… and path handling in Studio can still be a little challenging. I imagine that’s a statement not too many users would disagree with! There is a knack to using it, and if you can allow Studio to do its thing, which is what the black box translation environments of some competitive solutions do anyway, then it is something you can live with. But if you want to have the physical Studio projects set up in the same way as your customer folders, which the black box approach can’t do, then Studio can be a little frustrating at times when in your eagerness to tackle the work your projects are stored in a location you didn’t intend because you missed the prompts to change it! I even wrote about this once in an effort to explain the inner workings of path handling in Studio, “Maybe it’s buried where you put it!!“.
Whilst I think that article is useful, or at least I hope it is, there are still improvements that could be made. Improvements like these:
- remember the last path used when opening packages instead of always defaulting back to the Studio defaults
- if you have to change folder location when opening a package retain the project name so you don’t get the folder already there message forcing you to manually type it in
- allow the path to be typed or copy/pasted straight in (a definite must for Total Commander users!)
- make it possible to specify a default location for a project template so you can mirror your client folders for example and not have to worry about finding them… just pick the appropriate client template (or whatever your filing system is)… something like this option would be good:
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- make it possible to move a project to a different place simply by changing the path in this Project location path.
These would all be welcome improvements and as luck would have it we’ve got them all in CU3 for SDL Trados Studio 2015, just in time for Christmas! In fact that’s not all you get, the CU3 update is full of goodies providing new features as well as (bad) bug fixes to build on the robustness of the Studio and MultiTerm applications. The scope of the update can be found in KB #8124 and like all cumulative updates you can update automatically if you have the Automatic Update checked in File -> Options -> Automatic Updates; or manually trigger the update in Studio through Help -> Check for Updates; or take the manual update directly from the KB article.
You should review the full set of release notes for all the details, but here’s a few of the highlights in addition to the ones above:
- New option to overwrite PerfectMatch translations during the pre-translate batch task
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- German and French quickstart guides have been added to the Welcome View in the Getting Started Tab
- It’s now possible to import/export terminology verification settings as profiles in the same way you can do for TQA and QA Checker profiles
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- Lots of welcome fixes for the localised UI, TQA, AutoCorrect, AutoSuggest, QuickPlace, Retrofit and working with GroupShare projects
- Filetype fixes and enhancements for DOCX, HTML, XLIFF, Adobe InDesign CS6 (added support for CS6 8.1), PowerPoint files, Tab Delimited Text & CSV files
For a cumulative update I like it, and if you’d been putting off upgrading to Studio 2015 until it had “warmed up a bit” now’s the time to give it a whirl… treat yourself and have a great Christmas!
Speaking of a black box, have you ever seen a MemoQ project folder? I think users weren’t intended to see what is in there…. MemoQ itself tries to hide you away from it, but I find the way Trados handle things to be much more flexible and intuitive in this area.
I have seen it once or twice… it is a different concept. What’s interesting is when your files are hidden away like this nobody is woried, but when they’re not you want more flexibility over where you can put them. Maybe a case of what you don’t know won’t bother you? I think I prefer the Studio approach.