Trados "Work-Arounds" (?!) - Translators to Fix Software? Thread poster: Ursula Peter-Czichi
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Is there a course anywhere on the web that could teach a translator, not a software engineer, how to fix the many short-comings of Trados? Is there a site that summarizes in a succinct and comprehensible way how to use Trados when MS Word documents contain embedded graphics (most of my documents)?
(No, I do not want to extract the text portion. I paid for the Trados software to eliminate such tasks!)
An example for the shottiness of the Trados software and help functions (IMHO) fin... See more Is there a course anywhere on the web that could teach a translator, not a software engineer, how to fix the many short-comings of Trados? Is there a site that summarizes in a succinct and comprehensible way how to use Trados when MS Word documents contain embedded graphics (most of my documents)?
(No, I do not want to extract the text portion. I paid for the Trados software to eliminate such tasks!)
An example for the shottiness of the Trados software and help functions (IMHO) finds expression in the following thread:
http://www.proz.com/?sp=cat/support&Action=ViewTopic&TopicID=12047&ForumID=1
The fact that such threads even exist should embarrass the living daylights out of any software developer. (Please, do not "help" me understand Visual Basics, I do have a C++ programming certificate and also know how to program in VB.)
The question here is: What does the Trados Developer know?
Trados unfortunately has become an industry standard because most agency managers do not know the first thing about software development.
I was looking for a way to edit translated text while working with a segment in another part of the document. There was a definite deadline and once again, I had to write notes by hand because Trados does not have a useful "help"-function and another "crash" was too risky.
Experienced software allows solving these types of problems with an "intuitive" approach - not Trados!
Is there a patch somewhere out there in cyberspace that can fix the Trados shortcomings?
Right now, I think I have bought a bag of problems for almost 600 bucks!
Thanks for your opinions and insights, Ursula ▲ Collapse
| | | | | | sylver 
Local time: 06:56
English to French
Ursula Peter-Czichi wrote: Is there a course anywhere on the web that could teach a translator, not a software engineer, how to fix the many short-comings of Trados? Is there a site that summarizes in a succinct and comprehensible way how to use Trados when MS Word documents contain embedded graphics (most of my documents)? (No, I do not want to extract the text portion. I paid for the Trados software to eliminate such tasks!) An example for the shottiness of the Trados software and help functions (IMHO) finds expression in the following thread: http://www.proz.com/?sp=cat/support&Action=ViewTopic&TopicID=12047&ForumID=1 The fact that such threads even exist should embarrass the living daylights out of any software developer. (Please, do not "help" me understand Visual Basics, I do have a C++ programming certificate and also know how to program in VB.) The question here is: What does the Trados Developer know? Trados unfortunately has become an industry standard because most agency managers do not know the first thing about software development. I was looking for a way to edit translated text while working with a segment in another part of the document. There was a definite deadline and once again, I had to write notes by hand because Trados does not have a useful "help"-function and another "crash" was too risky. Experienced software allows solving these types of problems with an "intuitive" approach - not Trados! Is there a patch somewhere out there in cyberspace that can fix the Trados shortcomings? Right now, I think I have bought a bag of problems for almost 600 bucks! Thanks for your opinions and insights, Ursula
What developpers are you talking about? Trados has only marketing people and an automated reply box saying "This is an interesting solution. We will consider including it in our next release".
I am just kidding, but by the look of it it's probably as close to the truth as it gets.
Actually there is a "patch" to Trados shortcomings that you may want to consider.
Wordfast, an other CAT tool also working inside of Word, possesses a "sputnik" mode to enable people condemned to work with Trados by sadistic agencies to harvest some of the possibilities usually available to Wordfast users. You don't need to buy a licence for that. The free demo will do.
You may want to try that, although IMO, the best advice is that you simply get Wordfast and keep Trados as a tagging utility. Amongst other advantages, Wordfast's developper is available for questions directly and usually answers or adapt his software within a few hours.
(Wordfast is compatible with Trados so you can keep working for your Trados clients just as usual. Most of them won't see the difference, even if you tell them)
Sylvain
www.your-translations.com
| | | | Karin Adamczyk (X)
Canada
Local time: 18:56
French to English
| Word is unpredictable | Jun 27, 2003 |
Ursula Peter-Czichi wrote:
Experienced software allows solving these types of problems with an "intuitive" approach - not Trados!
You need to realize that Word is very unpredictable and this causes problems for all software that interacts with it, including DejaVu (when you need to import or export Word files) and others.
FWIW,
Karin Adamczyk
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| Not convinced | Jun 27, 2003 |
Karin Adamczyk wrote:
You need to realize that Word is very unpredictable and this causes problems for all software that interacts with it, including DejaVu (when you need to import or export Word files) and others.
