Michel Mullejans 

you said multiple sdlxliff files. Is this project already created for Studio? How did these files become sdlxliff? Just checking in case you missed the obvious and are trying to recreate something you already have.

Hi to you also Paul, thank you for responding.

Yes, the project was sent to me as an arborescence of directories. And, no, I am not trying to recreate this piece of work.

I am reviewing the quality a French medical translation already made in Trados Studio. The translation is organized in 13 directories containing various numbers of sdlxliffs. I have found a workaround solution, but I was wondering if there is a simple (...) way to create one project in Studio that could contain these directories in their right order, each containing their respective files, I must add that some of these files have very long names. How do I proceed?  I usually create a project and simply use "Open for review" to review the files.  But I never had to work with a complete structure of files, and at first view, Trados does not seem to handle this very simply.  Yet, there must be a way to do this? 

That's where I need your help. Please be detailed in your instructions. Thanks!

Michel

 Michel Mullejans 

I think you may be missing the point. If they are already sdlxliff files, in a folder structure, then it’s most likely someone already created this project. So can you see if there is an sdlproj within the structure. If there is just use that with the open project command and you’ll ha e everything you need.

It seems to be to be bordering on stupidity to send you the sdlxliff files in folders for you to create a project.

Or maybe you teceived an sdlppx and you unzipped it?

Io feels as though we don’t have the full picture and whilst we could easily explain how to do exactly what you have asked it seems silly if there is a better way.

Michel Mullejans 

To try and cover all bases I created a quick project with nested folders and tried to show you what your project manager/client might have done and then what you might have received... and finally how you can deal with it in all the circumstances I showed.  Hope it helps... was easier than trying to write down a manual that almost certainly already exists if you read the help documentation.

Michel Mullejans 

To try and cover all bases I created a quick project with nested folders and tried to show you what your project manager/client might have done and then what you might have received... and finally how you can deal with it in all the circumstances I showed.  Hope it helps... was easier than trying to write down a manual that almost certainly already exists if you read the help documentation.

Hello again Paul,

First, let me tell you how much I appreciate your spending the time to work on this and to record this video.  You went to the trouble of creating a structure to demonstrate your solution, but the lack of  two-way easy communication forced you to make assumptions which did not apply in this case.

I agree--it would have been more simple if the PM had created a project package.  I work with these all the time, they make the work straightforward.  Instead, the PM just sent a series of directories--13 of them--containing the sdlxliffs, just like a pail of soiled laundry.  Neither is there a sdlproj all ready to use.  Also, the structure only contains one pair--English to French.  This is why I wrote to you. No stupidity involved--there was no need for that inference.

I have avoided all my professional life using "drag and drop," and much prefer browsing instead.  I kindly asked you to use browsing.  But I see you much prefer to revert to doing that, as it obviously seems comfortable to you.  It seems most uncomfortable to me.

It is now 4:45 am here--tomorrow, I will try and reconstruct what you did so swiftly and elegantly on the video you created--thanks again for doing that.  I don't imagine the Help function explains any of this step-by-step.  I have now lost a lot of hours just trying to get started on this large task--rather than spending time doing the linguistic work required of me.

Have a good rest of your day Paul.  Thank you again for your time:  you are the only source of genuine assistance in the company you have been working for for so long.

Michel

Michel Mullejans 

Michel Mullejans said:

I kindly asked you to use browsing.  But I see you much prefer to revert to doing that, as it obviously seems comfortable to you. 

I also showed you in the video where you can simply click "Add Folder" and select the top level folder.  I just didn't do it... it is indeed more cumbersome and drag and drop a lot easier.

Michel Mullejans said:

No stupidity involved--there was no need for that inference.

Perhaps not... but I stand by it.  To not send you what is already available is stupid in my opinion.  They not only cause you clear problems, but they also risk you using project settings that are not appropriate to check the project which could defeat the object of the review in the first place.

Michel Mullejans said:

I don't imagine the Help function explains any of this step-by-step.

Perhaps not step-by-step with pictures but the explanation here is pretty clear:

https://docs.rws.com/980998/555636/trados-studio-2022/step-1--creating-the-project-in-one-step

Michel Mullejans said:

I have now lost a lot of hours just trying to get started on this large task

I hope you'll find now that it's quite straightforward, much like working with individual files. Perhaps you just didn't look in the right places for the information you needed or maybe didn't have the opportunity in your busy schedule to take training on how to use the tool.  Worth investing a little quiet time to learn how to be more comfortable with the tools you're using.

Thanks again Paul. I am thankful for your work.  I agree that investing time in learning this tool would make sense.  But many aspects of this Trados--this old IBM program, sold and resold, reworked and patched by several generations of programmers--are quite cumbersome, illogical, and unpredictable.  More often than not, the issues we are faced with are not easy to correlate to "boilerplate" procedures, summarily presented.  Everything becomes straightforward once one becomes familiar enough with it, and it must seem simple to use to you after all these years.  But linguists do not often have the time or the motivation to devote large amounts of energy and money to find out how to use what should be a simple tool. I must say again how much I appreciate your devoting your professional life to this, remaining always ready to help others--that, in itself, is great. Merci, Paul.

Michel Mullejans 

Michel Mullejans said:

But many aspects of this Trados--this old IBM program, sold and resold, reworked and patched by several generations of programmers

???

Michel Mullejans said:

But linguists do not often have the time or the motivation to devote large amounts of energy and money to find out how to use what should be a simple tool.

It doesn't take large amounts of money to learn and I think it's your responsibility as a professional to do so.  To yourself and your clients.

I completely appreciate the complexity of a tool like this, it needs to be able to support so many workflows and filetypes that it can difficult to keep it really simple.  It often requires you guys having to learn a lot more than you probably ever realised to be able to handle the file formats you may receive.  But that's the price, and what sets you apart, of being a professional.

To quote the old cliché nothing worthwhile was ever easy!

This was probably before your time, but...

https://aclanthology.org/www.mt-archive.info/90/IJLangDoc-1999-Hummel.pdf

Michel Mullejans 

It was indeed!  I became part of Trados the year after SDL bought them in 2005.  I was questioning the "this old IBM program, sold and resold, reworked and patched by several generations of programmers".

Trados Studio has been professionally developed and maintained by a dedicated team and whilst it does contain some legacy code even today, the main reason it's there has always been because of the attempts by our teams to try and support all of our customers, many of whom have stubbornly hung onto older versions for far longer than it's reasonable to expect. Describing it in such terms oversimplifies and misrepresents the development process.

It also completely underestimates just how difficult this is, especially when we also add into the mix all the solutions we have to make work as seamlessly as possible with it... SDL TMS, SDLX, Legacy Trados, Trados Teamworks, WorldServer, MultiTrans, GroupShare and now a much more modern platform in the cloud.  And that is just our software!

I think our development teams deserve a lot more credit than they get!