SDL Trados is the leading computer-aided tool (CAT) in localisation. It assists with quality, consistency, and turnaround times for website localisation projects.
Kasumi Cunnie and Cristina Marín, Content Analysts at Locaria, had the opportunity to attend the SDL Trados Roadshow that took place in London on the 3rd of May. The full day event brought together many industry professionals such as linguists, Language Service Providers (LSPs) and Corporate Language Departments and it included several presentations and overviews about the latest developments in SDL Trados as well as some practical training sessions.
The agenda of the event included some of the topics below:
CAT Tool User Experience
What is UX? The basic rule of UX (user experience) is to reduce the effort someone puts in to get out what is needed, and make it a pleasant process.
So, when it comes to CAT tools, how has its UX been improved to cope with the translation boom? In recent years, the growth of the translation industry has increased from appx. 23 billion USD in 2009 to appx. 41 billion USD in 2017. Translation is now a lot faster without the loss of quality. There’s also been exciting growth & diversity in new languages, not to mention more delivery channels – application, social media, video and website content to name a few.
Over the years, Trados Studio has introduced new features. Started with Multiterm in 1995, followed by TagEditor, project creation wizard was implemented in 2006 and Trados 2009 was integrated in 2009. Trados also addressed its UX by introducing Drag & Drop features for files, and Cloud Terminology.
Machine Translation
Machine translation (MT) is becoming one of the main drivers for change and has deeply influenced the translation industry in recent years.
The demand for MT in different industries such as automotive, retail, manufacturing, as well as travel & leisure often involves different levels of post-editing.
Post-editing (PE) is a task requiring human intervention for editing the output of a machine translation system. Although it replaces the main translation stage, it involves much more than simple proofreading or review.
With the arrival of PE, new profiles are now emerging in the translation industry. This is especially true when it comes to content like user guides, alerts/notifications, user reviews and email support, which simply requires a publishable or understandable post-editing level.
New profiles include MT Post-Editor, MT Evaluator, and MT Linguistic Consultant where higher levels of understanding of MT, PE, and quality expectation are needed.
Tips on how to perform a good post-editing were also shared at this year’s Trados Roadshow. These included making use of existing MT output, and to not over-write or under-edit this output. While MT can sometimes speed up work, it’s important to always make sure the source is closely checked to avoid unnecessary or missing elements.
With requirements constantly changing, it’s important to be open-minded, especially with client demands for MT going up.
SDL Apps
In the translation industry, the SDL AppStore is the only one to provide as many as 250 apps. With 82% of apps being free, users will be able to customise and extend functionality.
Introduction to SDL Trados 2019 – to Be Released in July
User experience is going to be at the heart of SDL Trados Studio 2019 to help diversify the user base. New starters, intermediate and experienced users, and project managers alike will be able to have more enhanced experiences.
New Features
Clear Guidance On-Demand: Useful tips will appear to guide users to use all the powerful features.
Instant Access to Everything with “Tell Me”: The studio performs a command and users can simply tell it what they are looking for.
Effortless Project Creation: The new project creation wizard will enhance the project handling experience. This process will give users the option to create a project in one easy step.
Practical Sessions
The event also included a few practical sessions, in which the following features were covered:
- Advanced QA Project Settings
- SDL Trados GroupShare, the browser-based project creation allows the project to be agile and quick. Also allows translator and reviewer to work together simultaneously.
- How to work with cloud-based term bases.
All in all, it was a great opportunity to find out the latest news about localisation technology, and also to do some networking with other industry professionals!
