Overview
What is Trados Studio?
Trados Studio is a translation management and language localization platform, from multinational SDL headquartered in the UK. It is a computer-assisted translation product, designed to be a complete translation environment for language professionals who want to edit, review and manage…
Comprehensive tool but crashes at times
SDL Trados has highly unethical business practices
Long-time standard localization tool of choice
Great option for CAT tools
Great choice for medium and large-size translation agencies
Trados Studio as an aid in daily translation tasks
SDL Trados - A lot of ammunition, not easy to load the gun.
SDL Trados Studio 2019 from an LSP perspective
The must-have C.A.T. tool
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Pricing
Freelance Subscription
$408
Professional Subscription
$1,500
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Product Demos
Demo TRADOS equipo de traductores
Command demo
Controlling SDL Trados Studio by voice
SDL Connect Developer Day - Seamless Integration of SDL Trados Studio with SDL Language Cloud
Quick Add New Files - SDL Trados Studio 2019
CRITT Post-Editing Experiment: Trados Studio Demo
Product Details
- About
- Integrations
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is Trados Studio?
Trados Studio Screenshots
Trados Studio Integrations
Trados Studio Competitors
Trados Studio Technical Details
Deployment Types | On-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
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Operating Systems | Windows |
Mobile Application | No |
Supported Countries | Global |
Frequently Asked Questions
Comparisons
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Reviews and Ratings
(46)Community Insights
- Business Problems Solved
- Recommendations
SDL Trados Studio 2019 has been widely adopted by Fortune 500 clients around the world, offering significant improvements in efficiency and workflow. Users have reported that the software is particularly valuable for completing translations into various languages, with a specific focus on Spanish for the Domestic US market. However, it is important to note that some users have found the software to have a steep learning curve, which can make it challenging for new users to become proficient. Nonetheless, SDL Trados Studio 2017 is still preferred for tasks involving numerous repetitions, proofreading with Track changes on, and running quality assurance checks when necessary.
One of the key advantages of SDL Trados Studio is its capability to connect with a network of freelance translators and reviewers. The software facilitates collaboration by extracting sentence and paragraph text from source documents into a proprietary file structure, presented in a Source/Target 2-panels table. This feature enables seamless communication and efficient sharing of translation tasks among team members. While SDL Trados Studio is well-suited for small to medium-sized documents, it may not be ideal for handling large files as users have experienced frequent crashes during search operations or when committing a significant number of translations. Additionally, exporting large files to bilingual formats can be challenging.
Internally, SDL Trados Studio serves as an invaluable tool for streamlining translation and localization processes for existing clients. By improving consistency and overall text quality while reducing translation time and costs, the software helps organizations achieve their localization goals effectively. Many users appreciate the user-friendly interface and project management capabilities offered by Trados Studio, making it easier to manage projects and allocate resources efficiently. However, it should be noted that managing large projects or files with this software may present difficulties due to occasional bugs and system crashes.
While SDL Trados Studio has provided substantial benefits to many users, there are certain shortcomings that have been highlighted by the user community. Some users report frequent crashes while accepting segments in the latest version, leading to additional work and frustration. Terminology display issues and the inability to modify termbases are other areas of concern for users. In addition, compatibility issues with Windows 11 64-bit have been reported by some users. Another point of contention is the company's decision to no longer provide license resets for older versions of the software, which has disappointed some long-time users. Moreover, the lack of significant updates from the 2014 version to the new version has deterred prospective buyers from investing in the latest iteration.
Despite these limitations, SDL Trados Studio is still a go-to tool for various use cases. It is widely used for localization projects and handling different types of content for international end clients. The software is not limited to translation work alone; it is also utilized for editing and proofreading tasks. Moreover, SDL Trados Studio plays a crucial role in project management, allowing users to receive Trados project packages from other translation agencies and assign them to freelance translators. Additionally, the software aids in quality assurance processes and facilitates the delivery of projects to clients.
