Trados is an automated translation system originally (since 1992) developed by the German company Trados GmbH. It is one of the world leaders in the class of Translation Memory (TM, translation memory) systems.

Trados GmbH was founded in 1984 in Stuttgart. In 1997, 20% of the company's shares were acquired by Microsoft. In 2002, Trados merged with Uniscape Inc., and the combined company was named Trados Inc. headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. In June 2005, Trados was acquired by UK-based SDL International and a joint product with Trados, SDLX, was launched in 2006.

The Trados system includes several modules designed for translating texts of various formats: Microsoft Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, texts in HTML format and other metadata, FrameMaker, InterLeaf documents, etc., as well as for maintaining terminology databases (MultiTerm module). The latest version of the system released by the independent company Trados is 7.0.

How the Trados system works

The Translation Memory concept involves identifying fragments in the translated text, translations of which are already available in the translation database, and thereby reducing the amount of work of the translator. This identification is called alignment or comparison. Fragments that remain untranslated after alignment (matching) are transferred further for manual processing to a translator or machine translation system (Machine Translation, MT). At this stage, the translator can select newly translated fragments and enter new pairs of parallel texts in two languages ​​into the database. This scheme works best on texts of the same type, where the repetition of phrases is quite high.

Basic modules of the Trados system (Trados)

* Trados Workbench is the main module for document translation, integrated into the Microsoft Word shell.
* TagEditor - module for translating documents in HTML, XML, etc. format.
* WinAlign - a module for creating a translation memory based on previously translated bilingual texts.
* S-Tagger - module for translating documents in FrameMaker and InterLeaf formats.
* T-Window - module for translating documents in PowerPoint format.
* MultiTerm - module for maintaining glossaries.
* ExtraTerm

The contribution of automated translation systems, which have become particularly widespread in recent years, is difficult to overestimate. However, there is a lack of information, including in Russian, with descriptions of the most common automated translation products and their purposes. This article attempts to give a brief description of Trados automated translation software products.

SDL Trados TM

Trados Translator's Workbench module

Module Translator"sWorkbench implements the main functions of Translation Memory (TM), by storing completed translations in Translation Memory, the user of the TRADOS system increases the efficiency of subsequent projects.

Translator's Workbench (also Workbench) is a database system that provides storage of translation units. Each translation unit (TU) consists of a source segment and its translation.

WinAlign module

Module WinAlign is designed to replenish Translation Memory by processing already completed translations (those translations that were completed before the TRADOS program became available to the user).

WinAlign allows you to create translation databases by linking segments of text and the finished translation. To do this, WinAlign first analyzes texts in the source and target languages, and then links the individual source and target segments, thereby creating translation units. The user views the results of this synchronization and then saves the result as a text file and then imports it into Translator’s Workbench.

TagEditor module

ModuleTagEditor allows you to translate HTML/SGML/XML, tagged files and perform text pre-processing. Can work with Excel and Power Point. TagEditor translates documents in HTML, SGML, XML, ASP, JSP formats. TagEditor includes an XML Validator, which guarantees more accurate formatting when working with XML files.

TRADOS Freelance

Version TradosFreelance intended for freelance translators.

There are limitations in capabilities compared to Classic TRADOS TM Solution and TRADOS Language Service Provider - TRADOS Freelance does not support collective work with a single TM memory.

TRADOS Freelance includes the following modules:

• Translator's Workbench: Limited to supported languages. The user can only work with 5 languages, which are selected from the general list at the installation stage. There is no possibility of allocating trademarks for the project.
• TagEditor: no limits.
• T-WindowCollection: no limits.
• WinAlign: restrictions: 5 languages ​​and up to 10 pairs of files in the project.
• MultiTerm Workstation: no limits.

SDL Trados Multiterm

MultiTerm is a modern terminology management system Trados. The main terminology management interface is MultiTerm. Through this interface, users can create term databases, add and edit terms, view the term database, search, filter, and export data. MultiTerm can be used as a standalone system with a local terminology database. In addition, MultiTerm can be used as a client application in a multi-user environment, connected to remote or networked term databases for which appropriate access rights are available.

