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SDL Studio: I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!
Thread poster: Michael Beijer
José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 06:01
English to Portuguese
+ ...
In memoriam
My thoughts exactly Mar 16, 2018

Wojciech_ wrote:

Another problem I have, actually with most CAT tools is that they don't offer automation of many processes that could get automated. With Trados it's even worse, because to access useful solutions you must install external plugins, which aren't fully integrated within Studio. This means constant clicking and setting up each individual plugin to a specific project.

No need to say it takes time.

Then there's preview, which works soooo slowly. Try previewing a Powerpoint presentation of around 4 MB (about 20 slides). If you want the preview to update with which translated segment, you must be patient, because it takes around 30 seconds per TM.

All I'm saying here is: Studio has really a bunch of useful solutions, often not offered by competition, but the whole program is so terribly slow that it can really make your blood boil sometimes.

Sorry for my rant, but it's a bit disappointing. It's like having a beautiful shiny Porsche with all the gimmicks you can imagine, and then learning that it's slower than a Beetle. Moreover, if you want to put it in reverse, you must first install a special reverse transmission


This reminds me of an acquaintance I made many years ago. I knew the guy was in some financial trouble, yet he drove a shiny vintage Porsche. While he moaned about his situation, I asked him why he didn't sell that Porsche, cashed on it in exchange for some more affordable vehicle.

He explained to me that his car was unsaleable. Someone had made him an offer, and he traded his 2000 Porsche engine for a 1300 plain VW (old) Beetle one, plus the cash he needed then. That person got an unusually fast VW Beetle, while his shiny vintage Porsche dragged at mule speed.

The CAT tool software industry must be REALLY profitable. They appear to invest little in product development, while their prices - compared to other types of software - are outrageously high.

Technical limitations? I doubt it. In the days of the Apple II, I was a heavy user of VisiFile. I cracked it, and discovered it comprised two programs in machine language, plus some 20 others in interpreted BASIC. I got a compiler - which on top of compiling BASIC into ML also optimized all variables - and rebuilt it entirely. My compiled version of VisiFile ran 18 times faster than the original one, on the same 1 MHz (sic!) Apple II computer!

So why don't these CAT tool developers optimize their software for performance?
(and increased user-friendliness too, if possible)


Mpoma
 
Wojciech_ (X)
Wojciech_ (X)
Poland
Local time: 10:01
English to Polish
+ ...
Analogies Mar 17, 2018

I have a better analogy, though. I once owned a beautiful Honda Civic with semi-automatic transmission and F1-like paddle shifters. I bought the car second-hand, but I'd been looking for a long time for a model that would have those paddle shifters, because it looked like fun to be able to change gears like an F1-driver.
You know what? It WAS fun, for some time, though, until I realized that the transmission was awfully slow, even slower that if I had a manual one. A beautiful car with un
... See more
I have a better analogy, though. I once owned a beautiful Honda Civic with semi-automatic transmission and F1-like paddle shifters. I bought the car second-hand, but I'd been looking for a long time for a model that would have those paddle shifters, because it looked like fun to be able to change gears like an F1-driver.
You know what? It WAS fun, for some time, though, until I realized that the transmission was awfully slow, even slower that if I had a manual one. A beautiful car with unique design, but soooo slooow.

This is exactly what I feel with Trados. It offers me so many sexy features that I fall for, but then I realize that what I'd really need isn't there, and what there is may be fun and quite pleasurable, but at the cost of being slow and bug-infested.

Only recently i had a problem with app-lagging "generating preview" message which turned on every few seconds, making it impossible to type. Then I realized that after the latest update the RecordSourceTU doesn't record source file path anymore, but some temporary path with a gibberish file name. Then I couldn't turn on the "use machine translation to repair matches" function, because every time I ticked it and clicked OK, the option got unticked again (when I checked again). Also I must say, that I've never been able to produce a target document from a text where I needed to frequently use "merge segments" or "split" functions.
Oh and another bug that gets on my nerves: whenever I add subsequent TM and providers in the Language Pairs option, they all get mixed up. I may have my project TM at the top, but then I add another TM and suddently the project TM is down on very bottom of the list. Annoying.

