I like many of you have used Trados since Trados 5 but fell foul of the licensing hiatus.

Eventually as you say, this was sorted out but I have since reverted to T2007 as 2009 is so excessively cumbersome to use. Difficult to get easy wordcounts for estimates or check progress. Also none of my agencies use 2009 as they want unclean files.

So I am now looking at alternatives – you say MemoQ is good… and Déja Vu? I’ll try them out – thanks for the tips!

Meanwhile back to 2007 to try to earn some money!

I first bought Trados 2.xx some 10 years ago — and switched very quickly to DéjàVu. However, clients asked me to deliver Trados files and so I updated several times until SDL Trados 2007. Every time I spent money for this soft and I swore in all my languages using the very most ugly words I ever could find! SDL Trados 2007 never ever run properly on just one of my 4 machines!

Ok, calm down, Nils! Fortunately I had DéjàVu and since well one year I use the for me even better MemoQ.

More and more I fortunately get rid of Trados, SDLX and yes: even of MSWord which is not running properly either since I installed version 2007 in parallel to version 2003.

There is a parallel of the Trados policy: Across. However, this soft at least is for free for freelancers. Once a client asked me to use Across for regular good jobs. I refused. “Find a way that we can use standard formats and I would be more then pleased to take part in this interesting project — or I have to say no, because I can not work with Across in an efficient way”.

Hey people, we’re getting out of the mess soon I hope. Future will stick to open formats (XLIFF, TMX, TBX…). So for me SDL Trados Studio 2009 (which I never ever would install even if I got paid for it) is good news

Best regards,
Nils

Have you validated it with XLIFF Checker?

“Yes, to be able to keep both is nice NOW, but that was only changed after the protest and it was never planned by Trados.” – You really don’t understand this. The only change was to leave us with a permanent license instead of a temporary one. It was always the plan as far as I can see to have 2007 in use until 2009 didn’t need it.

“creates a proprietary SDL-XLIFF” – you mean the industry standard xliff as set down by OASIS.

“TW_Users, go and count them yourself” – I don’t think you have. I read all the posts and didn’t see that many.

“Well, the complaint is that you can’t just open a Word document and start translating. AFAIK, you always have to set it up as a project” – You can open a file from your desktop without setting up a Project. You can right click from anywhere or you can just open document for translation.

“There are other translation work flows, but a lot of people work that way and now it is not possible anymore. And it is not just for review purposes” – What is it for then? Maybe a closer look would show they are not necessary at all. It is an outdated, problematic file format that has been destined for retirement for a while I think.

Work for Trados? No more than Kevin Lossner works for MemoQ. Masked Translator… who?

RE: Uncleaned files – it supports them but cannot create them, it creates a proprietary SDL-XLIFF but not a bilingual Word document that EVERYONE can use or a TTX that everyone with a half way current Trados can use

I originally wrote the post in early June (June 8 to be exact). They have fixed the license expiration issue, but only after translators were so outraged. They could have saved the outrage if they had just not limited licenses in the first place.

RE: Project management – Synergy was optional and most people did not use it. In Studio, the integrated environment is mandatory.

Keep the old version – it is necessary because you cannot import a general TMW with Studio, it has to be with the Suite or you have to take a detour over other formats. Yes, to be able to keep both is nice NOW, but that was only changed after the protest and it was never planned by Trados. And it is not like it is something special to be able to keep the old version, with almost everything else you can still run the old version, for example Windows, several Adobe versions, etc. I myself am still running Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional.

Specifically to Lazlo’s post:
>>”Many of the translators who bought the product are regretting their decision and want to switch back to their old version ­ but then you are out the money.”
>Where did this “fact” come from and how many is “many”. This is more like pure hype to support your post.
Answer: TW_Users, go and count them yourself

>>“Studio 2009 has placed more importance on project management than on translation”
>More nonsense, have you even used this product? The features for a translator are all there to see (granted there are a few bugs that need to be solved but I have seen posts from translators on ProZ and TW_Users who say they are already more productive despite the few bugs) and you don’t need to use any of the Project Management features if you don’t want to.
Answer: Well, the complaint is that you can’t just open a Word document and start translating. AFAIK, you always have to set it up as a project, even if your document is a 5 liner

>>“For example, apparently Studio 2009 doesn’t allow uncleaned files.”
>Qualify please..! I don’t believe it allows uncleaned bilingual doc files. If you need to work with these you have to use SDL Trados 2007. Personally I really can’t see the point of these anyway. I have only ever been asked to provide these as the basis of a review. There are plenty of other ways to do that.
Answer from an in-house PM/translator: That may be the case for you but not for me. I ONLY get uncleaned files from my translators. There are other translation work flows, but a lot of people work that way and now it is not possible anymore. And it is not just for review purposes

RE: having to sign a letter confirming they won’t get a second license. This happened to a friend of mine – before they changed the licensing policies. I assume this is now moot since they changed the policy after all the outrage.

>>“Also note that SDL Trados 2007 Suite is included as part of SDL Trados Studio 2009. It will be fully functional until 30/06/2010.”
>Wrong… also out of date, this is permanent.
Answer: Yeah, it is NOW but was never meant to be Trados policy when they released the product

I do mention in the post that they changed the licensing policy. My beef with Trados is that they had planned all these changes and were forced to change the policy due to all the outrage.

Mr. Pisti, do you by any chance work for Trados? You seem to be their biggest supporter on various translation blogs. I googled you and can’t seem to find any mention of you anywhere other than here. In any event I value the opinions of the Masked Translator and Kevin Lossner who are well-known in the field. This is the last I will say on this subject. I have more important things to do – like translate and proofread.

If so please email me at enedas@xml-intl.com

I understand if this post gets removed but I need to reach out to you somehow.

And I can attest from my personal experience that their technical support has gone completely down the drain in the past few years – and is perfectly non existent for non-paying customers. I have even taken to warning colleagues that the software is rather stable and bug-free, but they’d better know their way around a computer if they plan on getting it because they likely will have to solve their problems on their own.

So sorry, but I can’t honestly recommend Trados any more. Too bad, because it used to be a great product.

“It’s not an upgrade, it’s a completely new product.”
Sounds like SDL Trados Studio 2009

“…a very powerful feature absent in most other translator environments: the ability to link and unlink a very large number of TMs simultaneously, without having to merge & unmerge them.”
Sounds like SDL Trados Studio 2009