| Developer(s) | SDL Trados |
|---|---|
| Stable release | SDL Trados Studio 2011 / September 2011 |
| Operating system | Windows |
| Type | Computer-assisted translation |
| License | Commercial |
| Website | www.trados.com |
SDL Trados is the market leading computer assisted translation software suite,[1] originally developed by the German company Trados GmbH and currently available from SDL International, a provider of translation management software, content management and language services. It provides translation memory and terminology management.
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Trados GmbH was founded as a language service provider (LSP) in 1984 by Jochen Hummel and Iko Knyphausen in Stuttgart, Germany.[2] The company began developing translation software in the late 1980s, and released the first Windows versions of two of the suite's major components in the early 1990s – MultiTerm in 1992, and Translator's Workbench in 1994. In 1997, the company received a major boost when Microsoft decided to use Trados for its internal localization needs.[2] By the end of the 1990s, it had become the clear market leader in desktop translation memory software.
Trados was acquired by SDL in 2005.[3]
As of 2011, the freelance and professional edition of SDL Trados contained three principal components:
Studio also contains a specialized tool for translating graphic interfaces and one for aligning source documents with existing translations.
Formats supported by SDL Trados Studio 2009 include TTX, ITD, Trados Word Bilingual, Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word (2003, 2007, 2010), Excel, and PowerPoint, OpenOffice, InDesign, QuarkXPress, PageMaker, Interleaf, Framemaker, HTML, SGML, XML, and SVG.
The translation memory (TM) format of Trados is SDLTM.
When creating a new (file-based) translation memory, SDL Trados Studio creates a database file in which all translation units are stored. The translation memory also stores structural and context information to link all the different segments and their position in a document. This allows the tool to select the most relevant translation memory segment.
In previous version of Trados a neural network of files that enable fuzzy search capability was also created. A new translation memory consists of five new files:
When copying a translation memory, you must copy all five translation memory files. Otherwise, Translator's Workbench displays an error message when opening the copied translation memory.
Trados can also work with server-based translation memories.
Glossaries are handled by the MultiTerm application. Glossaries can be bilingual or multi-lingual.
Trados Studio 2009 has integrated machine translation and postediting into its translation workflow. If the appropriate parameter setting is made, Trados will insert a machine translation of a translation unit (TU) if no match is found in the translation memory. The translator can then post-edit the machine translation for added clarity. SDL Trados currently supports the following MT systems: Language Weaver, SDL RbMT and Google Translate. Trados also supports the integration of other MT system through its open API and plugin architecture.
According to a 2004 survey by the World Bank, Trados held an estimated 75% global market share with SDL holding an additional 10%.[1]
According to the ICU Translation Memory Survey from 2006, SDL Trados is used by a total of 75% of surveyed users - 51% used Trados with a further 24% SDL Trados (See table 21).[4]
SDL Trados manuals can be downloaded online from the company's website. Basic training is available in the form of webinars delivered free of charge on a monthly basis, while there is also onsite training at SDL and partner (Authorized Training Center) locations. A calendar can be found on www.translationzone.com in the Event section. Educational videos can be found on www.youtube.com/sdltrados.
SDL Trados has been criticized for high prices,[5] onerous licensing policies,[6] lack of backward compatibility,[7] poor user support,[8] and not fixing known bugs.[9]
A number of solutions have been created to be able to handle the different versions of Trados file formats,[10] but the process is not foolproof.