Service Release 1 for SDL Trados Studio 2017 and SDL MultiTerm 2017 are now available to download
Studio 2017:Key updates to upLIFT technology, including:
A simplified upgrade process for translation memories (TMs) to optimize their performance.
Tooltips to show origins of fuzzy match repairs.
The ability to use either the repaired or the non-repaired fuzzy matches when working with Fuzzy Match Repair.
upLIFT Fragment Recall and Fuzzy Repair now available for Chinese & Japanese.
New 'LookAhead' feature: Improved retrieval speed of search results (from TMs, termbases and machine translation) when moving from segment to segment - providing a smoother and instantaneous translating experience.
File Type updates: It is now possible to translate embedded content in MS Office files, without the need to manually extract it from the source file. For example, an embedded Excel table in a Word document will now automatically be included in the translation file.
Improved error handling: Find resolutions to errors quickly with direct links to our Knowledge Base and Community now included with error messages.
SDL Language Cloud terminology Beta: Discover a new way to create, edit and share your terminology via the cloud. Studio 2017 SR1 users now have the opportunity to try our free beta for the SDL Language Cloud terminology provider and help shape the future of this service.
MultiTerm 2017:The Default layout first introduced with MultiTerm 2017 now also includes support for Input models, the ability to create cross-references, copy/merge of entries, among other enhancements based on customer feedback.
A new review screen makes it easy to review changes applied by Batch editing, before they are applied.
Common actions like 'Open Termbase' now appear in the ribbon so you can quickly get to your most used commands.
Infinite scrolling enables you to see all entries when you browse a term list.
https://sdl.ssl.cdn.sdlmedia.com/636355424007121486UA.pdfThere is a new service release for SDL Trados 2017. And in the good (recent) tradition of SDL to actually make its service releases worthwhile beyond error fixes, there are a couple of interesting things.
One is the "LookAhead" feature, which starts to search for matches and terminology data for the next segment while you are still working on the current segment. Why is this helpful? Because it at least potentially eliminates any wait time for finding matches when you go to the next segment. You likely have the same question I had, so in the finest Jeopardy form (Jeopardy is an American game show where you have to guess the question to a given answer), let me give you Daniel Brockmann's answer sans question:
"Indeed, it will skip pretranslated segments and look at the first fuzzy match down the line."
That's good.
Also, embedded Excel files within Word and PowerPoint files are now automatically processed. That's something others have provided for a while, but it's nice to have it in SDL Trados as well. Of course, it would be nice to have other embedded (Office) file types processed, too.
And then there is the beta of Language Cloud Terminology. This is an interesting proposition aimed at freelancers or small companies who don't want to (or can't) afford one of the relatively expensive GroupShare licenses but still want to share terminology databases between different translators. According to Massi Ghislandi, "it is not meant to replace MultiTerm but it is an additional resource at this stage -- not as sophisticated as MultiTerm -- to create, store and share terminology in the cloud." And to quote Daniel again, it's
"a 'true' cloud-based terminology offering that is more than a glossary with a more or less basic data model behind it. The beauty is the ease with which you can ... share a termbase with anyone else -- i.e., a terminology service for everyone -- or import an Excel glossary, or set up even a sophisticated termbase (or ... a basic one - just as you please), all from within the browser (and then access from within Studio)."
He's right, there is a choice between a basic and an advanced, concept-based data model when you create the termbase online (you'll find the link to Language Cloud Terminology from within SDL Trados Studio or via
this portal). Once it's created online in your account, you'll find it as a selectable terminology resource within SDL Trados, or if it was selected by someone else, she can send you the link to the termbase and you connect that way. During translation, the terms from the cloud-based termbase will appear just like they do from MultiTerm, and you can add terms to the termbase in the cloud on the fly.
Daniel also mentioned that it "is still a bit rough around the edges," and that's true as well -- for instance, I couldn't get the import feature to work -- but everything else worked as it should have as far as I could tell.
Here what really interests me about this: Right now this is still in beta, so it's free and will be until the end of the year. After that it will be a paid offering with the price yet to be determined by SDL. This means that SDL is moving into a hybrid role as a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) and traditional software vendor. The mainstay desktop application acts as the starting point, and other products/services -- whether cloud-based termbases or machine translation -- are sold on top of that.
I asked Massi whether this should or could mean that "SDL [should] lower the threshold (i.e., price) for purchasing the base product and then essentially customize it with other paid offerings."
His response?
"In terms of the pricing for the desktop and LC terminology -- we have not yet made firm plans and we will continue to evaluate the market situation and the value offered by the combination of Desktop with Cloud.
Over the years we have continued to lower the entry cost of Trados -- a fact that is often overlooked.
The starting price has not been increased for 10 years; in fact, it has been reduced -- by €100 -- and is listed at €695 with many promotions.
We will be looking at a number of options in terms of bundles which include a combinations of desktop and clouds solutions."
There you go. I imagine after the week's dramatic loss of value in SDL's shares, though, any additional lowering of prices might be hard to come by.
Of course, there were a whole bundle of other improvements in the Service Release. You can read about them on SDL's fancy
new website or in more detail
right here.
— Jost Zetzsche, The 277th Tool Box Journal