Posts Tagged ‘trados’

1.    Open MultiTerm. Then open the already created termbase.

2.    Open the Workbench. Go to OPTIONS, and then go to TERM RECOGNITION OPTIONS and select your version of MultiTerm.

3.    Click on EXAMINE and with a click on the + sign select the local termbase. Select the source and target languages.

4.    When you click ACCEPT, you Hill see the MultiTerm window in the Workbench (in the extreme right).

5.    Now you can work. When you open a document, the saved glossary terms Hill appear in this MultiTerm window. If you notice that nothing appears in the MultiTerm window during too many segments of the translation, it’s possible that the MultiTerm has been disconnected. Open MultiTerm again or the Workbench.

6.    In the tool bar of Trados you will see new buttons, those of MultiTerm.

7.    If you click the middle button of those that have red brackets above (get current term), the program will insert the term as if it were a segment.

These days it is impossible for a translator to do his or her job without using a computer. But let’s not forget that it wasn’t always like this…

A few decades ago, before there was such a thing as advanced technology, translators worked only with pen and paper. Research was a very difficult aspect, since it required a lot of effort to access texts from other parts of the world. In addition, those were different times, since the translations had to be written out by hand or, even better, on a typewriter. Finding out that some friend or acquaintance was traveling to another country was a big deal, since this gave the translator the perfect opportunity to get his or her hands on priceless material. Informational material handed out by certain foreign companies was also of great value.

Today this reality has changed. In certain ways we have become salves to technology. By this I only mean that a translator who does not have at least a fundamental understanding of software and other technological aspects of the job will not see as many opportunities. To work with a variety of clients, be it with companies or with translation agencies, we need to be well-versed in the finer workings of programs such as Acrobat, Excel, Word, Multiterm, Trados, among other. For this reason, it is highly important that we are certified in these tools. If we are already working with these software programs, we have to stay constantly up to speed on the latest features and changes. Unfortunately, a translator who fails to stay updated on technological issues will fall behind the rest.

If you are a translator working with the Trados CAT tool, you may have seen a component called MultiTerm in your product package. So, just what is this tool and how practical is it for every-day translation jobs?

MultiTerm is ideal for translators working with bilingual glossaries or ongoing projects with highly specific terminology. Many times clients will send their glossaries in an Excel sheet with their own translations of product names or terminology for the sake of consistency between terms found in user manuals, online material, etc. In these cases, it is critical to use the glossary sent by the client. What the MultiTerm product does is convert the glossary into an .xdt file which is recognized by Trados and can then be linked to the Trados workbench. What this means for the translator is that instead of searching through countless entries of an Excel file looking for the right term, Trados will automatically recognize if the term is in the glossary, and if so, it will display the corresponding translation in the “Term Recognition” window on the Workbench.

While there are several steps involved in the process, I have found that it is well worth the time and energy to learn how to use this product, as well as its other features. Not only is this ideal for translators, but it is also great for project managers who are using several different translators for a document with very specific terminology.

When delivering projects to larger translation agencies or clients who use the Trados CAT tool, learning how to export and import translation memories is fundamental for smooth deliveries. Instead of delivering the five files that generate the translation memory (TM), which usually implies a large file size, you can simply export your TM into an easy-to-use .txt file or import the .txt file into an existing translation memory.

To begin, first open up your TM exclusively. (This means that you are the only one that can have access to it and modify it when you open it.) Next, under the File menu, click on Export.

The screen that pops up is predetermined and you do not have to do anything besides click OK.

Now, the dialog box will ask you where you want to save your .txt file. It is usually best to save it in the folder designated for the TM. Or, you can also create a sub-folder called “Export” if you are working with both imported and exported memories.

Once you click OK, the export process will run automatically. The final product is the .txt file in the folder you designated.

Be sure to check that the process ran smoothly by looking at the bottom portion of your TM window. Look for the Export finished successfully message, which will also indicate how many translation units were exported.

Now that you have a .txt file, you can also import it into an existing TM. Create your TM first (or open an existing one), then go to File and Import.

Again, the window that appears is predetermined and many times no modification of the settings is required. However, you can change the Existing translation units settings so that the segments are merged, overwritten, etc.

Next you will need to select the .txt file you are going to import and click OK.

The import process is now finalized and the segments from the .txt file will appear in your Translation Memory. As with the export step, if the import was successful the following message will appear: Import finished successfully.

One of the helpful tools in the Trados program is the Clean Up function. This function removes all the hidden text and updates the translation memory so that it includes any changes you may have made to the document outside of the translation segments. Whether you are working directly with clients or with translation agencies, knowing how to clean up your file is a fundamental part of the translation process with Trados.

1. To begin, select the Clean Up option in the Tools menu:

2. Next, you need to select the file that you want to clean up by selecting “Add…”

3. Once the file is selected, you can create a log file which will enable you to keep a record of the clean-up process and view any errors that occurred during the process. Select a location for the log file and give it a name:

4. Now that your log file is created, you can select one of the four options for how your document will be cleaned up. The best option to use is Update TM so that any changes made are incorporated into the TM, regardless of whether or not the translation segment was open when you made them:

5. Now you can click on the Clean Up button to complete the process. Once the function has been executed, the window will look like this:

6. If there were any errors in the process, simply go to Log File - View and the .txt file will open, displaying any errors such as broken tags or corrupted segments. If there were no errors, the following message will appear at the end of the file: “Cleanup finished successfully without errors!”

7. As part of the clean-up process, the program will automatically generate a .csv file (same as the .txt log file) and backup file with the .BAK extension. This file is the bilingual file, i.e., it has both the original and target text and is simply a safety measure so that you don’t lose the bilingual file in the clean-up process.

As translators, we frequently work on high-volume projects, but keeping consistency within one or several documents can be tricky. In order to delivery a quality product to the client, we need to use the CONCORDANCE function within the TRADOS CAT (computer-aided translation) tool, which is widely used, or should be, among translators.

In order to apply this function, do the following:

1. Highlight the expression you want to search within the translation memory:

2. Click on the CONCORDANCE function in the TRADOS bar:

3. The translation memory will display the other occurrences of the expression you highlighted within this document or within the other documents used with this same translation memory:

If we make it a habit to utilize this Trados function when translating or editing, all documents that we deliver to the same client will always be consistent in the terminology.