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Studio 2009: Is it worth upgrading?
Thread poster: Eleni Makantani
Eleni Makantani
Eleni Makantani
Greece
Local time: 03:57
English to Greek
+ ...
Aug 31, 2009

Hello,

I like having up-to-date tools and I am thinking that I might upgrade from Trados 2007 to Trados 2009.

However, the many comments and calls for help that have been posted at the proz.com forums make me somewhat sceptical.

All in all, are you satisfied with your decision to upgrade, or do you consider it to have been a waste of money/ energy?

[Edited at 2009-08-31 11:44 GMT]


 
Ángel Guillén
Ángel Guillén  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 02:57
English to Spanish
Happy Aug 31, 2009

Hi Eleni,

Although I have experienced some problems using this new tool, in general I can say I am happy with the upgrading. I used SDLX more often than Trados, and I guess Studio is more like SDLX (in my opinion). That's why I liked it. I am taking a couple of courses next month in order to know how to use it better but in general I am happy with it

Angel


 
Schwabamädle
Schwabamädle
Canada
Local time: 21:57
English to German
+ ...
I am also very happy with Trados Studio 2009 Aug 31, 2009

Hi

I used to be scared by all the questions about Trados in general as well. But I also have purchased the Studio Trados 2009 and I think it is very easy to navigate and offers a much more user friendly interface.

If you think how many translators are using Trados then the questions posted are not really that many, plus they vary very much in level of knowledge..

I mean ProZ.com is a pool of specialized translators and other professionals and that's were
... See more
Hi

I used to be scared by all the questions about Trados in general as well. But I also have purchased the Studio Trados 2009 and I think it is very easy to navigate and offers a much more user friendly interface.

If you think how many translators are using Trados then the questions posted are not really that many, plus they vary very much in level of knowledge..

I mean ProZ.com is a pool of specialized translators and other professionals and that's were you supposed to ask your questions. I am so happy this site exists!


Good luck!
Andrea
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Eleni Makantani
Eleni Makantani
Greece
Local time: 03:57
English to Greek
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Re: Aug 31, 2009

Hello Angel and Andrea,

Thank you for your answers. It is a relief to hear some good comments. I mean, I am not involved in the Trados business or anything like that, but I thought it was a pity that the Trados people worked to develop this new tool and then nobody seemed to like it.

Sure, proz is a great place for people to ask questions. Maybe we should intervene and give a good word or two occasionally, too!

I'm waiting for more comments, bad or good!


 
Claudia Alvis
Claudia Alvis  Identity Verified
Peru
Local time: 20:57
Member
Spanish
+ ...
Download the demo Aug 31, 2009

I'm also very happy with the upgrade. There are some problems but none of them are too bad. However, some people can't even get it to work. There's a SP1 coming up soon but if you're not one of the lucky ones, upgrading right now will not be worth it.

There's a demo out there, I don't know which version is it (make sure you install the hotfix right away), but it should give you an idea of how it will work on your computer. As for the new features, totally worth it in my opinion. Dem
... See more
I'm also very happy with the upgrade. There are some problems but none of them are too bad. However, some people can't even get it to work. There's a SP1 coming up soon but if you're not one of the lucky ones, upgrading right now will not be worth it.

There's a demo out there, I don't know which version is it (make sure you install the hotfix right away), but it should give you an idea of how it will work on your computer. As for the new features, totally worth it in my opinion. Demo: http://www.lspzone.com/en/Downloads/sdl-trados-studio-2009-demo.asp
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Edric Barbosa Filho
Edric Barbosa Filho
Local time: 22:57
English to Portuguese
Very much so, for me... Aug 31, 2009

My upgrade to Studio from Freelance 2007 raised my production from 2,000 words no-match per day to about 3,000 per day, thanks to all the info available very quickly, auto-suggest (using rather large memories to generate, the bigger the better) and the excellent user interface. Comparing to Freelance, the layout is like a "head-up display"...

"Mileage varies", of course, depending on system, hardware, experience with the program, translation memories' size etc......
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My upgrade to Studio from Freelance 2007 raised my production from 2,000 words no-match per day to about 3,000 per day, thanks to all the info available very quickly, auto-suggest (using rather large memories to generate, the bigger the better) and the excellent user interface. Comparing to Freelance, the layout is like a "head-up display"...

"Mileage varies", of course, depending on system, hardware, experience with the program, translation memories' size etc...

Rgds

Edric

[Edited at 2009-08-31 20:15 GMT]
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Annett Hieber
Annett Hieber  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 02:57
English to German
+ ...
Question Sep 1, 2009

Claudia Alvis wrote:

I'm also very happy with the upgrade. There are some problems but none of them are too bad. However, some people can't even get it to work. There's a SP1 coming up soon but if you're not one of the lucky ones, upgrading right now will not be worth it.