Multiterm Extract Component

Retrieves and displays a list of potential terms and their likely translations. This allows you to extract terms from monolingual or bilingual documents, as well as from translation memory. The MultiTerm Extract interface allows you to quickly and easily check extracted terms. You can use a significant number of export options to include extracted terms in existing TRADOS MultiTerm termbases or export to MultiTerm XML or tab-delimited format. You can also check terminology consistency between the term base and the translated file.

TRADOS MultiTerm Server

This server solution allows you to significantly simplify terminology management.

Trados MultiTerm Server provides the ability to access and distribute terminology via the Internet or Intranet.

MultiTerm Workstation is a toolkit for working with terminology locally.

The user can add terminology to the database on the fly without interrupting his translation in Word.

SDL Trados TM Server

TM Server allows you to host the Translation Memory database on a server and provide access to this server via the Internet/Intranet. The solution is based on a scalable client-server architecture that supports Microsoft SQL server and Oracle databases on Windows and Unix platforms. TRADOS TM Server. it is a system that meets the most stringent requirements of the modern translation process. With the help of TM Server, highly efficient use of a TM database of almost unlimited size is ensured. TM Server processes tasks with tens of thousands or millions of TUs equally quickly, regardless of whether 2, 20 or 200 users access the database simultaneously.

What is Trados?

Trados is a special software product that belongs to the so-called family. TM programs. TM programs allow you to accumulate and use when translating the current document a special database created by the translator himself in the process of his previous translations - a memory bank of past translations or, in short, translation memory (TM).

Trados Studio – software package for translators

Trados consists of three main components. Firstly, this is the work environment. Those. a translator working in Trados does not open a document in Microsoft Word or Excel, he opens a file in a special software shell, which may not have much of what Microsoft Office has, but it does have various functions that are useful when translating . Secondly, Trados contains two types of databases. One database is the same “translation memory” that can remember everything that the translator is currently translating. Another database is the term memory or MultiTerm. The translator can enter individual terms and their meaning, some explanations and even pictures into this database.

Why do you need Trados?

For the translator

Initially, upon purchase, Trados is empty. Those. it contains everything you need, except for the “most important” for the uninitiated - there are no dictionaries, i.e. not at all. When purchasing Trados, a translator does not spend thousands of dollars to buy some secret dictionary that cunning but greedy translators have, but ordinary citizens and “poor” businessmen do not.

But the translator has clients. Which, as a rule, are customer companies or translation agencies. What does this mean for a translator? And this means a stream of similar documents that he must translate. But what does "similar" mean? In this case, this means that the company with which the translator works has some established terminology and standard materials. Which can be repeated, with variations, of course, even with big changes, but sometimes for years. In addition, the company enters into contracts and corresponds with partners. The agreements and partners are, of course, different, but they definitely have something in common. In short, for a translator, a customer is a set of characteristic phrases and special terms that may be accepted only in this small segment of the market, but without an understanding of which outsiders have nothing to do in this market.

Accordingly, the translator faces two tasks: firstly, to translate the material as accurately as possible (let me remind you that a translator usually has several customers; some may place an order once a year, for example; accordingly, you can forget by the next order that you were ever there translated), secondly, to make sure that repeated pieces of this material are also repeated during translation. Otherwise, you must agree, it would be somehow indecent to translate this way today and that way tomorrow.

That is why the translator buys and uses special TM programs, which allow him, firstly, to quickly remember, even in small details and nuances, the specifics of his client, and secondly, to translate similar pieces of text as closely as possible. Trados can significantly speed up and improve the quality of translation work: you don’t have to painfully remember where you found the meaning of a particular term last time (and you can’t even find that meaning this time), and you can quickly insert translations into repeated places. So the costs pay off over time.