FWIW,
Karin Adamczyk
The tiny WordFast program does much better with MS Word features. I agree, getting programs to interface is not easy. I do think that I can reasonably expect a lot more from Trados. One problem with Trados is that it has not been tested enough with "real world daily tasks", something that every software developer is taught to do.
| | | | | Word is the problem | Jun 27, 2003 |
Hello
in my opinion word is the software which will make most problems. There are so many features in word, that often word documents without working with Trados chrash. So we use word only for translationg word documents, and now we are working for an solution to convert word files into ttx format. Than our translators can send word to hell.
I don't know a course, which will help you with Trados(word) problems, but maybe you should take an intensiv look on all word fea... See more Hello
in my opinion word is the software which will make most problems. There are so many features in word, that often word documents without working with Trados chrash. So we use word only for translationg word documents, and now we are working for an solution to convert word files into ttx format. Than our translators can send word to hell.
I don't know a course, which will help you with Trados(word) problems, but maybe you should take an intensiv look on all word features and read more about word. Then you can see, that word files which you translate with trados have an simple structure. At first you will see the structure of the translation units if you make the hidden chars visible. After this you must know, that Trados navigates in word with some bookmarks. If you have problems with open or close a translation unit you can often solve it by rearrange the chars to an correct translation unit structure. Than you have to delete the trados bookmarks. After this (in ost cases) you can continue your work with trados.
Hans ▲ Collapse
| | | | | One word: Metatexis | Jun 28, 2003 |
Did everything I needed Trados to do, and a lot more.
My Windows installation is messed up however, and that's causing problems with it, so I'm back with Trados for the time being. Strangely, it doesn't seem affected by the problem at hand, although it coughs up other problems with amazing regularity.
And that dongle -- sorry, guys, but I hate having anything that size that cost me that much money...
| | | | sylver
Local time: 06:56
English to French
| Who is the culprit? | Jun 28, 2003 |
DSC wrote:
Hello
in my opinion word is the software which will make most problems. There are so many features in word, that often word documents without working with Trados chrash. So we use word only for translationg word documents, and now we are working for an solution to convert word files into ttx format. Than our translators can send word to hell.
I don't know a course, which will help you with Trados(word) problems, but maybe you should take an intensiv look on all word features and read more about word. Then you can see, that word files which you translate with trados have an simple structure. At first you will see the structure of the translation units if you make the hidden chars visible. After this you must know, that Trados navigates in word with some bookmarks. If you have problems with open or close a translation unit you can often solve it by rearrange the chars to an correct translation unit structure. Than you have to delete the trados bookmarks. After this (in ost cases) you can continue your work with trados.
Hans
Word has its share of problems. Granted. But it is still pretty stable and predictable in most cases (I agree some stuff just don't work properly).
If you have problems with Trados that do not exist with Wordfast (which btw is tiny in size only - it's got many more useful functions then you can find in Trados), you can be sure that Word is not the culprit.
Word is not the reason why Trados is still full of wordbasic commands that are less and less supported with each new version of Word.
Word is not the reason why you have no shortcuts to return to the previous segment in Trados.
Trados could stand serious improvements, for $695. Don't you think so?
(About bookmarks, excellent mention. Along with messed up delimiters, that's were most of the segment glitches come from. However, if possible, one should not delete bookmarks while a segment is open.)
Cheers,
Sylvain
www.your-translations.com
Word and Wordfast tutorials for translators
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SimplyMe (X)
English to German
| Congratulations ! | Jun 28, 2003 |
You made a request for technical assistance a competition of opinions of the kind: "I own it - so it's best."
| | | | | Many translators run several CAT programs | Jun 28, 2003 |
SimplyMe wrote:
You made a request for technical assistance a competition of opinions of the kind: "I own it - so it's best."
I already run WordFast and know how much better the program is.
The opinions in this thread are valuable to me because they keep me from wasting more time on Trados and using it from within WORD.
Implicit in the expressed opinions: Trados is too shotty to fix.
I did ask for this type of opinion and like to express my appreciation for every comment.
Thank you, Ursula
| | | | sylver
Local time: 06:56
English to French
| Of course :-) | Jun 28, 2003 |
SimplyMe wrote:
You made a request for technical assistance a competition of opinions of the kind: "I own it - so it's best."
The topic of this thread is "How can you escape the dreadful, haunting task of working with Trados' glitches and imperfections?"
Are you really surprised it raises the issue as to whether or not one should consider an different tool?
However, if you give it a second look, you will see that this thread contains also several useful suggestions in handling Trados segmentation related problems, enough in fact for any Word savvy user to solve the vast majority of Trados segmentation problems and deal with basic functions that are not available in Trados.
Most of us are pros, around here, and we choose the tools we think are the best for our job, so when a colleague is bringing up such a topics, it's only natural we share our opinion and experience with our own tools. I don't see anything wrong with that.
Cheers,
Sylvain
www.your-translations.com
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