Hi Edward Bradburn,

Thanks for mentioning this to RWS. I would even go a bit further:

I understand the intention behind this "last-minute-check", i.e. to force users to do the check. But to be honest, it is, as you write, a time-waster because it is not possible to correct any errors at the package-creation stage. Instead, we need to go back to the editor and correct them there and then restart package creation.

My procedure is as follows:

1. Before creating my return package, I press F8 while still in the editor and correct any errors reported there.

2. I then create my return package, but press "Continue" as soon as the Verify process begins. This gives me a warning, but I ignore it and instead inform the client upon delivery that I ran the QA check and that all remaining error messages can be safely ignored.

I know that this is not the way it's meant to be because some clients might expect the Verify report to be OK, but I think software should help the user and not be a time waster or an end it itself.

Best regards

Annette (from Manfred's account) 

Hi Edward Bradburn,

Thanks for mentioning this to RWS. I would even go a bit further:

I understand the intention behind this "last-minute-check", i.e. to force users to do the check. But to be honest, it is, as you write, a time-waster because it is not possible to correct any errors at the package-creation stage. Instead, we need to go back to the editor and correct them there and then restart package creation.

My procedure is as follows:

1. Before creating my return package, I press F8 while still in the editor and correct any errors reported there.

2. I then create my return package, but press "Continue" as soon as the Verify process begins. This gives me a warning, but I ignore it and instead inform the client upon delivery that I ran the QA check and that all remaining error messages can be safely ignored.

I know that this is not the way it's meant to be because some clients might expect the Verify report to be OK, but I think software should help the user and not be a time waster or an end it itself.

Best regards

Annette (from Manfred's account) 

When Studio starts this unuseful QA simply press cancel or next (sorry, I can't remember now what appears there). You will get a warning, which can be confirmed and you go to creation of return package with no loss of time.

Many thanks Annette and Jerzy for your comments,

I’m aware of the “Next” workaround but, at least on my not-quite-so-modern laptop (although i7, etc.), if you fail to click “Next” quickly enough, Trados will not let you perform any further user input until it has finished. You have to be very quick indeed to catch it before it starts checking the thousands of pointless errors on a large job. Otherwise, you click and you get the “faded-out application” thing Windows uses to show you the program is not responding.

And, as Annette rightly points out, this is not the right place to do the check anyway. It should be a separate step and it should always be optional, regardless of what the client wants. If you fail to do the check, a flag should be set and you’re done. The current setup automatically creates tension between project managers and freelancers and is IMHO both unprofessional and unnecessary. Especially because, as you note, the client currently has no way of knowing you finished the check, either. One agency I know has resorted to the fairly desperate measure of asking for a QA report to be sent along with the final package.

(And that, of course, runs into the problems I’ve already reported, whereby Trados a) re-runs the check even if you have just run one in the Editor and b) re-runs the check when you ask it to save the report even if you have literally just run the report.)

All of this needs fixing for 2022, tbh.