Unreliable Word preview behavior

The preview in Word behaves in an unpleasant and unreliable manner on my PC. Be it "Microsoft Word" or "Embedded" display mode, the yellow highlight is laggy, it often takes several seconds for the highlight to "find its place" in the document - jumping between sentences (or text fields, for instance) before settling on the target one. It sometimes disappears and reappears without any intervention on my part; often the whole preview (in Microsoft Word) will crash and then reopen. Sometimes the highlight won't display at all.

All this makes this important feature pretty much a useless waste of time.

I've had problems with alleged Office incompatibility in the past - see https://community.sdl.com/product-groups/translationproductivity/f/90/t/18778

...but I have a genuine MS Office downloaded from a Microsoft online source. The MS Word (Office) is Professional Plus version 1809 (compilation 10827.20138, Quick install [or whatever the English translation of this is]). Regarding the "quick install" - when installing Office I couldn't choose any "installation mode", whether quick or slow, so I'm not sure what this is about.

My question is: has anyone experienced anything similar? How does the highlight work in your case - does it switch between sentences/words/text fields in the blink of an eye, or is there significant delay?

If my Word is a suspect, then WHICH Word version exactly should I buy to be sure that it will work properly? Is the most expensive box version available in physical stores the ONLY option? That would be pretty ridiculous and unfair, and would probably cause problems to about half of the users who purchase their Office on the web, have it included with their PCs, etc.

Needless to say Word preview worked beautifully in Trados 2011 with Office 2007... (couldn't help it, Paul)

BTW: I created a new topic since the issue from the former one somehow resolved itself: Trados won't refuse creating a preview anymore - but it still works like crap.

EDIT: tried doing the embedded preview, and Trados actually gave me an error, so... yeah, should've posted this in the old thread. But then, I don't even need the embedded preview at all.

One silly thing with the external preview ("Microsoft Word") is that you can't set it to display the source document content - and you can't disable its auto-updating/refreshing, which, as I believe, partly (or wholly) causes the lag and instability. All this gives an impression that the developers have just intentionally left us with a function that is slow and unreliable. Hopefully I'm wrong though, and it's just my case.

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  •  

    On this we can agree!

    Unknown said:
    Needless to say Word preview worked beautifully in Trados 2011 with Office 2007... (couldn't help it, Paul)

    But the problem here is not Studio, it's Word.  Once Microsoft moved to their click to run installer they stopped providing the required components that are needed to be able to deliver an embedded preview.  So we have had to try and find other ways to make this work.

    Unknown said:
    EDIT: tried doing the embedded preview, and Trados actually gave me an error, so... yeah, should've posted this in the old thread. But then, I don't even need the embedded preview at all.

     

    Today I run the click to run version and can actually achieve all three variants of the preview without the problems you descibe so would be inclined to look at external influences first.  These would be things like you security software and available permissions to be able to run both applications smoothly.  Try disabling your security software temporaily, and any backup software you might be running and see if this helps.   If it does add things back in until you find the cause of your issue.

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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  • My sole security software is the wretched Windows 10 itself and its built-in security features. I'd gladly disable Windows 10 forever - and switch to Mac - had the different translation software I use been compatible with the latter.

    So, which Office SHOULD we buy, then?

    Besides, the thing sometimes works fine, and sometimes doesn't, due to which I'm not sure if I can buy your explanation! At this very moment I'm in the process of translating a file that keeps crashing on me every 5th segment or so, and then re-opening. Sometimes it won't even re-open, displaying some lame error (file couldn't be opened, or something) - and then opening again obediently when I re-launch the preview manually.

    This doesn't ALWAYS happen with every file, but it does so quite often, with different documents. I don't work with any "special" formats or anything. Just regular .docs / .docxs.

  • Hi

    If you can share a file with me that causes you problems like that then I'll be happy to try and reproduce the problem. Maybe there is a problem we can identify and fix this way.

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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  • No point, really. Same thing just happened with another file, derived from another source… it happens with so many different files - and there's so many different symptoms - that I don't find it justified to look around for a file that I could actually share with you (without breaching an NDA).

    So, let's get this clear: WHICH Word version exactly is officially "supported" by Trados?

  • Unknown said:
    So, let's get this clear: WHICH Word version exactly is officially "supported" by Trados?

     , did you read the release notes?

    Screenshot of Trados Studio installation guide stating it requires Microsoft Office 2016, 2013, 2010, or 2007 for previewing documents and Microsoft Word for spell checking. It fully supports Microsoft Office 2007 - 2016 and 2000 - 2003 file formats.

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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    emoji


    Generated Image Alt-Text
    [edited by: Trados AI at 4:33 PM (GMT 0) on 28 Feb 2024]
  • Release notes? Who reads release notes?

    But now that I read it: how can they recommend Word 2007 if it's incompatible with Studio 2019 (or at least Word 2007 was incompatible with Studio 2017 when I tried it...) in terms of the real-time preview function?

    Either way: so that means I should demand full support regardless of my Office 2019 version (C2R, box, etc.) - right? But that again solves nothing. If you are unable to provide reliability of the software will all the builds and versions, then do tell us at least which build and version we will be luckiest with.
  •  

    Unknown said:
    Release notes? Who reads release notes?

