An Assessment of MultiTerm and Formattingand Revision in SDL Trados Studio 2011

Qingmei Tang

【Abstract】SDL Trados Studio is one useful Translation Memory （TM） based CAT software assists translators by reusing previously translated texts in order to facilitate the production of new translations. Based on a Translation Project （from English to Chinese）， this essay will assess three functions of SDL Trados Studio 2011 that concern the improvement of the consistency， quality and productivity of translators work.

【Key words】SDL Trados Studio； Multiterm； Formatting； Revision

Introduction

With expanding demands for rapid translation and the updated working modes of clients and translation companies， translators are essentially forced to use Computer-Aided Translation （CAT） tools （Quah， 2006， p.18）. SDL Trados Studio 2011 is an outstanding one that facilitates translators in terms of achieving high-efficiency. However， Nogueira （2002） remarks that “Trados is a programme that many love and many love to hate.” Since Trados has its own strengths and weaknesses， a critical evaluation of the software is necessary， as it can help translators make use of its advantages and force developers to improve its weaknesses.

SDL MultiTerm

MultiTerm is like a fully-fledged term bank system， which is a separate tool independent from Trados Studio. Since this essay assesses Trados as a TM tool， this section will be devoted to MultiTerm working with Trados Studio 2011， helping translators by establishing terminological consistency and improving translation quality.

The “active terminology recognition feature” （Bowker， 2002， p. 81） in Trados Studio allows for automatic recognition of terms found in MultiTerm， which aids translators by increasing translation speed and maintaining terminological consistency. For instance， the word “career” appears frequently in the “Careers and Employability” file of the Translation Project. When this word is grouped into different segments in Trados Studio 2011， such as “Career Fairs” and “Appointments with a Careers Adviser”， TM cannot recognise its meaning because every segment is different. Accordingly， storing the term pair “career” into MultiTerm is very useful. The translator can instantly recognise the term since a red line appears above it. In addition， TM can recognise the variations of a term like plurals， past tenses and so on. Then the translator will not be bored by storing both the term and its variations， which saves time.

Although MultiTerms integrating with Trados Studio to allow for automatic term recognition is useful， “the activity of adding or editing database entries is rather time-consuming” （Austermuhl， 2001， p. 122）. Translators have to choose and store terms into MultiTerm one by one when processing translation in Trados Studio 2011. Moreover， terminology updating in MultiTerm is also a complicated work. Creating separate termbases and importing them into MultiTerm can offset the above weaknesses. The translator can thus initially create his own termbases in Microsoft Excel through researching terminological data. With MultiTerm Convert， Excel files can be converted into MutiTerm XML-based data format. All the terms will appear in MultiTerm and can be used in Trados Studio 2011. This is more helpful to the translator since they can customize term records with various fields. Therefore， the above methods of terminology mining may be time-consuming， but in the long run， it is a helpful tool for use with increasing amount of terminology.

Formats

Austermuhl （2001， p. 141） states that “there is a strong tendency for TM developers to design TM tools that support a greater variety of file types.” Trados generally accepts all kinds of file formats， including pdf， which allows translators to process different file formats.

It is generally believed that no TM tools can work perfectly with the “annoying” pdf file， for it requires effort and time in human editing and converting work. Compared with other TM tools， however， Trados 2011 has the merit of allowing direct import of pdf files without any pre-editing work and generating fewer codes. Using the pdf file “Career Advisory Service” in the Translation Project as an example， when the translator directly imports a pdf file with large pictures and several paragraphs of text into Trados， only a small number of codes appear in the Edit interface. This indeed save time， since it frees the translator from handling a lot of junk codes that may influence the layout of the exported file. Besides， the translator can also gain access to useful and informative preview function of Trados. It allows the translator to have an overall grasp of the layout and make adjustments when necessary.

However， processing pdf files with many pictures and graphs in Trados is a more problematic task. A large number of tags indicating character spacing or font color appear when directly importing a pdf file into Trados， which would distract the translator from noticing mistakes in tags. To make it worse， in the exported file， images or even part of the original document may become damaged， taking a long time to fix during editing. Kostiainen （2010） observes that it is better to use “the built-in pdf conversion filter” in Trados， which “enables the translator to save the converted file in Trados Studio as a Word file and then open and edit it in Word before starting the actual translation.” This may be useful when handling files with too many pictures and graphs， but the translator cannot guarantee the exported file will be a complete one with a perfect layout. In such circumstances， after converting the complex pdf file into a Word file in Trados and editing it in Word， the translator can export the target file to check the layout before starting translation. In all， although Trados cannot yet deal with pdf files perfectly， most of the time， it allows for efficient translation.

Revision

Gouadec （2007， p. 24） states that “revision includes all operations undertaken to guarantee that the translation meets all applicable quality criteria and quality levels.” In Trados Studio 2011， when revisers open a file for review after setting the “track changes” function， they are able to make corrections in the Edit interface， with red oblique lines indicating those revisions. Moreover， they can also add comments at three severity levels： “information”， “warning” and “error”， appearing in different colours for the translators notice. For instance， in the Translation Project， after making some corrections and adding corresponding comments， the translator closes the file without saving segments with “track changes”. When he reopens the file， he can clearly see all revisions with “track changes” and then make decisions whether to accept or reject those changes. In addition， “display filter” is also available for him to mark particular parts he wants to review， such as “rejected translation”， “with comments” and so on. This saves time since the translator can filter the parts that need revise and it can also improve the quality of translation in future translation projects if the translator updates the translation memory.

However， when the translator cannot gain access to Trados Studio 2011， revision will be time-consuming and tough. Unlike other TM tools， like DVX or MemoQ， who possess the “external view”， enabling reviewers to make changes and add comments in Word format， Trados does not contain such functions. Reiss （2001， p. 5） remarks that “a comparison of the original offers the translator a chance of choosing between different equivalence.” For Trados Studio， it will take longer to revise the target text with referring to the source text in separate files. In all， although shortcomings exist in the Trados revision function， it helps translators lighten the pressures of revision workflow， shortens the time spent in revision and enhances the productivity of the project as a whole.

Conclusion

In conclusion， although SDL Trados Studio 2011 can never be perfect in every aspect， the three functions discussed above indeed help translators by saving time， keeping terminological consistency and improving translation quality. When using Trados， translators should remember that significant productivity gains are earned over the long term since Trados requires a learning curve， during which productivity declines. Thus， translators should keep on working with Trados and then they will gain more benefits with time going by. In all， evaluating Trados from above three functions， it is a helpful CAT tools that greatly benefit translators during translation process.

References：

[1]Austermuehl，F.（2001）Electronic Tools for Translators.Manchester：St.Jerome Publishing，p.102，109，122，141.

[2]Bowker L.（2002）Computer-Aided Translation Technology：A Practical Introduction.Ottawa：University of Ottawa Press，p.77，81.

[3]Gouadec，D.（2007）Translation as a Profession.Amsterdam and Philadelphia：Benjamins，p.24.

[4]Kostiainen，T.（2010）My Migration to Trados Studio 2009.Available at：https：//tradoshelp.wordpress.com/2010/05/17/translating-pdf-files-in-studio/（Accessed：5 July 2012）.

[5]Nogueria，D.（2002）‘Translation Tools Today：A Personal View，Translation Journal，6，January[Online].Available at：http：//translationjournal.net/journal/19tm.htm（Accessed：2 July 2012）.

[6]Quah，C.K.（2006）Translation and Technology.New York and Houndmills：Palgrave Macmillan，p.18，98.

[7]Reiss，K.（2001）Translation Criticism-the Potentials and Limitations.Manchester：St.Jerome Publishing，p.5.