There's a demo out there, I don't know which version is it (make sure you install the hotfix right away), but it should give you an idea of how it will work on your computer. As for the new features, totally worth it in my opinion. Demo: http://www.lspzone.com/en/Downloads/sdl-trados-studio-2009-demo.asp


I am also interested in upgrading and, as mentioned by others before, I am also a bit anxious, because I read so much about problems getting it to work at all, including the installation. By the way, what is SP1? (Sorry, but I'm a newby to Trados). Up to now, I prefer SDLX to Trados.

Annett


 
Jerzy Czopik
Jerzy Czopik  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 02:57
Member (2003)
Polish to German
+ ...
Issues are partially resulting from not reading compatibility docs before Sep 1, 2009

I will not say, that all issues and crashes with Studio are because of that, but if the producer (SDL) states: it does officialy NOT work with Vista 64, then why wonder, if you install it on such system and the program does not work? This is only logical, that it MIGHT work, but the producer does not guarantee for that.
Said that, I must admit, that the actual release of Studio is not perfect. It crashes too often, has issues with copy&paste and some other smaller problems.
Seen from
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I will not say, that all issues and crashes with Studio are because of that, but if the producer (SDL) states: it does officialy NOT work with Vista 64, then why wonder, if you install it on such system and the program does not work? This is only logical, that it MIGHT work, but the producer does not guarantee for that.
Said that, I must admit, that the actual release of Studio is not perfect. It crashes too often, has issues with copy&paste and some other smaller problems.
Seen from a freelancer point of view, however, all those points do not reduce the plus an productivity Studio gives me, so working with it is still a good decision.
SP1 is "Service Pack 1", which is to be expected this Fall I hope, will bring major refinements in Studio. So upgrading now will do no harm.
As for the installation: in the meantime, since release I have installed Studio on 3 PCs with no major problems. I have had some problems with a test version of Studio, but since we are still beta-testing for SDL, the last releases are much better.
In fact good enough to be installed on a netbook and to work there! Of course you should not expect Studio to be able to convert a 1,000,000 TUs translation memory or prepare a 45 MB InDesign project, but it works fine for a prepared project. It takes time of course to start, but then it works. It took also a lot of time to install, but the process worked flawlesly. The netbook is running Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit and has an Intel Atom processor 1,33 GHz, 2048 MB RAM and 60 GB HDD (very slow, 4200 rpm).
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Emma Goldsmith
Emma Goldsmith  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 02:57
Member (2004)
Spanish to English
Studio: my likes and dislikes Sep 1, 2009

For what it's worth, here is my opinion after using Studio for a couple of months:

Likes:
1. Autosuggest
2.QA is clearly marked beside each segment, and doesn't get left until an end check (unless you want to)
2. spell checker works better (again, mistakes show up as you go along, unlike in TagEditor)
3. Tags are less conspicuous so don't get in the way so much
4. Excellent display options, such as "display unconfirmed segments" / "segments containing a
... See more
For what it's worth, here is my opinion after using Studio for a couple of months:

Likes:
1. Autosuggest
2.QA is clearly marked beside each segment, and doesn't get left until an end check (unless you want to)
2. spell checker works better (again, mistakes show up as you go along, unlike in TagEditor)
3. Tags are less conspicuous so don't get in the way so much
4. Excellent display options, such as "display unconfirmed segments" / "segments containing a certain word" (very useful in conjunction with find and replace)
5. "Go to untranslated segment" when you resume work next day.

Big problems (THESE REALLY MUST BE SOLVED WITH SP1):
1. Obviously, the crashes and often losing copy and paste functions. Bigger files = more crashes. the only life-saver is that you don't lose your work if you've been confirming segments as you go (they'll be in the TM) or if you've been pressing Ctrl+S every time you blink.
2. Having to open Suite, convert to ttx in Tag Editor before opening Studio, simply because my client wants a bilingual file and doesn't have Studio. That is a real pain.

Other dislikes:
1. I still can't get used to seeing source and target side by side. My eyes seem to be used to an up/down view from many years of Word and Tag Editor.
2. The slowness of working with big files (opening, find and replace, saving...)
3. Moving a project from desktop to laptop is a nightmare. there are so many files now, and paths to the files are so sensitive, that I've had to stop doing this.
4. Not being able to highlight some text in yellow or write a comment (because it doesn't show in the target doc). This was also a problem in Tag Editor. But it would be sooo useful.

Well, hope that helps, Eleni.

By the way, I didn't have any problems with the installation on either machine.

