I absolutely agree with you Dan - although some of the new functions are indeed nice to have, there's so much left to be desired with the way how the bread-and-butter functions work.
Being forced to enter the same five languages approx. a hundred times in the last couple of years may not seem a big deal to the average software developer, but is an absolute nuisance.

Also, the progress bar in the Files tab (my pet peeve) seems to have become even more unreliable than before. Since I updated to 2017, it has been showing "99%" for any and all files I had completely translated. Again, this may seem like not so big a deal to a software developer, but it is a tangible productivity killer. I have to re-open every file I translated, double check if I really haven't left out anything. Imagine that for projects with dozens of files. I know there's a workaround (running an extra batch process), but again, that's a productivity killer. Why should I have to jump through hoops in order to make Studio add up numbers correctly (something which computers are supposed to be particularly good at)? The function in its current state is worse than not having such a function at all.

So, SDL, please listen to what Dan said: "You really need to spend some time on the boring functions that are the bread and butter of translation. You need to LOOK at how freelancers, as well as LSPs, use the software in daily life."

My 2 cents.

Hello Dan,

Unknown said:

Can we have the people responsible on here so that I have somebody other than Paul to whom l can give a piece of my mind?

Looks like you struck out and got me... although you can rest assured that posting it in here means you have got the attention of the right people (if I'm not ;-))

Unknown said:

As usual I was asked to select five languages and as usual I found myself asking why. Why can't the software pick out the five languages I had selected for 2015 and 2014 and offer me a choice, a button saying "Use existing languages?"?

I certainly agree with you here and we should be asking when you start the installation process if you are upgrading and if you want to use the same languages you used before... or something like this as part of an upgrade/migration process.  That on its own doesn't sound too complicated to me, although I'd prefer to see a more comprehensive approach that would definitely not be trivial work.  I know the focus next year is likely to be on the "little" things like this so maybe your timing is right.  We'll see.

Unknown said:

I want functionality that directly improves my efficiency and part of that is a streamlined interface that requires me to make as few clicks as possible. I have seen no progress on that front in Studio over two generations of product. The five languages issue is an excellent example.

I don't really agree with you here Dan.  Not completely anyway.  You are referring to a one off task when you install the product or some updates... not exactly something that affects you daily.  Irritating at worst I agree, but hardly affecting users more than that.  On the other hand I think the improvements in the interface and through the opportunities afforded by the APIs we have seen many ways to work that save considerable time for all sorts of things.

Unknown said:

Another is creation of termbases: why can't I just have the option of a one-click process that creates a new termbase immediately and without having to deal with the lumbering time-sink that is Multiterm? One button in the Studio interface saying "Create based on existing termbase". I click on it, it pops up a list right under the cursor of the ten most recently used termbases, saying "Select termbase to use as template". I click on my main termbase. Done, new termbase created.

A prime example would be the glossary plugin.  Have you tried that?  Almost a one click termbase creation if you want it.  Scroll down a bit in this article:

https://multifarious.filkin.com/2015/12/09/feature-rich/

Having said that... how often do you create a completely new termbase?  You can also do that anyway from within Studio even if it does use the MultiTerm Wizard.  It is a bit clicky and seems to stop at unnecessary windows as well as not having a finish button if you know you don't want to change the definition.

Unknown said:

There is more to productivity than flashy new suggestion technology. You've spent some time on the shiny new toys in 2017 and yes, I like those too, but you really need to spend some time on the boring functions that are the bread and butter of translation. You need to LOOK at how freelancers, as well as LSPs, use the software in daily life.

Of course we know this Dan.  We have run workshops with Freelancers, LSPs, Corporates in the past to gather feedback for the tools.  In fact last month we did this again in great details covering the needs of new users and more experienced users to help guide what we do in 2017 and onwards.  Some of the people on this forum might even be able to share their views of those workshops if they read this.

