I am one of the freelance translators who are deeply disappointed with Trados Studio and angry at the way it 'works'. My impression is that it always makes problems and those are rarely easy to solve. I am typically able to digest complex systems, but this one is absolutely elusive. When Studio is unable to respond to a command or recognizes that something has failed, it offers no solutions, no error code, no contextual help, nothing to guide my next steps. And this happens almost every time I use it!

Then I go to online forums, and the frustrating experience continues. Some threads are closed without containing any solution to the problem presented (Why am I looking at those at all? Can’t RWS tell Google they’re irrelevant?) And in other threads, the answers to someone's problem usually appear as a seemingly random list of questions themed "Have you perhaps omitted the following...?" I typically check everything recommended in that particular forum, my problem persists, then I move on to another forum focusing on the same issue, and so on. Sometimes I just learn that this and that problem has been plaguing Studio translations for years and RWS has never repaired it (think Termbases). Basically if there is a problem, I know it's going to take at least an hour of seemingly random efforts to solve.

Let me give you an example of how I spent five hours today:

• Tried to convert a simple Excel spreadsheet with two columns into a TM. Did not find how to do that in Studio, tapped an external tool to convert xlsx into a tmx. Then Studio resisted importing it into an existing sdltm, telling me "0 segments read" and pretending it's okay that way. Checked a few forums, nothing worked. I eventually used a workaround - created two excel files with one column each, aligned them, and then succeeded in importing the result into my tmx.
• TM was not updating with the content of confirmed translated segments. Checked and double-checked recommendations at about seven different forums, nothing worked, two TMs became corrupt for no reason in the process (Studio just announced this without linking me to any remedy, or it gave recommendations I did not understand and did not tell me where to find them). I used the "throw it away and start over" solution - restarted Studio, started a completely new project with the same files and a new TM, and it finally worked.
• Then Studio was not giving my any TM suggestions for 100% matches. Read a few forums, perhaps the fourth one gave me the answer it took me - to check an option in one of the sub-sub-sub-submenus that I unchecked and forgot about.

This last problem was on me. But they're usually not. They're on RWS, and it sucks.

I think the main problem is in the design, but since I can't change that, I would perhaps appreciate an AI assistant trained on all those forums, able to check things in the menus of my Studio, and working with me in a supporting manner until my problem is solved.

I would love to hear from others who have the same basic feeling about Studio - anger, helplessness, anxiety, a deep-rooted belief it's going to be a waste of time when I dare open it. Let me know I'm not alone! 

At the rational level, then, I am open to suggestions on what I might try doing differently.