is go to File>Options>File Types> PDF>Converter to manage your PDF file settings.

You can also preview the file in the PDF settings to see what your document would look like in the Studio Editor before you translate it, to make sure you are confident in the formatting and output of your file before going through the steps of creating a project.

We also have an exciting new app to further improve the OCR conversion quality for scanned PDFs. This IRIS app supports over 100 languages, including Chinese and Japanese. You can find out more about this app for Studio here.

Watch this video below to see how to easily translate PDFs in Studio and how to use the IRIS app for even better PDF handling.

2. “Is it possible to merge a segment separated by a paragraph break?”

The answer is yes! One of the most popular new features in SDL Trados Studio 2017 is the flexibility to make edits to your source segments in the Editor. You can now merge segment across paragraphs (hard returns) to ensure that your source text is correct. You are also able to split text into new segments and make amendments to that particular source text. Pretty useful, right?

How to merge segments in SDL Trados Studio 2017 2

 

How to merge segments in SDL Trados Studio 2017

Merging segments in Studio 2017 can be easily enabled in your Project settings. Go to Project Settings> Project> Check Allow source editing > and uncheck disable merging segments across paragraphs.

The benefit of merging segments is you will have a higher confidence in your translation memory’s (TM) quality if the accuracy of your source and target segment content is correct.

3. “Can I change the way the editor is displayed in SDL Trados Studio?”

SDL Trados Studio 2017 has lots of great productivity boosting resource windows, including:

  • Translation results from translation memory and machine translation
  • Fragment matches for both whole and partial translation units (TUs)
  • Concordance search
  • Term recognition windows.

One of the most commonly asked questions we get is if it is possible to change the way all of these results are displayed in the Editor. As each translator is unique and has their own individual way of working, we have made it easy and simple for you to move the windows around the Editor. You can even have a resource window on a second screen.

You are also in control of the font size for each of these resource windows. To change font sizes go to File>Options>Editor. You are then able to change the text size for each window.

But what if you want to go back to the default layout of the Editor after you have changed it? There’s no need to worry. All you have to do is go to the Ribbon and click View> Reset windows layout and you will go revert back to the original settings.

How to customize the Editor in SDL Trados Studio 2

 

How to customize the Editor in SDL Trados Studio

4. “How do I preview my document during translation?”

Another great productivity booster in SDL Trados Studio 2017 is the Real Time Preview. During translation you can preview how your target translation is looking at any particular point.

What’s great about this feature is you don’t even need to leave the Editor – the Real Time Preview is easily accessible from the right hand side of the Editor. It is also available from the View tab in the Studio ribbon.

The Real Time Preview supports the latest file types including PowerPoint 2007-2016 and Excel 2007-2016 – and we are continuously working on file type support.

The main benefit of this feature is when it comes to generating your final target file, you can be confident in the quality of the final output from your translation.

5. “Can I filter a document so it only displays specific content?”

In SDL Trados Studio 2017 we introduced the Advanced Display Filter to make it easy to drill down to a few segments within a document. For example, at the end of a really long document you might want to filter out the fuzzy matches and only view all of the 100% and context matches, which have been automatically given a “translated” status. This gives you a chance to easily and quickly double-check these segments.

To apply this filter you would apply the following attributes: “Translated”, “100% matches” and “Context Matches”.

The functionality of the Advanced Display Filter includes searching both source and target simultaneously, filtering an unlimited number of attributes, filtering comments by text and author and filtering document structure.

The best thing is once you have defined the attributes you would like to filter, you can save your Advanced Display Filter settings and easily reapply it to any project you are working on in the future.

This feature will definitely be a big time saver for you.

Watch this video with Nora Diaz, a freelance EN-ES translator, to see the Advanced Display Filter in action.

Did you know we also have plenty of options available to provide you with the support and information you are looking for? You can contact our Customer Experience Team on Live Chat, post a question in the SDL Community which will be answered by a product expert, send a message on Facebook and Twitter or submit a support request. We also have a variety of video tutorials on our YouTube channel to help you get started.

The SDL AppStore is another way to get the most out of SDL Trados Studio 2017. With apps and plugins, you can customize Studio to suit the way you want to work. With over 200 apps to choose from, there is an app for everyone.

If you’re interested in purchasing SDL Trados Studio 2017 Freelance, we have a special offer for The Open Mic Community. Get 30% off + FREE Getting Started eLearning course when you use the promo code THEOPENMIC on our online store.

If you would like to try Studio 2017, you can download the 30-day free trial here.

Happy Holidays from everyone at SDL!

[clickToTweet tweet=”Get 30% off @sdltrados 2017 Freelance + FREE Getting Started eLearning course. Use promo code THEOPENMIC http://bit.ly/TRADOS2017 #xl8 #t9n” quote=”Get 30% off @sdltrados 2017 Freelance + FREE Getting Started eLearning course. Use promo code THEOPENMIC http://bit.ly/TRADOS2017 #xl8 #t9n”]
Dmitry Kornyukhov

About Dmitry Kornyukhov

Founder of The Open Mic. Video game localization specialist. I help video game developers, game publishers and localization studios bring their projects to the Russian-speaking gaming community.

5 thoughts on “5 things you might not know you could do in SDL Trados Studio 2017

  1. Do I really need a Trados software to do my work? To me it’s a very expensive item that I can do without even if it takes longer to get the job done. My clients don’t complain about deadlines I set.

    moderated
    1. Hey Maria! That’s an excellent question! I guess it all depends on the type of projects your work with and what your clients prefer. For some clients, speed is super important, while others will give you as much time as you need.

      I suppose we need to be very critical when we invest into new software and evaluate all pros and cons and how fast we can get the return on our investment. 🙂

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  2. Maria, I bought Trados earlier this year, and I am glad I did! It does speed up the process quite a bit. It helps me work faster, increasing my speed and thus allowing me to spend less time for the same amount of money. There is a learning curve to Trados, and I am still discovering the many features it offers.

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  3. I started to use Trados last July and I had one webinar with Proz. So, until today, I face some issues and I get lost in the settings. However, this article and the videos are amazing. I check this article every time I have a question about Trados. Thank you so much, Dmitry.

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