For translation agencies

Translation agencies also have problems. It would seem that you are telling and telling customers that a translator is a person, he cannot physically translate more than 10-12 pages of text a day, and the customers seem to have agreed: take everyone out and put in volumes from 100 pages to infinity, and preferably “yesterday” . At the same time, in words, customers are ready to agree with “some reduction in the quality of translation,” because in order to translate this voluminous document in a short time, you need to involve several people in its translation at once (and each of them has their own characteristics, their own understanding and their own style). But for some reason, sometimes, over time, of course, it turns out that the customer is not satisfied with the quality of the translation and this very urgent order, and he cannot understand how the same term (or phrase) in one place is translated so, but in another it is different. Even if the entire translation is generally correct, why is there such inconsistency, where did all these synonyms come from? It is clear who is extreme in such situations.

And that’s why the translation agency also buys Trados. Only a more complex (and expensive) version of it. To connect your translators to a single database so that they can download a single terminology, translate identical pieces of text in the same way, and generally communicate and discuss a single strategy for translating this material.

What a translation looks like using Trados

For the translator

So, the order has been received. If this is a new customer, the translator creates a “project”. Which is initially as empty as Trados at the time of purchase. Then, while in the "project", the translator opens the file that needs to be translated and begins his work. Trados remembers offers. And if the new document contains at least two identical sentences, the translation only needs to be done once, and it will be inserted into these two places at once. But that is not all. Trados will simultaneously “remember” the translation of this sentence in the database for this customer. Those. if this sentence appears in a new document from the same customer, it will already be inserted as translated. In addition, Trados will mark all “similar” offers with a special designation, i.e. those where there are almost all the words that are in the sample sentence, but there may be other words that are not in the sample. Those. in fact, in the case of a high degree of similarity, the translator will only have to translate a piece of a sentence, sometimes even one word.

At the same time, the database can be adjusted. Suppose this term was translated this way, but suddenly the customer came to the conclusion that it should be translated differently. No problem! A small adjustment to the database, and all subsequent translations will proceed in a new way. Here's an example. What phone do you have, cell or mobile? Think about it, now it’s more mobile. But 10 years ago it was more like a cell phone. So, in the case of Trados, no tragedy occurred, and the old databases, with slight corrections, can still be used.

Finally, the file for the new customer is completed. The translator converts this file back into a Word, Excel or PowerPoint document, and in addition, saves a new database for this customer. Next time, if this client comes back again, the translator will be a little better prepared for the job. Everyone is happy. The translator is happy; he works faster and better (and can focus his attention on the most difficult areas). The customer is satisfied; he receives high-quality translations that are improving day by day.

For translation agencies

Believe it or not, the main headache of any translation agency is where to find translators in the required quantity. Suppose you have been working in the translation services market for a long time and successfully. You have regular customers. Regular translators are also “attached” to regular clients. Which "ate the dog" on this topic. But these regular customers are highly variable. Today things are going well for him, and tomorrow - look - he has withered away. And another one sent orders for three kopecks for years, and suddenly something unimaginable began to happen to him: the shaft was driving and driving, he couldn’t breathe. Therefore, there are either many “attached” translators or a wild shortage. And the problem is different: there are people, specialists, professionals, but, unfortunately, they have never worked in this area, in this segment. This means that if they start, they will mess things up out of habit. So what should I do? Put the main “specialist” in charge of the team of “beginners”? Does he want it? Can he do it? And if in the package of documents there is one, well, very important document, which must be translated by a “specialist”, because it is based on this document that the customer will evaluate the quality of the work (hehe, he’s the one who says that now!).

There is a way out, and it is called Trados. As you remember, Trados is a translation memory, first and foremost. And this memory can be “disconnected” and sent to everyone who needs it. In addition, Trados is a term memory. Which can also be “detached” and sent to colleagues. Thus, if our “chief specialist” translator previously worked in Trados, he can transfer his bases to the entire team of translators, and they will no longer work from scratch, they will have the opportunity to quickly navigate the terminology and even, if lucky, in the process your own translation, “unexpectedly” to see passages already translated by “someone” and to catch the style of translation.