[Edited at 2009-09-01 09:00 GMT]
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Jerzy Czopik
Jerzy Czopik  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 02:57
Member (2003)
Polish to German
+ ...
About the dislikes Sep 1, 2009

Emma Goldsmith wrote:
...
Big problems (THESE REALLY MUST BE SOLVED WITH SP1):
1. Obviously, the crashes and often losing copy and paste functions. Bigger files = more crashes. the only life-saver is that you don't lose your work if you've been confirming segments as you go (they'll be in the TM) or if you've been pressing Ctrl+S every time you blink.

This is defintely better with Service Pack 1. No copy&paste issues at all, at least in my experience with very extensive usage of C&P operationen.
No crashes at all since installation of the test version.
Much fewer error messages - in fact reduced to the one appearing when typing to fast, when Studio thinks one would like to type outside of segment. Beside that a very specific one, which seems to occur only isolated on my desktop and can't be repeated on any other PC so far.

2. Having to open Suite, convert to ttx in Tag Editor before opening Studio, simply because my client wants a bilingual file and doesn't have Studio. That is a real pain.

Not that big pain really - I am used to use compatible ways, so there is no big difference. Everyone working with DeJavu for Trados clients is doing that too. These are just few clicks more, so I do not really see that as a pain. And you only need to preprocess in SDL Trados 2007, as Studio can save target also from ttx.

Other dislikes:
1. I still can't get used to seeing source and target side by side. My eyes seem to be used to an up/down view from many years of Word and Tag Editor.

This is not that bad. What is much worser in my eyes is the way differences are marked now. Instead of that clear view with yellow, grey and blue background you now get crimped view of underlined and strike-through text. With more than few differences no chance to get any idea what has changed.

2. The slowness of working with big files (opening, find and replace, saving...)

Definitely better with SP1, but also very strongly depending on your PC power.

3. Moving a project from desktop to laptop is a nightmare. there are so many files now, and paths to the files are so sensitive, that I've had to stop doing this.

I keep the folder structure strictly the same in all my PCs. Moving any projects is then no problem at all. I use an external HDD for synchronising - just copy the folder structure there and then to the laptop and voila - I can open files as I wish. But I must admit, that I do not copy projects, as I mostly use single files.

4. Not being able to highlight some text in yellow or write a comment (because it doesn't show in the target doc). This was also a problem in Tag Editor. But it would be sooo useful.

Commenting feature is included. You can comment single words or complete segments, as it was already possible in Tageditor. The segment gets highlighted then.


 
Emma Goldsmith
Emma Goldsmith  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 02:57
Member (2004)
Spanish to English
Can a comment in Studio really be seen in the target file? Sep 1, 2009

Hi Jerzy,
Thanks for your interesting comments on my dislikes.

Re: converting to ttx first. It's not just a few clicks away, it's a whole application away... but I do agree that it's very easy to save the final bilingual file at the end in ttx.

Re: Highlighting and comments.
I was very pleased to read your advice about comments. But I've just tried it and I added a comment to a word that I had selected in my target text. Sure enough, it came up duly highlig
... See more
Hi Jerzy,
Thanks for your interesting comments on my dislikes.

Re: converting to ttx first. It's not just a few clicks away, it's a whole application away... but I do agree that it's very easy to save the final bilingual file at the end in ttx.

Re: Highlighting and comments.
I was very pleased to read your advice about comments. But I've just tried it and I added a comment to a word that I had selected in my target text. Sure enough, it came up duly highlighted and with the comment in Studio but when I saved it as "save target in original format" and then opened the doc in Word, the comment and highlight were nowhere to be seen.
I need to be able to do this because if, for example, a client makes a mistake in the original, I would normally correct it and add a comment on the reason for me changing it. I just can't seem to do it.

I'm referring to seeing the comment in the original Word doc, not in Studio or in ttx.

Please let me know where I'm going wrong, or if (as I suspect) it can't be done.
Thanks
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Cristina Feletto
Cristina Feletto  Identity Verified
United States
Member (2007)
English to Italian
Some considerations... Sep 1, 2009

Dear Eleni,

I guess you could base your choice on how many agencies/editors you work with have already upgraded their Trados, and whether they request bilingual or clean files. I love using the new 2009 interface, but this non-compatibility issue is really a big negative side effect. Personally, since the upgrade I have used Trados 2009 only a couple of times. The rest of the time I had to go back to the 2007 version. Not to mention that installing Trados 2009 was the most difficul
... See more
Dear Eleni,