Okay, time to take my tranquilizer now
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Michael Beijer
Michael Beijer  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:01
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
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TOPIC STARTER
ha ha Nov 11, 2019

Very true.

For my latest, relevant post (‘The Sad, Sad State of Trados Studio's Useless Terminology Tools’), see: https://community.sdl.com/product-groups/translationproductivity/f/studio/27639/the-sad-sad-state-of-trados-studio-s-useless-terminology-tools

sad sad

Michael


Kaspars Melkis
Danilo Fonseca
Luca Tutino
SpecializedTR
 
Danilo Fonseca
Danilo Fonseca  Identity Verified
Local time: 05:01
English to Portuguese
+ ...
It sucks Dec 5, 2019

I bought The Thing about a week ago. Since then, no translations; only headaches trying to decipher The Thing. Fancy, complicated, and, up to now, virtually useless. What a Rip-off! Tell me about regret.

 
Roy Oestensen
Roy Oestensen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 10:01
Member (2010)
English to Norwegian (Bokmal)
+ ...
Instructions are necessary before use for first time users Dec 5, 2019

Danilo Fonseca wrote:
I bought The Thing about a week ago. Since then, no translations; only headaches trying to decipher The Thing. Fancy, complicated, and, up to now, virtually useless. What a Rip-off! Tell me about regret.


Both Studio and other advanced CAT tools have so many possibilities for speeding up your translation that you possibly need some help before getting the benefit of them. It would be similar to start using AutoCAD or Photoshop. They are strong tools, but the novice would definitely need some instruction before they would benefit from them.

I would search Youtube for some instruction videos to learn how to use it properly before I would expect to get any real benefit from it.

That said there are other programs which have a much lower user threshold than Studio, but which are not as advanced. (Similar to Paint Shop Pro as an alternative to Photoshop for instance.)

It does also help if you have experience with other tools before trying to use Studio. I had been a longtime user of Dejavu before I tried Trados (the forerunner of Trados Studio), so I probably had a much easier time learning Studio. Some instruction in the use still was beneficial, though.

I would say, though, that I personally use both Studio, Dejavu and memoQ, but my personal favourite is Dejavu, which I do all my translation in if at all possible. Afterwards I run a check in Studio (or memoQ) to see that everything runs smoothly and I can deliver the translation safely to the client.

When first you are beginning to learn the inns and outs of Studio, I would say I much prefer it over the many cloud based CAT tools like memsource, XTM, Cloud, Transfix etc. etc. I feel I get out of my mind from all these tools that different agencies want us translators to use. The more they are, the less productive we as translators become because each and every tool has it's special way to do things, not least shortcuts.


MollyRose
Paul Malone
NeoAtlas
Arkadiusz Jasiński
 
Valentine Elleau
Valentine Elleau  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 10:01
Member (2017)
German to French
+ ...
I hate it, too Dec 9, 2019

Can we also talk about the fact that you now have to pay to get support? I mean, how appalling is that? I already bought a very expensive, very annoying piece of software because a lot of my clients use it and I basically have no choice, and I have to give them more money to get it to work?

 
RWS Community
RWS Community
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:01
English
Since when have you not had to pay for full support? Dec 9, 2019

Valentine Elleau wrote:

Can we also talk about the fact that you now have to pay to get support?


For licensing and installation support you do not have to pay. For anything else you do... seems fair enough to me. A support contract aso includes maintenance so you also get all your upgrades free as part of this.

But to use the free licensing and installation support just use this (keep in mind that if you go in there and ask for anything else you won't get help):

https://gateway.sdl.com/liveagentlicensing

You have two options:

1. Submit a case using a webform
2. Use live chat to get a licence reset

We also have a free community where you will always be able to find help on anything, not just licensing and installation support:

http://xl8.one

I think it's a supportive environment and there are many people, including developers, seeing what's going on and helping out in there.