Now let’s imagine that a translation agency has a special, expensive Trados, which allows you to manage all databases centrally. Let's say a team is working. This means that each team member can almost immediately see how a particular piece was translated by his colleague. He can correct it immediately (if necessary), and he can benefit from the work of others (recall that Trados inserts the translation in all places where it matches 100%, and also marks those places where the match is, say, 80 %, i.e. the sentence differs by one word or short phrase).

Thus, everyone is happy again. The customer is satisfied, his wish - to translate a large volume of material in a short time - was fulfilled and carried out at a high level. The translator is happy because he made good money, even on unfamiliar material (which in other conditions is given with great difficulty and, naturally, subjectively it seems that it is poorly paid at first). The translation company is happy because whose database do you think it is? That's right, it's the property of the company. We kill two birds with one stone: you can additionally bind the staff to yourself, and you can, if necessary, connect a new staff. But there is also a third “hare”. Let’s assume that our company’s tender for translations to this customer was “outbid” by a competitor. Well, shouldn’t we sell this very database to our “evil” competitors? At least some benefit.

I agree with most of the comments about Trados. I don’t use Trados myself and it’s unlikely that I will, although I translate cubic meters of texts.

Regardless of any financial benefits, there is a purely psychological point:
Translation with an Erika typewriter and correction tape, translation on a PC and translation from TM are three different things. The translator thinks differently in all three cases.

I translate any text in 40-60 minutes per page (1680 characters), but not because I can’t type faster, but because I can’t think faster and formulate a meaningful translation.

I am always outraged when translation agencies begin to dictate to a translator what to use. In fact, all means are good, the result is important. Otherwise, it is possible to prohibit translators from using paper or, conversely, electronic dictionaries.

For me, translating even a technical text is a creative process that I control with my biocomputer, and not a mindless substitution of other people’s options with post-editing. Translation of one large text by several translators with unification of translation of terms is a separate topic. Trados will certainly help here.

But editing even your own translations (for example, making changes that were made after the fact by the customer) can take more time than the translation itself.

At least for me, it’s more convenient and reliable to translate it automatically myself than to translate 100 pages through Trados in 3 days, and then spend 5 days editing and sorting it out. But I know translators who type slowly. And that’s why they prefer to make a “fish” automatically (they don’t care, Trados or Promt) and then comb it a little. But this is not a professional translation! This is suitable for purely informational translation with low quality requirements.

The texts that I translate are so complex and varied that I would have to make 100-200 different databases for each topic and for each customer separately. After all, even the same terms are often translated differently by different companies in the same industry.

That is, first, I will have to spend a lot of money on paying for the program, which also loads the PC insanely. Then I have to do a tremendous amount of preparatory work. And the customer for whom I made a database of verified and polished parallel texts may never appear again.

But again, I repeat, each translator is free to choose those tools that are more convenient for him and which, in his opinion, provide the best final result.

And Trados and TM systems, by and large, are beneficial primarily to translation agencies. Let's say a certain word appears in the text 100 times, but the translator will be paid for it only once. That is, this is another reason to reduce the translator’s fee, although the translator must translate and think about each use of the same word separately.

But most importantly, translation turns from creativity into processing of arrays of information.

And translation as a collective work is something like Wikipedia, which is written by the whole world, but its reputation is not high because of this. There is no need to turn the translation into a turnip.

Translation cats, like regular cats, are different. I'll tell you about the CAT tool I use and which is the most popular.*

Trados is an automated translation tool. This means that the program does not translate for you, but only helps optimize the translation process, which sometimes significantly speeds up the work. This is achieved due to the fact that Trados allows you to accumulate a database of already translated texts ( Translation Memory) and use it to translate subsequent texts.

(Company home page: http://www.trados.com/en/)

This article is for those who are hearing about this program for the first time and want to get an idea of ​​how it works.

You will see that Trados not as scary as it might seem.
To work with it, you just need to know three keyboard shortcuts (to get started).