    Well... you should!

    Unknown said:
    But now that I read it: how can they recommend Word 2007 if it's incompatible with Studio 2019 (or at least Word 2007 was incompatible with Studio 2017 when I tried it...) in terms of the real-time preview function?

    You can have a realtime preview with Word 2007 in 2017, and in 2019.  We did go through a period of having issues dealing with certain versions of Word because of their transition to the Click to Run installer, but it didn't affect all versions and there were solutions in the knowledgebase if you looked.  I seem to recall that it used to be this sutuation:

    Embedded – does not support click to run
    MS Word – supports all including click to run
    HTML – supports all including click to run

    IMPORTANT: Don't attempt the Embedded Option at all if you need to run the HTML preview as this may prevent the correct functioning of the HTML preview afterwards.

    But today I can do all of these even with a click to run installation.  So you having problems points to something else and it would make sense to get help from the support team.

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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  • Hi Paul,

    I have tried Studio Preview before, but never started using it because of the lag in displaying changes in the Preview window.

    Based on your comments, I decided to try it again.

    I turned off all virus checking software before doing the test. I am running Studio 2017 SR1 in Windows 10 (all updates applied). I have Microsoft Office 2019 installed on my computer.

    Here are my notes:

    1. I opened Studio, opened a project, opened a file, and clicked on Preview.

    - The Preview window opened and an Embedded preview was automatically generated.

    - You mentioned in your previous post that I should not use the Embedded option if I need to run the HTML preview, so I played around to find out how to avoid automatically generating a preview.

    - First, I tried closing the file, closing Studio, restarting Studio, reopening the file and clicking Preview. The same thing happened.

    - Then I tried closing the Preview window and closing the file, but NOT closing Studio. When I reopened the file and clicked on Preview the Preview window surprisingly did not appear. It did not appear until I closed the file and reopened it. Then the Preview window appeared automatically (I did not have to click Preview) and did not automatically generate a preview.

    - I then tried leaving the Preview window open when closing the file. When I reopened the file, the Preview window opened automatically (I did not have to click Preview) and did not automatically generate a preview.

    - In summary, I found that in order to open the Preview window without it automatically generating a preview, I had to leave the Preview window open when I closed a file. The Preview window would then open automatically the next time I opened the file and would not automatically generate a preview.

    2. Once I had figured out how to successfully open the Preview window without it automatically generating an Embedded preview, I generated an HTML preview and noted the following:

    - The segment text is not highlighted in the HTML preview window and the HTML preview does not move to the text for the current segment

    - Ctl-F cannot be used to find text

    - Because the text is not highlighted, does not move to the current segment and there appears to be no find function, the HTML preview seems pretty useless to me

    - I used a stopwatch to time how long it took for a change in Studio to be reflected in the HTML preview

    - It took around 5 seconds for a change to be reflected in the HTML preview

    - In my opinion, this is too long to be of any practical use (and it seems like an eternity when in the middle of a translation)

    3. I then tried the Microsoft Word preview. Before generating the preview, I closed the file and reopened it. I left the Preview window open when I closed the file, so that it would open automatically when I reopened the file.

    - The segment text is highlighted in the Word preview and the cursor moves to the location of the segment text

    - This looked promising

    - But it took around 8 seconds for a change to be reflected in the Word preview

    - In my opinion, this is too long to be of any practical use

    4. I then tried the Embedded preview. Before generating the preview, I closed the file and reopened it. I left the Preview window open when I closed the file, so that it would open automatically when I reopened the file.

    - The segment text is highlighted in the Embedded preview and the cursor moves to the location of the segment text

    - But it took around 8 seconds for a change to be reflected in the Embedded preview

    - In my opinion, this is too long to be of any practical use

    The long lag before changes appear in the Preview window is the reason I have never used the Studio Preview function.

    This does not appear to have changed.

    I am curious to hear whether you experience shorter lags. Are you testing using small test files or large, potentially messy files typical of a production environment?

    Best regards,
    Bruce Campbell
    ASAP Language Services

  • Hi  

    Can you share the same file you used and I'll be happy to conduct exactly the same tests?  It would be interesting now you have attempted to benchmark the performance.

    Unknown said:
    - You mentioned in your previous post that I should not use the Embedded option if I need to run the HTML preview, so I played around to find out how to avoid automatically generating a preview.

    I mentioned this is what used to be the issue (it was all in italic because I was referring to the advice I used to provide some time ago).  This is no longer the case and I don't have that same set of problems.

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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  • Hi Paul,

    The file is unfortunately confidential.

    The sdlxliff was made from a docx file with around 85 pages, 20,000 words, 2000 segments. I also received a pdf file, so the docx was likely a conversion of the pdf. (I tested this file because I am currently working on it.)

    Perhaps you could test a similar file and send it to me. Then we could compare lag times.

    If there is something in my current setup that is causing a problem, it would be nice to find it.

    Best regards,
    Bruce
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  • Hi 

    Unknown said:
    Perhaps you could test a similar file and send it to me. Then we could compare lag times.