Unknown said:

Printing isn't sexy, but when you want to proof-read a translation on paper with a deadline looming, being immediately able to print only the segments that you need is a huge benefit. I find myself tempted to skip a vital QA step because Studio makes it so hard to isolate and print 30 segments out of 700. That's a serious issue for me. SDL clearly couldn't care less.

I'd agree here too.  You can workaround this easily enough if you are familiar with some of the tools like the SDLXLIFF Toolkit for example, or if you export to Excel and just filter out what you don't need to see, but it would clearly be better to have an export to Word feature that could just take segments you wanted based on some condition.  Probably not hard to do either... would be a neat batch task.

Unknown said:

Your market position is not secure and, by failing to address longstanding issues like these, you are allowing goodwill to erode.

I think we all know where you're coming from Dan.  Your usecases are one thing, not everything, but an important thing that we do need to consider.  It's hard to be all things to all men, but we are conscious of these requirements and have put in place an environment where it's possible for any developer to tackle many of these small things in isolation.  It also means we can address things in core development using the same mechanism, sometimes as an app and sometimes within the product.  I know you might say having to use apps is not right... but I would wholeheartedly disagree with that.  The ability to use apps is one thing that sets us apart, and I noted that even Kilgray are starting to mention their limited features to support this sort of thing, and will probably focus more in this themselves, because you really can't keep adding in features for everyone as the tool soon becomes more complicated than easy to use.  Frankly I don't find memoQ any easier to use at all and I've been using it since version 4.  What I have seen is increasing complexity as the interface has become more and more cluttered, partly because of features that might be better of being optional.

But your points are all noted.

Thank you.

Paul

Hi Dan, hi Paul,

RE: "There is more to productivity than flashy new suggestion technology. You've spent some time on the shiny new toys in 2017 and yes, I like those too, but you really need to spend some time on the boring functions that are the bread and butter of translation. You need to LOOK at how freelancers, as well as LSPs, use the software in daily life."

A couple of weeks back I heard first-hand a lot of other freelancers' feedback, some of which similar to yours, and I was able to feed back extensively myself as I attended an advanced users' workshop among those mentioned by Paul in his reply to your above comment...

This was the first I'd attended and I was very impressed by the keenness of the SDL guys there to search out and listen to our views. They had planned a day targeted at covering every possible aspect of the product from how to improve usability through to the need to address any shortcomings of SDL's CAT software in comparison to competitors' products, all structured in such a way as to prise out as many of our opinions and recommendations as humanly possible. They really forced us to think deeply about how the product needed to improve and contribute as much as we could to the betterment of Studio and MultiTerm. It was not in any way a glorification of the product's new features followed by a bland 'any questions?'.

I left with the complete assurance that the guys at SDL are not just listening to but also very interested in the individual users' opinion, and doing their utmost to meet their needs as well as be competitive. It was a valid event, not just a box-ticking exercise. Copious notes were made by the SDL staff present, of what we users think and want. Serious attention was paid to us and our needs as representative of the wider range of users. We didn't pull any punches, we gave them what they were asking for, and some ;-))

I believe they really are looking at how we freelancers use the software and doing their best to continuously improve the product for us as well as for the incoming market.

All the best,

Ali

Hi again, Dan, Erik and Paul,

The message in my post yesterday has been reinforced ... When I checked my emails I found that I'd somehow missed an email a few days back asking for my help putting one of the suggestions I made at the workshop into practice! How's that for a result!

Wishing you all the best for the festive season!

Ali [G]

Hi Eva,

Unknown said:

I have to make up three languages I don't speak and certainly don't need just to make my professional translation tool happy. While not really an issue, it does feel pretty absurd while you're at it.

Indeed... although sometimes it's handy, due to the way Studio works, to be able to use the training information and this often contains a staple of EN, DE, FR, JP... you'd still need one more, but perhaps when you do choose (until we improve this experience) it's worth keeping this in mind.

Regards

Paul

Unknown said:

May I ask what the suggestion was?