I guess you could base your choice on how many agencies/editors you work with have already upgraded their Trados, and whether they request bilingual or clean files. I love using the new 2009 interface, but this non-compatibility issue is really a big negative side effect. Personally, since the upgrade I have used Trados 2009 only a couple of times. The rest of the time I had to go back to the 2007 version. Not to mention that installing Trados 2009 was the most difficult thing ever. I had a problem with NET Framework, which is absolutely required for Trados 2009 (I didn't know this until I purchased it...). It took me about two days to figure out how to install/fix NET Framework on my computer, and I received no help from the company. The answer I received was "This is a problem with Microsoft, it has nothing to do with us. You should ask a computer expert to fix this problem." However, I had no problems installing Trados 2007, so I don't see why this new version has to be so difficult... I hope my considerations will help you making your choice. Ciao ciao

Cristina
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Jerzy Czopik
Jerzy Czopik  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 02:57
Member (2003)
Polish to German
+ ...
.NET Framework issues Sep 1, 2009

It would be great, if you wouldn't just state "I had issues", but also say which operating system you are using and what kind of issues they were.
SDL Trados 2007 does not use .NET Framework to that extent, as Studio does. So installing .NET Framework is indeed crucial for Studio. However, the Studio installer takes care about that and installs the .NET 3.5 version. It worked, as already said, for me on many different computers, utilizing Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista Home Premium 64 SP1 a
... See more
It would be great, if you wouldn't just state "I had issues", but also say which operating system you are using and what kind of issues they were.
SDL Trados 2007 does not use .NET Framework to that extent, as Studio does. So installing .NET Framework is indeed crucial for Studio. However, the Studio installer takes care about that and installs the .NET 3.5 version. It worked, as already said, for me on many different computers, utilizing Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista Home Premium 64 SP1 and Windows Vista Home Premium 32 SP2. So far I did not encounter any problem with the installation of this. However, if you google for "NET 3.5 Vista problem", you will get numerous hits reporting some problems, which are completly unrelated to Trados.

As for teh compatibility: since the final release of Studio I'm using it for nearly ALL my projects, including legacy projects. You can open TTX files in Studio and thus deliver TTX too. However it is crucial to test it and adapt the compatibility setting for TTX in Studio accrodingly. If you have to deliver a TTX, then the default compatibility setting will most probably not fit. I would recommend to change the treatment of tags in that case to the legacy way, when tags are treated as a single placeable each of them and not grouped in pairs (which is the default setting).
There is even a way of delivering billingual Word files, however the method is a bit work intensive and not just a few clicks away.
As with all compatible solutions, it works in most cases - but should be tested in every case BEFORE one does start to use the compatible way for any projects.
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Jerzy Czopik
Jerzy Czopik  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 02:57
Member (2003)
Polish to German
+ ...
Commenting in Studio Sep 1, 2009

is indeed and unfortunately limited to the Studio file (also to the XLIFF file), exactly as it was in Tageditor before - and TBH exactly as in any other CAT tool, which allowes commeting. Adding comments in target text from inside a CAT tool seems impossible to me - as you are NOT working in target. The only exception was working wit Word as a semi-CAT on Word files. But I am really happy to be able to leave the Word interface beyond me.
Nevertheless, seen from this point of view your disl
... See more
is indeed and unfortunately limited to the Studio file (also to the XLIFF file), exactly as it was in Tageditor before - and TBH exactly as in any other CAT tool, which allowes commeting. Adding comments in target text from inside a CAT tool seems impossible to me - as you are NOT working in target. The only exception was working wit Word as a semi-CAT on Word files. But I am really happy to be able to leave the Word interface beyond me.
Nevertheless, seen from this point of view your dislike about commenting must be left valid.

Converting any file to ttx is really a few clicks away. You need to start the Workbench, open an empty TM with the corresponding language pair and then chose the function "Translate". As result you'll get a presegmented TTX. After opening the TTX in Studio you just click "Delete all segments with draft status" and you can start. These are really few clicks. And also this way you can ensure, that the segmentation is exactly as it would be in 2007.
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Antoní­n Otáhal
Antoní­n Otáhal
Local time: 02:57
Member (2005)
English to Czech
+ ...
Commenting in CAT tools Sep 1, 2009

I don't know about SDLT Studio, but in Transit you can comment on any segment and easily "print"out a pdf file containing the original text, translated text and my comment for each commented segment (and no other segments are seen there).

This way it is easy to review by the client and not interfering with the output - a reasonable compromise IMHO. If you think it over, any direct commenting in the output file, especially highlighted, would be rather risky tag-wise and I can fully
... See more
I don't know about SDLT Studio, but in Transit you can comment on any segment and easily "print"out a pdf file containing the original text, translated text and my comment for each commented segment (and no other segments are seen there).

This way it is easy to review by the client and not interfering with the output - a reasonable compromise IMHO. If you think it over, any direct commenting in the output file, especially highlighted, would be rather risky tag-wise and I can fully understand it is not supported.

Maybe there is s similar option in SDLT STudio?

Antonin
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Studio 2009: Is it worth upgrading?







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