Jesse Good

Jesse Good said:

how is the "Location Path" decided and how do I update this?

This is determined by the project templates... empty by default:

Each template can have its own default location which is handy if you want to organise your work by customer and have the projects stored against the customer for example.

Open Project and Open Document (single file project) work by remembering the last place you looked.  Open Project will look for last project parent folders for example so it's more likely to be useful than opening the same project.  Open document will open the last location you used for the source you selected.

This isn't a documented mechanism as far as I'm aware... it's only something I've observed.  Daniel Brockmann may have better detail on it.

Thanks Paul  - no detail to add from my end, other than to say that such locations are saved in the user settings file (c:\Users\<YourUserName>\AppData\Roaming\SDL\SDL Trados Studio\Studio16\UserSettings.xml) such as the RecentDocumentsList and there is also an element called <SettingsGroup Id="Sdl.TranslationStudio.Common.CommonPaths"> which might be interesting to look at. Thanks, Daniel

Paul
Daniel Brockmann

Thank you for the answers. I can see now, that all the default locations are stored in "UserSettings.xml" under CommonPaths:

As you can see, the paths are all different because I work in a team of 10 other people and we share projects.
Over time the paths get really confusing and at least now I know I can just delete these to reset the paths.

In addition to the comment from Jerzy on using templates it's worth noting that your problem mainly stems from using a single user application for projects created by a team.  If you used packages this would not be a problem as each user would have their own settings, and it you used GroupShare or Trados Live Team this probably wouldn't be a problem either.

Templates won't cover everything, but not sharing something that is designed for a single user would go a long way towards resolving the issue.

Having said that... I like the idea of default locations for more resources/actions.  Project templates won't resolve everything in your list.

Paul

Dear Paul

Default locations might be something good, if they would be connected to a project management system. Or if Studio would replace a PM system completely. Otherwise it is better to let the user decide, where the files have to go. My 2 cents

Jerzy Czopik said:

Otherwise it is better to let the user decide, where the files have to go.

Jerzy Czopik

I'm all for choice.  If the option was there you don't have to use it and can still make your own decisions.  But having the choice would be good.

Jerzy Czopik said:

Default locations might be something good, if they would be connected to a project management system. Or if Studio would replace a PM system completely.

Well... explain?

Incidentally, have you tried using Trados Business Manager?  Not Lite, but rather the full blown application?

Not tried the TBM yet, but seen it in a bigger company and might want to test it in the future.

This said, I use the following system:

TranslationOffice is used to maintain customer, prices, jobs, deadlines and invoices. When I get a job, I create it in TO3000, which means a dedicated folder for it in my folder structure. This looks like this:

So far this could be done by any other software. Might be the TBM can do the same. But the advantage of TO3000 is, that I can create also intrepreting jobs including expenses or only revision jobs, auditing jobs, support jobs and so on. This is why I never thought a software like Studio could be able to manage.

In my opinion it is not possible to have a CAT tool, which has a completely different purpose, managing jobs in a "company" like mine, where not only text translation is involved.

Hi Jerzy Czopik and Paul

The company I do most of my work for do use default locations connected to a project management system expertly designed and created by Samuel Baldus.

I've added his link in case he would like to contribute.

As an aside, I'm sure you know that some users aren't capable of creating default locations themselves because they don't know how to navigate to anywhere, not even to the 'out of the box' location of the SDL Projects folder C:\Users\username\[OneDrive\]Documents\Studio 2021\Projects. This is why they think their projects are physically only accessible via the list in the Trados Studio Projects view, and get quite upset if an update or whatever removes them from the list.

I had a friend (not a Trados user) who couldn't get her head around her computer's file structure and had never heard of Windows Explorer. She contacted me because when she saved stuff to 'My Documents' from within the various components of Microsoft Office, it was pot luck whether she could find it again. I found out that she had somehow split or created three 'My Documents' directories. It was easy enough to put it all together in one directory but I don't think she ever really grasped the concept that the software was only the front end of the 'background filing cabinet' that was Windows XP and if she was able to understand how that cabinet could be accessed directly via Windows Explorer she'd be less confused.

All the best,

Ali

Well, this is when my "socks concept" fits. Most people have their socks, ties, shoes and other parts of clothing somehow sorted. In computer it is more or less the same—yoo need shelves for these. Otherwise you end up acquiring for a job with a red sock on the left and a blue one on the right foot.

Sorry, but what you say is a very sad truth: (far too) many translators are computer illiterate and do nothing to change it, because they are "not IT specialists".

Well, this is when my "socks concept" fits. Most people have their socks, ties, shoes and other parts of clothing somehow sorted. In computer it is more or less the same—yoo need shelves for these. Otherwise you end up acquiring for a job with a red sock on the left and a blue one on the right foot.

Sorry, but what you say is a very sad truth: (far too) many translators are computer illiterate and do nothing to change it, because they are "not IT specialists".

Hi Jerzy, I like your 'sock concept', it sounds more fun that my 'filing cabinet'