A rather frequent problem that is occurring lately is this: you have upgraded to the latest and greatest SDL Trados Studio 2009, ready to use all its super-duper functionality with your newly arrived assignment and… wham! The customer informs you that they don’t work with SDL Trados Studio 2009. That is, if you’ve been prudent to inform them beforehand that you have this new version. If you informed them afterwards, or just delivered to them a bunch of .sdlproj, .sdlxliff and .sdltm files, then the surprise will be even bigger for you (likewise for the customer…).

Customer vs Latest CAT Tool = 1 – 0

You might be wondering (and quite naturally), why in the world hasn’t this customer upgraded to the latest and greatest piece of software out there. They surely can afford it, right? Well, it’s not that simple. Translation companies invest heavily on specific CAT tools, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and Workflow platforms and then do some magic voodoo stuff to connect all this software together. This way they can manage more efficiently (i.e. automate) the whole translation cycle of projects: assignments, PO issuing, payments etc. You will be surprised how many tasks run concurrently on a daily basis in any Translation company. Keeping track of all this information is vital, so any kind of automation is a necessity. And that’s why a lot of money goes into this integration process.

But when the customer created his own integrated Workflow platform, the chosen CAT tool was, undoubtedly, older than the latest SDL Trados offering. And, since all companies follow the motto “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, they won’t dare touch the CAT tool component of their glued-together platform. Add to the above the extra costs and precious time spent on training employees on using this platform… well, you get the idea.

Turning The Tide

Not all is lost, though. There are a few tricks that can be applied to overcome the customer’s shortcomings, and allow you to use your brand new SDL Trados Studio 2009.

Trick #1: Request TagEditor files (.ttx) & the TM in either Trados TMW or TMX format

SDL Trados Studio 2009 has maintained the compatibility with TagEditor files (.ttx), and also has the capability to export back into .ttx once you’ve completed the translation (Save As Target in the File menu item). Just make sure you request the TM in either the native SDL Trados 2007 (or prior version) format (.tmw along with the other four hidden files: .mdf, .mtf, .mwf, .iix) or in the universal TMX format.

When you complete your translation, be sure to export the files back into .ttx files and the TM in TMX format (SDL Trados Studio 2009 only supports exporting a TM in TMX format).

To be 100% sure everything will work OK on the customer’s side, I’d suggest doing this test: open the .ttx file in SDL Trados Studio 2009 and translate the first couple of segments. Save and then export into .ttx. Send this generated TagEditor file to the client requesting them to confirm that it opens without issues on their side. This is very handy, especially when dealing with a big project, to avoid any technical issues later on.

Note: SDL Trados Studio 2009 doesn’t support, neither creates, unclean DOC/RTF files as is the norm with SDL Trados 2007 and prior versions. Please keep this in mind. Any such unclean file must be converted into a TagEditor .ttx file for processing in SDL Trados Studio 2009.

Trick #2: Create your own TagEditor files (.ttx) & suitable TM from the source files (requires SDL Trados 2007 or prior also installed)

This trick applies only to translators who also have the previous SDL Trados 2007 version (or prior) installed. SDL Trados Studio 2009 allows the simultaneous existence of previous Trados & SDLX versions for better backword compatibility.

Note: Let me clarify the obvious here. I assume that the reason you’ll get into all this trouble is because you’d like to work in SDL Trados Studio 2009 and take advantage of its super-duper features, and be able to deliver to the customer unclean files that they can process (i.e. .ttx). Otherwise, you could simply work in your comfy old SDL Trados 2007 or prior version, since it’s already installed.

Make sure you have the customer’s approval to create your own TagEditor files from the source files and inform them that they will be receiving clean (if required), unclean (.ttx) files and a TM (either in native Trados .tmw or Trados TXT export format). Then just proceed creating the .ttx files, for example by opening them in TagEditor and saving etc. Once you end up with all the required .ttx files, fire up your SDL Trados Studio 2009 and start working.

When you complete your translation, export the translated files back to .ttx and the TM in TMX format. It’s good practice to open randomly a few of these exported .ttx files in TagEditor just to make sure they open correctly. Regarding the exported TM (which is in TMX format), if the customer is OK with it in this format then you’re set to go. Otherwise, import it into a blank Trados 2007 (or prior) TM and send to the customer the five TM files (.tmw, .mdf, .mtf, .mwf, .iix), or a Trados TXT export.

TagEditor DTD Settings File (.ini) & SDL Trados Studio 2009

A question that arises frequently by translators using SDL Trados Studio 2009 is this: The customer has provided TagEditor files along with a DTD Settings file (.ini). How will I use this .ini file in SDL Trados Studio 2009 along with the .ttx file?

This is a valid question, and most of us know how important it is to actually use that .ini file when translating such .ttx files. That .ini file defines what is a tag and, thus, what is translatable in a .ttx, so it’s critical. The good news is that you don’t have to do anything with that .ini file in SDL Trados Studio 2009. The .ttx file should have it “embedded” in it when you open the .ttx file in SDL Trados Studio 2009. If you have SDL Trados 2007 or prior installed too, open the .ttx file and make sure it’s using that .ini file. If it is, then you’re set. If it doesn’t, TagEditor will request it by opening a dialog box to locate it. Do that, then Save the .ttx file. You’re good to go now.