 
Valentine Elleau
Valentine Elleau  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 10:01
Member (2017)
German to French
+ ...
Freemium sucks Dec 9, 2019

I think the software should work. I don't think I'm the only one here who experiences bugs with Studio. It's slow, it freezes all the time... Sure, searching through posts is free, yay. But should I really spend hours looking for answers in a forum when I have a big translation due in 30 minutes? And you ask "since when"... I dunno, I remember there was a ticket system not that long ago.
But my point is: the license is expensive. Is it so crazy to expect it to work without having to pay
... See more
I think the software should work. I don't think I'm the only one here who experiences bugs with Studio. It's slow, it freezes all the time... Sure, searching through posts is free, yay. But should I really spend hours looking for answers in a forum when I have a big translation due in 30 minutes? And you ask "since when"... I dunno, I remember there was a ticket system not that long ago.
But my point is: the license is expensive. Is it so crazy to expect it to work without having to pay extra?
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MollyRose
Luca Tutino
 
Haigo Salow
Haigo Salow  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 02:01
Member (2014)
German to English
+ ...
I just screamed the same words, Dec 9, 2019

SDL Trados is a cult for technocrats.

 
RWS Community
RWS Community
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:01
English
The software should work... Dec 9, 2019

Valentine Elleau wrote:
I think the software should work. I don't think I'm the only one here who experiences bugs with Studio. It's slow, it freezes all the time... Sure, searching through posts is free, yay. But should I really spend hours looking for answers in a forum when I have a big translation due in 30 minutes?


I also think the software should work. We have many thousands of users who don't experience these issues. I'm certainly not saying it's perfect, it's not. I'm also not expecting you to search for hours looking for your own solutions. The link to the SDL Community is a forum, not a knowledgebase. You may well find solutions in there but you can easily post a question in there and for the most part you get help very quickly, either from another user or from someone in SDL.

Valentine Elleau wrote:
But my point is: the license is expensive. Is it so crazy to expect it to work without having to pay extra?


Pay extra for what? I thought we just concluded you don't have to pay for a support contract to get help. A support contract is one way to get help... I actually think it's a very good way as it's a contract to make sure you as a business receive guaranteed help when you need it (your problem might not always be due to the SDL software), and all your upgrades included. It's a business decision you make.

But you can use the SDL Community which offers very good assistance, and help that often goes way beyond anything you could reasonably expect to receive free help for.

Paul.


 
Valentine Elleau
Valentine Elleau  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 10:01
Member (2017)
German to French
+ ...
Still not free Dec 10, 2019

A support contract is one way to get help...


The other one being looking for answers in the forum, exactly my point.


 
Dan Lucas
Dan Lucas  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:01
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
I find the SDL forum helpful Dec 10, 2019

SDL Community wrote:
I also think the software should work. We have many thousands of users who don't experience these issues. I'm certainly not saying it's perfect, it's not.

I am reluctantly going to support Paul and say that while I agree wholeheartedly that Studio is not perfect, I have never experienced the major issues reported by some people, which I suspect are caused by unfortunate interactions between hardware, applications and the operating system.

What should you do when such problems occur? I do not have a support contract, but I have always received answers to my questions on the SDL Forum to which Paul links above. Nearly always these help me resolve the problem. As a first step I encourage all Studio users to register for the forum. It is usually a better place to get help than ProZ.com.

Regards,
Dan


Arkadiusz Jasiński
Sandra & Kenneth Grossman
NeoAtlas
 
Roy Oestensen
Roy Oestensen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 10:01
Member (2010)
English to Norwegian (Bokmal)
+ ...
Most big software have a lot of bugs Dec 11, 2019

Valentine E. wrote:
I think the software should work. I don't think I'm the only one here who experiences bugs with Studio. It's slow, it freezes all the time...


Studio is not alone in being expensive and having bugs, I'm afraid. I am using Studio, memoQ, Dejavu and memsource, and I am even more frustrated with memoQ than Studio when it comes to being slow. I suspect that regardless which CAT tool you choose, you risk problems and slow support, at least if the CAT tool has a large user base.


Dan Lucas
 
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SDL Studio: I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!







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