    Good idea... I used this one - http://prawnpdf.org/manual.pdf - converted to a DOCX in Studio and then translated without any clean up first.  The file is around 107 pages, 15k words and a PDF conversion so probably fairly similar.  I put my experience here:

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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  • Hi ,

    I thought you'd be interested to know that I had a conversation with a developer responsible for this and he has been working quite a bit on finding ways to improve the preview so the current implementation is not a done deal. It's not helpful to keep complaining about it as it won't make the work go faster! But I thought I'd let you know work is underway to try and provide a better performance.

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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  • Ok Paul, good to know. We all know complaining does tend to make things go faster in business, though. At least here in Middle Europe. I'll watch your vid in past time, thanks for that.

  • Sometimes I wish there was a "don't like" button!

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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  • Thank you Paul,

    I downloaded the Prawn pdf file and converted to Word using Studio as you did. Your video was excellent and I did everything you did and had the same experience as yours -- except that the embedded preview threw an error telling me to check my Office installation. (That might be because I have installed Office 2019.) But luckily the Microsoft Word preview did work.

    There is, however, one additional thing I would like you to try.

    Looking back at my previous post, I now see that my description was very unclear.

    When I said there was a long lag before a change made to the file showed up in the preview, I should have said that when I confirmed a segment there was a long lag before the change (i.e. the new target segment) was displayed in the preview. Sorry for the confusion.

    As I mentioned above, the Microsoft Word preview did work, and when I confirmed a segment in the Prawn file, I once again noted a long lag, in this case 15 seconds, before the new target segment was displayed in the preview.

    Hopefully your Studio will be faster.

    Best regards,
    Bruce Campbell
    ASAP Language Services

  • Hi  

    Unknown said:
    When I said there was a long lag before a change made to the file showed up in the preview, I should have said that when I confirmed a segment there was a long lag before the change (i.e. the new target segment) was displayed in the preview. Sorry for the confusion.

    No problem... I can confirm this problem.  Refreshing the segment with the translation in files like this is indeed problematic and very laggy.  This is soomething the developer I discussed this with also confirmed and the solution he's been working on will address this problem.  I can't say when it will be available, can only say it's in hand and eventually we'll have an improved solution for this kind of issue.

    Unknown said:
    Hopefully your Studio will be faster.

    Unfortunately it isn't!  I don't have the Studio on speed you might think I do :-)

    Regards

    Paul

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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  • Thank you Paul,

    I am looking forward to the new solution :-)

    I was worried that it might not be technically possible to speed things up ...

    Best regards,

    Bruce Campbell

    ASAP Language Services

  • Paul, so what are your symptoms exactly when it comes to the imperfect preview? I have previously mentioned a number of issues (not merely lag). Do you experience any of them too? (crashing and restarting, etc)

    As mentioned by Bruce, in your video you didn't confirm any segments, which is a pity! Did Marketing at SDL not allow it?

    On a serious note, though: I'm SO counting on that dev eventually fixing the problem! And I hope it's not just one dev but a whole army of geeks working tirelessly night and day on providing us with the (properly working) functions we paid top dollar for. By the way: you can even get the DPI dev off his post and reassign him to the Preview team - I don't care about the microbuttons anymore! Now that I fixed my input lag issue, working in Studio became actually enjoyable, like in the good old times. Only the preview thing is a huge black spot on this image of a happy translator. Sure you can search everything in PDFs, but that's not what I bought Trados for. I could have stuck with my MemoQ on a free ELM licence.

    Enough of complaining, though.

    PS. Just got a marketing bullshit mail from SDL on seminars about valuating translation jobs. Not that I'm being a besserwisser, but you could probably reassign the guys behind this too.

  • Hi again Paul,

    An idea just occurred to me with respect to Studio Preview.

    Your video showed that the Preview works quickly when moving from segment to segment without confirmation.

    So the problem is with updating the Preview window after confirmation.

    If the developer is having difficulty shortening the confirmation lag, then perhaps a toggle switch could be added to the Preview window to toggle between automatic and manual updating.

    If the file was a nasty one that caused long delays on updating, I could live with manually updating the Preview window after confirming a batch of segments.

    I generally work in batches anyway, first filling in a batch of segments and then reviewing and confirming each segment one-by-one. I could then add in a manual update of the Preview window after completing a batch.

    Of course, this would not be needed if the developer is sure that she/he can eliminate the lags for all files. If she is having difficulty, however, this might be an interim solution that is not too difficult to implement.

    Best regards,
    Bruce Campbell
    ASAP Language Services

  • Just so there is no confusion, here is what I mean in more detail:

    When the toggle is set to manual updating, the Preview window would still react to movements from one segment to another in the Studio editor, including moving down when a segment is confirmed. That is, the highlighting in the Preview window would switch to the new active segment and the display in the Preview window would move to show the new active highlighted segment if the new active segment was previously not shown in the Preview window.

    The only difference would be that when the toggle was set to manual updating, the new contents of the confirmed target segment would not be displayed in the Preview window until a manual batch update was performed.

    Best regards,
    Bruce Campbell
    ASAP Language Services