One of the notable benefits of SDL Trados Studio is its positive impact on productivity and efficiency within organizations and venture management teams. By streamlining translation and localization processes, businesses are able to meet tight deadlines while ensuring high-quality outputs. The software's ability to improve consistency in translated text greatly enhances the overall user experience for both translators and end clients. Furthermore, by reducing translation costs, SDL Trados Studio enables organizations to allocate resources strategically, ultimately leading to cost savings.
In summary, SDL Trados Studio 2019 has garnered popularity among Fortune 500 clients worldwide due to its ability to enhance margins and simplify workflows. Despite a steep learning curve for new users, the software offers valuable features such as facilitating collaboration with freelance translators, enabling seamless communication through a proprietary file structure, and improving consistency in translated text. While it may not be suitable for large files or projects, SDL Trados Studio proves highly effective in streamlining translation and localization processes, ultimately increasing productivity and efficiency in organizations.
Users have provided several recommendations for TRADOS based on their experiences. The three most common recommendations are:
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Master the basics and utilize available support resources: Users suggest taking the time to fully understand and learn how to use TRADOS effectively. They emphasize the importance of mastering the basic features and functions of the software. Additionally, users recommend making use of the available support resources, such as online tutorials and documentation, to enhance their understanding and optimize their usage of TRADOS.
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Explore alternative CAT tools: While users generally praise TRADOS, some recommend considering other options as well. Specifically, users mention MemoQ as a more affordable and feature-rich alternative to TRADOS. They highlight MemoQ's better layout and user interface compared to TRADOS. Therefore, it is suggested to explore different CAT tools and compare them before making a final decision.
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Contact support for assistance: Users suggest reaching out to customer support for any questions or issues encountered while using TRADOS. They recommend contacting support not only for technical issues but also for any licensing queries or problems. By seeking assistance from the support team, users believe they can resolve any problems efficiently and ensure a smooth experience with TRADOS.
Overall, these recommendations highlight the importance of mastering the basics, exploring alternative CAT tools, and leveraging support resources when using TRADOS.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-9 of 9)Comprehensive tool but crashes at times
- Project management
- Quality assurance
- Handling different document formats
- Unable to handle large files efficiently
- 64-bit version required
- Improved terminology window and usage
SDL Trados has highly unethical business practices
There are few meaningful updates from the 2014 version to the new version, it's basically the same thing with a few tweaks, and a new version is nearly $1,000. Where does this leave translators who work part time or live in countries where rates are low?
Except for this unfair decision by SDL, I have no reason to buy their new version!I will never give SDL another dime as thankfully there are now other competing programs such as memoQ and Trados no longer has a monopoly. It's a desperate and unethical financial move by a company that has always offered poor customer support and attempted to corner the market by brute force. Good riddance.
- Satisfactory translation memory management.
- Acceptable but not outstanding workflow.
- Business oriented mechanisms.
- Highly unethical corporate practices
- Poor customer support
- Overly priced product
- Monopolistic business strategies
Long-time standard localization tool of choice
- Making use of Translation Memory data
- Keeping consistency by using termbase
- Creating new project easily using existing project setting
- Preview feature
- Accessing server-based TM often takes time.
- When connecting to server-based TM, I need to enter credentials twice every time. The first attempt always fails.
Great option for CAT tools
- Xbench plugin works great. You can run Xbench on the whole project with one click.
- TM and TB management
- It is one of the most common CAT tool thus it is easy for translator assignments.
- It sometimes crashes, especially when doing spellcheck.
- Tag placing is not very efficient.
- The trouble with activating license. We had to get in touch with the support team many times to fix the issue.
Great choice for medium and large-size translation agencies
- Improves translation efficiency.
- Fairly easy to use.
- It supports a lot of different formats and integrates well with other tools.
- A lot of translation agencies prefer SDL Trados, so being able to work in it results in increased client demand.
- Very expensive.
- Lots of bugs that lead to constant updates and service packs.
Trados Studio as an aid in daily translation tasks
- The TM use helps a lot to identify repeated words and fuzzy matches.
- Trados and MemoQ files are compatible, so if a client sends a file to be worked in MemoQ I can mostly translate it in Trados too.
- I can edit and correct any errors the same way I do in Microsoft word: I can use track changes, find and replace, among other things.
