Hello all three,

We are progressively getting away from strictly Studio issues (but was it really a Studio issue at the start of this thread?); however, as regards the management of C:\, D:\ and possible additional drives, I am 100% on Jerzy's side (and I am not paid for writing so)

Jerzy Czopik

I agree Jerzy.  But you are missing my point.  The user said this:

Inna Ivanova said:

Too much links, too complicated schemes. Keep it nice, simple and easy and everybody will be happy.

So why spend half the response talking about something that is not actually a problem here?  That's my point.

I completely agree that it's important to understand how files and folders work, making sure you adopt a safe strategy for storing/saving working files/folders etc.  But in my opinion it was totally unnecessary to explain to this user about this in the context of this question because you make it sound like it's something the user now has to do to be able to work with the product.  This of course is nonsense, but the idea of partitioning your drive is something that would probably frighten the vast majority  of users in my opinion... irrespective of how easy it might be in practice.

Overcomplicating things is the scourge of learning and productivity.

I agree with you, Paul.

But my approach is different. You cannot work with Studio, if you do not know how to manage files. So I start with this.

You cannot use differential mathematics without having learned the basics. And file management is the basics for using Studio. If the user will not understand, why he/she does not have JUST one translation (Word) file, but a Word file, a sdlxliff file and a sdlproj file at the very least, there is no way to work efficiently with Studio. To understand what happens you need to overview the process. For this the freelance translator must admit, that he/she has processes and does project management. Until they do not accept, that translation with CAT is not just about language, you can do as many effort in explaining as you wish, the result will be chaos and moaning about bad tools.

Again, if you do not know how to switch on the microwave oven and select the power and time, your food will remain cold. As simple as that.

Jerzy Czopik

I agree with Paul Filkin on this matter. Yes, there is a best practice, and it pays off. But if the initial threshold becomes too high, then it's not useful. Rather start humbly and progress, even if it would be more efficient if... 

Inna Ivanova said:

as recently I became a mother

That's big stuff. So much to focus on, so much to learn. It's not the best time to acquire in-depth tech knowledge. You can store your stuff on C and don't have to learn how to partition your HDD for now.

Daniel

Ok, so forget about partitioning. Still, you cannot trow all your documents into Documents (wherever it may be) regardless the customer you've got them from. So even if you will use documents, there must be an order there.

Or, if we stick to being a parent, you cannot throw all your baby stuff in one single slider in your wardrobe just so. You will need to keep the glasses in one point, the trousers and other parts of clothing elsewhere and the pampers most probably in another place. Same with baby cosmetic - you'll certainly will sort these. So why not sort the files in the computer? This is a simple step and will help you to avoid chaos.

Again, if you forget the basics, you will end up with chaos. Doing things right from the beginning pays of. Not doing so leads to a state, which is very hard to repair afterwards. Habits leading to chaos are very hard to change, because they are habits. So you better develop a habit to keep things in order. Having chaos in your tool and using it in chaotic manner means, that your translation will be worse than one you would produce, if you would not have to bother about the tool. In first case you are dealing with the tool in first place and trying to translate. In the second case you translate and use the tool. This is my experience. Yes, the learning curve with me will be very steep in the beginning, but this will take short time. Otherwise the learning curve will be very flat and may last forever.

Dear Paul,

I got confused about AnyTM namely because I read your post at the link you provided. You say "I translate ... file from Hebrew to English...using a Hebrew to English TM...I save ...target document.  I open the English target document in Studio as an English to Hebrew translation and select the same Hebrew to English Translation Memory I used before, but I do this by selecting the AnyTM provider like this." I assumed that you do this in the same project with the same language direction. You never specify that the second time you have to create a project with the reversed language direction. I assumed as the translation memory is the same, it doesn't need a different project and you said it reverses itself so why not use it it the same project - that was my thinking. Now I know why! Anyway, this problem is solved. As I work though, many problems arise. To some of them I find solutions, to some - not. I will try and invest more time to this community and ask about what I don't know how to do, but this program is very counter-intuitive for me (for my way of thinking, I am sorry if I offend anyone, not my intention). I got acquianted with it as early as it was only Trados, with a Workbench and so on, i.e. about year 2006-2007. I have worked and translated with it then. It was again cumbersome, but it was easier to handle and cope with. Now, it beats me!!!! It cannot figure out why some things are the way they are. It drives me mad. I am sorry if I hurt your or anybody else's programmer's feelings, but I think that some things are... simply made for programmers, not translators. E.g. I downloaded the complete manual on my PC and if it wasn't for my husband, who is a programmer also, I wouldn't be able to open it. From a folder with 1859 files how should I have known to open the index file? You as a programmer surely know this and it might be obvious for you, but for me it's not. I feel like a complete dunce working with this program, although I'm not. And I am willing to argue with anyone who claims otherwise.

I do know how to work with files and folders, thank you very much. I don't know why you assumed that I don't. I haven't read the whole manual, but that doesn't mean I don't know how to work with the program as a whole.

Inna Ivanova said:

I assumed that you do this in the same project with the same language direction. You never specify that the second time you have to create a project with the reversed language direction

My bad... I didn't see the need to explain this as it seemed clear to me that if you now work in a different direction you would switch the languages.  In any event I was only explaining how AnyTM worked as a Translation Provider.

Apologies for confusing you.

Inna Ivanova said:

I do know how to work with files and folders, thank you very much. I don't know why you assumed that I don't. I haven't read the whole manual, but that doesn't mean I don't know how to work with the program as a whole.

I did not assume you don't know how to do that. What I might have assumed is, that you do not know how to work with files and folder in conjunction with Studio. There are many ways the program lets you manage your files, so even quite experienced PC user might get lost there.

Maybe a live course would be a good solution for you? Having someone showing you the basics and explaining the logic behind it? The logic behind a modern CAT tool follows some similar concepts. You always translate from A to B and you translation creates a project. This project contains of translatables and resources. The resources are TMs, TBs and maybe others in some tools. A project has a language direction A -> B. So you cannot translate B -> A within the same project, you need a new one.

The files for translation are not processed in their native formats, but first converted to some tool proprietary internal format, like sdlxliff in case of Studio. When you are finished with your translation, you generate the target file out of this internal format.