When you complete your translation in SDL Trados Studio 2009 and export your .ttx file, open it in TagEditor again. You should see that it’s still using the proper .ini file.

There are cases where you have to create and/or deliver an exported version of your TM (Translation Memory). This might seem as an unneeded task since the customer should be able to use directly your TM in its current format. Well, in theory, this assumption is correct but there is some valid rationale behind exporting a TM. Here’s a short list of the reasons an exported TM may prove handy:

- Reduced file size: You will be amazed at how smaller an exported TM can get. Depending on the exported format (for example TXT or TMX format), you will see a decrease of more than 30% – 40% in file size, even more in some cases. This reduction will be evident once you compress the exported TM, though, using a suitable utility (i.e. WinZip, WinRAR, 7-Zip etc.).

- Backup friendly: Depending on your CAT tool, your working TM might consist of several files which all need to be present when using it. For example, in SDL Trados 2007 and prior versions, a TM consists of 5 files:

A common, unintentional error a lot of translators do is to send only one of these files back to the customer (usually it’s the one with the visible icon and the extension .tmw). Of course, this single file will not allow the other person to access the TM. All 5 files are required to ship together. Again, this example concerns SDL Trados 2007 and prior versions.

So, as you can guess, whenever you export your TM you always end up with single file that can easily be compressed and stored away for future reference and use.

- CAT Tool cross-compatibility: This is one of the most useful benefits of exporting a TM. How many times have you been in a situation where your customer is using another CAT tool but gives you the OK to work on the source files using your own tool. The catch is that he also requires that you send back a TM export so he can update his master TM. Usually, the requested export format is either Trados TXT or TMX, which most modern CAT tools export to. So, you end up simply creating an exported TM once you’ve finalized your work and you’re good to go. Naturally, this plays both ways: the customer can send you a TM export for you to import in your CAT tool of choice.

Thereby, TM exports are good for you. But, how do you initiate the export process? Well, that depends on your CAT tool of choice. The option to do so should be quite evident in your tool’s menu (usually under the File or TM/Translation Memory menu entries). Below is a quick walk through for SDL Trados 2007 (and prior versions) and SDL Trados Studio 2009.

SDL Trados 2007 (and prior versions): In your Translator’s Workbench Window (TWB) select the menu option File -> Export… Click the OK button on the windows that pop-ups and you’ll end up at the Create Export File dialog box. In the Save as type dropdown list you can select the format of the TM export, as shown below:

SDL Trados Studio 2009: In the main pane situated on the left side, click on Translation Memories and then, from the menu, select File -> Export… The Export dialog will appear in which you hit on the Browse… button to select the location to save your TM export. Note that the only format available for export is TMX.

For the perfectionists out there, here’s a tip that will guarantee your TagEditor files (file extension: .ttx) are fully translated and have no tag/punctuation/consistency errors.

Open the TagEditor file you wish to verify and from the menu select Tools -> Plug-ins… A dialog box will pop-up with various options. For this tip, we’ll concentrate on the Plug-in category Verifiers.

Enable (by ticking) the check-boxes SDL TRADOS Generic Tag Verifier and SDL TRADOS QA Checker, as shown in the screenshot below:

Note: Depending on the Trados version you have installed on your system, or whether SDL Trados Studio 2009 is also installed, you might see an extra option appear as SDL TRADOS QA Checker 2.0. In this case you can use either one of the QA Checkers as they contain more or less the same options.

Click on the SDL TRADOS QA Checker and then click on the button Properties. In the new dialog box that appears we can now fine-tune the QA checks we want. As you will see there are quite a lot of options to fiddle with. For the purpose of this tip, we’ll only focus on enabling the options that will catch missing/inconsistent translations, tag & punctuation problems, which from the basic checks for a good delivery.

Thus, enable (by ticking) the following:

In tab Segment Verification:

- Enable Check for forgotten and empty translations

- Enable Check for target segments that are identical to their source segments

In tab Inconsistencies:

- Enable only Check for inconsistent translations

In tab Punctuation:

- Enable whatever you think is applicable to your target language

In tab Numbers:

- Enable Check for numbers

Once you’re done, click on the OK button in the Properties dialog box and, again, OK in the Plug-ins dialog window.

To run the verification checks either from the menu select Tools -> Verify or press F8. After a short while, the Messages pane will appear at the bottom of your TagEditor window showing the results from the checks applied. You then just have to sort through the results and locate the valid ones (usually there are some false-positives). Once you locate such a case, double-click it and instantly the cursor will move to that segment. You can then process it as usual and make the necessary correction.

Note: Once the verification checks are run, and in the same folder where your TagEditor file is located, two log files will appear containing the results of the verification. If you click on the HTML version of the log file (the other is in XML format) you will see the same results as in the Message pane but in a nicer output. These files can safely be deleted if not needed by you.

Once you’ve made the necessary corrections, it’s a good practice to run one last verification just to be sure that everything’s indeed OK now.