An example of working with SDL Trados 7 Freelance.
When you translate a document MS Word, you have the original document and an additional window open Trados - Translator's Workbench. I placed the window Translator's Workbench to the right of the window MS Word, and there is still room for two dictionaries (see figure below).

As you can see, I have prepared the file MS Word, containing several similar sentences. The first and last sentences are identical.
Place the cursor at the beginning of the first sentence and press first keyboard shortcut:

Alt + Home

We get the following picture:

Look at the window first MS Word. The first sentence “opened” in a blue field. A yellow field has opened below - here we will print the translation.
Now look at the window Translator's Workbench. It is divided into two parts. The top one displays the sentence you are currently translating, the bottom one is empty. This means that such a sentence is not yet in your translation memory.
We will print the translation.

Let's move on to the next sentence. For this purpose it is used second keyboard shortcut:

Alt+Num+ Ctrl + Alt + N(for laptop).

Let's see what happened:

First, look at what happened to the first translated sentence. Both the original and the translation are visible, and they are enclosed in “tags” (special characters - the program needs them).
Now let's look at the second sentence. The source text opened in a blue field, and below it, in a yellow field, a translation was already proposed. It means that Trados I found a similar sentence in my translation memory and substituted its translation.
In the window Translator's Workbench in the lower part it is shown from which sentence in the translation memory this option was proposed. The word that distinguishes the two sentences is highlighted in yellow. Those. there is a word in our sentence "another", and in the previously encountered sentence there was an article in its place "a". This is especially useful if the sentence is long and only one word needs to be corrected.
We will adjust the translation accordingly.

Press the familiar key combination to move to the next sentence:

Alt+Num+(for standard keyboard) or Ctrl + Alt + N(for laptop):

The situation repeated itself - the previous offer was closed with tags, and a new one was opened. And again we are offered a translation.
Looking out the window Translator's Workbench. One word is highlighted in grey. This means that we are offered a translation of a sentence that has already been encountered before, but in the new sentence there is one more word (highlighted in gray). Let's add the translation of this word in the yellow field:

Alt+Num+(for standard keyboard) or Ctrl + Alt + N(for laptop)

Once again we were lucky. A translation of a similar sentence has already been suggested in the yellow box.
Looking out the window Translator's Workbench. One word is highlighted in blue. This means that we are offered a translation of a sentence that has already been encountered before, but in the new sentence one of the words is in a different place (highlighted in blue). Let's correct the translation in the yellow field:

Let's move on to the next proposal:

Alt+Num+(for standard keyboard) or Ctrl + Alt + N(for laptop):

This is the dream of every translator!!!
As before, the original sentence opened in a blue box, and below it was the translation in a green box. Green color means 100% match. As you remember, I made the first and last sentences identical.
Thus, there is no need to edit anything in the proposed translation. We already have a ready-made correct translation! Since this is the last sentence, we do not move on to the next one, but close this segment with a keyboard shortcut:

Alt+End

All segments are ready. Now in a split second using Translator's Workbench we clear the file and get a clean file with the translation:

Well, who will say that this is a complex program?
You saw that it is enough to know only three keyboard shortcuts:

1. Alt + Home
2. Alt+Num+(for standard keyboard) or Ctrl + Alt + N(for laptop)
3. Alt+End

To begin with, and in most cases, no more is needed.
Particularly useful Trados when translating texts that contain repetitions or similar sentences. For example, it is a pleasure to translate instructions for different versions of digital cameras from the same company, etc.
But even if there are few repetitions, it is still more convenient to work with this cat. You have separate fields for each original sentence and its translation, you won't miss a single sentence, etc.
There are also disadvantages.
For example, working with this program ties you to working sentence by sentence, and sometimes it is better to familiarize yourself with a whole paragraph and then convey its meaning, although in most cases we still translate sentence by sentence.
So, the principle of operation is clear to you.
Little things left. However, without them you will not be able to get started and get the desired result.
Just as briefly, I will tell you everything you need to know to work with this program, and also share some tricks.

_________________________
*A matter of popularity Trados requires special consideration, which we will do later.