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Things you do in SDL Studio that it probably wasn't really intended for

Michael Bailey

I've been using Trados from version 6.5 (parallel port dongle!) and now use SDL Studio 2019. Over the years I have found a few strange uses (the ones that get friends who use SDL Studio giving me a funny look when I mention my "hack" having a beer) although in the cold light of day they have often come back to me and said, that crazy as my suggestion sounded in the bar, it might actually work and be useful. Does anyone else have similar uses?

One such example is one I call "Monolingual SDL Studio in Excel". We get a lot of questionnaires to fill out in Excel where the answers are as narrative texts (think word-processing in Excel...) which I receive for editing / language check. Since the questionnaires are usually from the same sources (international organisations), their format is standardised. I have a little Excel Macro that recolours all their questions cells (ie. to then allow me to ignore those cells) and then only the output that I want to edit is shown in SDL Studio. I have a project definition set up, only for editting Excel files, and the empty TM I have is either in German (German (Liechtenstein)-German (Germany)) or English (in SDL Studio 2019 I use English(Europe) - English(UK)) and then set up the project. Where it also works well is when the same answer is given to multiple questions in ensuring consistency. At the end of it, I export the target file and use another Excel Macro to change the recoloured cells back. 
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  • Another workflow I use, which again is using Studio as an authoring memory system, is one I call "Monolingual Track Changes in PowerPoint" which is useful as I get a lot of PowerPoint presentations to review, frequently written in English by non-native authors (second language authoring ("2LA") also being increasingly prevalent, who have presentations in working groups that they ask me to check. One of the weaknesses of PowerPoint is the fact that there is not the same track changes feature as in Word (track changes in PowerPoint from the 2013 uses the Review > Compare feature. SDL Studio's bilingual preview mode (Ctrl + P in Editor mode) is particularly useful as I often have to go through slides with colleagues and can then see what has been changed.

    In addition I also have a Monolingual Termbase that I use in conjunction with this workflow that I use in conjunction with a QA terminology check, as a way of trapping frequent errors and also AutoCorrect entries to correct numbers (e.g. where the English presentations continues to use German abbreviated forms for millions and billions). As I have a lot of regular customers who tend to be consistent in usages (ie. the same changes are often required between one presentation and the next where they write from scratch on each occasion). One colleague has asked me before now if I am aware of mistakes he regularly makes - and by using a job number in each project which includes the customer's in-house abbreviation (we all have three letter abbreviations eg. ABC or BAI etc.) coupled with a "user" field in the Termbase, it has helped some improve their authoring by being aware of what frequently gets changed.

    When the target language version presentation is generated, it can of course also be compared and reviewed in PowerPoint if required. The only downside is that sometimes the formatting needs checking in PowerPoint afterwards.
  • in reply to Michael Bailey

    Hi  

    Here's another thing that Studio wasn't quite designed to do but can do very well...

    Comparing pre-existing translations

    All the best,

    Ali :)
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