- I would like it to be faster. When I create a new project, even if it is short, it takes a couple of minutes until I can start using the file.
- I would like it to support more than 5 languages as, for example, I work with 7 different language pairs.
- It does not always accept the files after they were converted with OCR. It would be great if I could use Trados for those files as well.
SDL Trados - A lot of ammunition, not easy to load the gun.
- Extracting sentences from Word, PowerPoint, and PDF.
- Updating the source document when the client sends an updated source file.
- Comparing sentence by sentence old set of source/target translations made outside of SDL Trados.
- Maintaining a user community base to broadcast knowledge and issues.
- Having an aggressive product update frequency.
- The user interface includes elements that are basic, medium, and high complexity, which does not help the novices and it is an obstacle to Veterans. For example, Concordance Search, Fragments Matches, TQA should not be opened by default.
- SDL Trados is a transactional-driven system. Transactions are everywhere, irrespective of its functionality. SDL Trados is not a process-oriented system, and in my humble opinion, it should be. They should be asking questions like: What are the Mega processes the system cover? What are the Macro Processes for each Mega Process? And so on and so forth for Process and then Procedures / Steps. For example, one Mega process could be Translate; another could be OCR.
- The concept of batch tasks is a decades-old one. It assumes that the user knows what task to be selected from a bunch of tasks listed on this menu, and know which task makes sense for the step he/she is doing at one moment. Batch Tasks should be imploded, and its titles relocated and categorized within the existing Processes. A short-term action to minimize a bit this confusion would be to use dividers and re-sort the menu items by type of process and if whether it is endogenous or exogenous to the current process. That would help the end-user to focus on the main task. For example: Update Main Translation Memory is an endogenous task to the Files area.
- The editor template with the 2 horizontal panels approach is good, and it provides many useful tools to help a manual translation, such as Terminology Base, Phrasal Translation memories, etc. However, all those tools are not available when performing an external translation and importing it back to the Editor panel. It does not flag inconsistencies against the Translation Memories or Terminology Base.
- The product is good for low to medium volume. However, for big documents, it crashes frequently. Things like committing more than 30 sentences at the same time it takes a lot of time and CPU usage. Doing a search for the next Not Translated sentence, takes forever, I mean, more than 3 hours in a big document.
- Fortunately, the support and training provided by BabelDGT, an SDL dealer located in Mexico City is fantastic. One-to-One Training and chat support are superb. Thanks to them my productivity is much better now.
SDL Trados Studio 2019 from an LSP perspective
- The software has an extensive suite of file types that it supports, making working with most client requests relatively painless.
- The translation workspace is easy to use, although it is very intimidating to new users. Once people get used to and understand what's available, they make great use of its features.
- The translation memories and management tools allow for efficient use of the translation resources available, and the filters, sorting, and prioritization routines make it easy to pick the correct content from a variety of sources.
- The software is incredibly complex and perhaps could benefit from a basic vs. enhanced view, where novice users get one view, while experienced users get the full experience and all of the options.
- The error messages provided don't mean anything and don't explain what to do. Searching online is usually required to figure out what should be done to eliminate the issue. Why not tell people directly what is wrong?
- The alignment tool was recently updated in 2019 SR1, but it is buggy. I had a hard time aligning files that were easily handled in the prior version of the software. In general, the update is a great improvement in functionality, but it kept giving meaningless error messages that lead nowhere in online searches. I finally found information that the errors were just a bug and to ignore them. While that worked, bugs made it hard to complete the task without crashes.
The must-have C.A.T. tool
- The Office-suite-look of the UI makes the tool extremely natural and easy to understand.
- SDL Trados Studio has been enhanced after some time and has been executing new valuable channels for the most widely recognized records that make them a reference CAT apparatus in the area.
- The separating capacities could be better/more intricate. I have encountered many bugs over the years.
- Misses some groundbreaking functionalities, particularly the ability to work with programming documents. For example, for .resx, you have to switch to Passolo.
- Effectively available client support costs extra. Finding direct assistance without paying for the help bundle is like pulling teeth. Fortunately, such a large number of individuals use the product that it is typically simple and speedy to get help from other users online.