The nice-to-haves
Before we move on to 2017’s more groundbreaking functions, it makes sense to highlight a few small-scale improvements. The option to drag and drop single files to the Welcome page for quick translations, automatic storage of recently used languages in the project creation window, and the ability to directly create new termbases in Trados are all intuitive, effective ways of increasing efficiency. In addition, it is now possible to apply multiple filters to translation segments in the Editor view.
Fragment matching
In earlier versions of Trados, translators have been forced to rely on the Concordance Search to ensure consistency, a time-consuming process that requires vigilance and far too many clicks for a fast turnaround. Fragment matching aims to fix this by picking up entire fragments of segments that are then automatically suggested – eliminating the need for a concordance search. This feature looks set to be a godsend for technical translations with repetitive wording.
Fuzzy match repair
Another significant innovation in SDL 2017 is the fuzzy match repair function. This allows individual words to be automatically replaced by appropriate substitutes from the termbase in high-percentage matches, saving translators even more time. For example, if the sentence ‘Die Katze ist grau’ (The cat is grey) is in the memory, and the sentence ‘Die Katze ist schwarz’ (The cat is black) now has to be translated, grey will automatically be replaced with black in the fuzzy match without manual input from the translator. While the fuzzy match repair is yet to recognize grammatical differences, it still has the potential to significantly reduce post-editing time for high-percentage matches.
MultiTerm
Some work has also gone into taming the MultiTerm beast, exemplified by the development of a friendlier user interface that allows you to edit terms directly without switching to the edit mode. MultiTerm 2017 also features an ‘undo’ function and global ‘find/replace’ feature for editing multiple TB entries at once.
Still to come
The Roadshow also covered a few applications that are still under development and expected to be released next year, in particular GroupShare 2017 and Adaptive Machine Translation. GroupShare 2017’s integrated interface should eliminate some of the excessive steps involved in the PM-translator-proofreader workflow, while Adaptive MT ‘learns’ from changes made to stored translation segments. The latter is currently only available for translations where English is a source language.
When can we try it out?
Supertext is set to start using SDL 2017 next year. And if you freelance for us, you can make the transition too; our freelancers can benefit from a discount of more than 30% for SDL Trados Studio 2017 Freelance or SDL Trados Studio 2017 Freelance Plus. Get in touch with us to find out more!
Picture via Kaboompics