Trados basics (a guide for beginners)by Life Jensen, Danish translator
[Be aware, there will be some differences with current version as this was written for 2.3 build 89]1
Installation should be fairly self explanatory on the disk, so install it. You need to have your dongle installed on the back of your computer, too. The little thingamajig, which plugs in.
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The next things you need to do, is to open your Trados program. Probably from 'Start-Programs-Trados translation solutions-freelance applications-Trados workbench'.
First there is a bit of setup.
I only did this once a long time ago, so I may not have included all of it here, but if I haven't, ask on the Trados user's mailing list. The rest I have explained quite well below. So the first thing, which is explained nowhere, except perhaps in a footnote on page 46 in the manual, is choosing your user ID. Go to settings, choose 'User ID' , just put anything, your first name or whatever, and click OK. You may also want to go to settings and choose dialog language. Now try if that was all that was needed to proceed.
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You will want to have translation memories of your own. First you need a place to put them. Make a folder in 'My documents' (or wherever you want it) and call it something like 'TMs'.
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Now go to the Trados window. This window you will have seen to no end on the demo. First you will want to make a translation memory of your own. Eventually you will want a number of these. I pretty much make one for each subject area or client.
Go to File in the pull down menu of the Trados window. Choose 'New'. You get a dialog box called ‘Create translation memory’. On the left side is 'Source languages'. If you want to go from English to French, scroll down and choose 'English'. Then in ‘target language’ go choose 'French'. Each of these have several different versions of the language, but choosing the right one should be obvious. (If it is already set up, so that the one chosen in the target is the one you want for the source, it will not let you choose that one for source, unless you first change the target to anything random else, and vice versa. In other words, the same source and target are not options).
Then in the name field below, give it a name, such as 'test'. (Of the check boxes the left 4 in mine are checked, but I don't know, if it matters.) Then click Create.
Another dialog box comes up, which wants to know, where you want to save it. Tell it where to put it. At the top you will want to browse your way to the 'TMs' folder, and then below, you want to put the name 'test', too, and then save. You now have a memory. It’s in your TMs folder, and is actually 5 separate documents, but with somewhat similar names.
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Now make yourself a simple test text in a Word document. Something like:
This is a test. This is not a test. This is a stupid test. This is a short test. This is a test. This test sucks. This is not a stupid test. This is not a test, but a test. This test is rough. This test is green. This test is easy. This red test is green. This green test is red. This is a test. This test sucks. Would you believe it – this is the right kind of test?
In other words a text with a number of short sentences, which are somewhat alike and occasionally repeat themselves.
Now you have a document to translate.
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