| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Is it possible to tell whether Trados was used in the translation process? Thread poster: José Guedes
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José Guedes 
Brazil
Local time: 16:41
Portuguese to English
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Hello!
I was wondering, is it possible to tell when someone uses Trados to translate a file? If, for example, I translate a word file using Trados, will there be anything in the finished document that shows the file was translated using Trados?
Thanks!
| | | | Tony M
France
Local time: 21:41
Member
French to English
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SITE LOCALIZER | Do you really mean the other way round? | Jan 26, 2015 |
Are you in fact trying to find out if someone can tell if you didn't use Trados? 
| | | | José Guedes
Brazil
Local time: 16:41
Portuguese to English
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TOPIC STARTER | Just the opposite | Jan 26, 2015 |
No, I actually want to use Trados when the client doesn't want me to for silly reasons and it really ruins my productivity (and quality, since it is so much easier to keep everything consistent using Trados).
Edit: He says I can't use it because the instructions he received say you can't "OCR (Optical Character Recognition)" the file, which is when you use a type of software to make images into editable text. However, the document is already in an editable text format and contains n... See more No, I actually want to use Trados when the client doesn't want me to for silly reasons and it really ruins my productivity (and quality, since it is so much easier to keep everything consistent using Trados).
Edit: He says I can't use it because the instructions he received say you can't "OCR (Optical Character Recognition)" the file, which is when you use a type of software to make images into editable text. However, the document is already in an editable text format and contains no images, so there would be no OCRing whatsoever taking place.
[Editada em 2015-01-26 19:13 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tony M
France
Local time: 21:41
Member
French to English
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER | That's probably the easier way round, then! | Jan 26, 2015 |
I'm no Trados expert (and perhaps you'd do best to post this question in the Trados-specific forum?), but I'd have thought that if you copied out as .RTF and then conevrted back to .DOC, you would be very likely to get rid of any tell-tale signs that Trados might have left; however, please don't take my word for it — wait until the experts chip in
If there was no formatting, then I feel pretty sure that doing the sam... See more I'm no Trados expert (and perhaps you'd do best to post this question in the Trados-specific forum?), but I'd have thought that if you copied out as .RTF and then conevrted back to .DOC, you would be very likely to get rid of any tell-tale signs that Trados might have left; however, please don't take my word for it — wait until the experts chip in
If there was no formatting, then I feel pretty sure that doing the same manœuvre via .TXT would almost certainly clean out your file for you — but with a more drastic effect on any formatting! ▲ Collapse
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:41
Member (2008)
Italian to English
No finished translation should ever seem like a translation. There should not be the slightest hint that it was ever in any other language. If there is, then it is not a good translation.
[Edited at 2015-01-26 19:14 GMT]
| | | | José Guedes
Brazil
Local time: 16:41
Portuguese to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Tom in London wrote:
No finished translation should ever seem like a translation. There should not be the slightest hint that it was ever in any other language. If there is, then it is not a good translation.
[Edited at 2015-01-26 19:14 GMT]
I don't think you understood me, that's not what I am talking about at all.
What I mean is, is it possible to tell whether SDL Trados Studio was used on a file?
Tony M wrote: I'm no Trados expert (and perhaps you'd do best to post this question in the Trados-specific forum?), but I'd have thought that if you copied out as .RTF and then conevrted back to .DOC, you would be very likely to get rid of any tell-tale signs that Trados might have left; however, please don't take my word for it — wait until the experts chip in If there was no formatting, then I feel pretty sure that doing the same manœuvre via .TXT would almost certainly clean out your file for you — but with a more drastic effect on any formatting!
Thanks, I think I will try doing that with a .txt file, since there is almost no formatting in it. I
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:41
Member (2008)
Italian to English
ZeHgS wrote: Tom in London wrote:
No finished translation should ever seem like a translation. There should not be the slightest hint that it was ever in any other language. If there is, then it is not a good translation.
[Edited at 2015-01-26 19:14 GMT] I don't think you understood me, that's not what I am talking about at all. What I mean is, is it possible to tell whether SDL Trados Studio was used on a file?
I know. I reconfirm what I said. If it is possible to tell that SDL Trados Studio - or any other CAT tool - was used on a file, then it is not a good translation.
| | | | José Guedes
Brazil
Local time: 16:41
Portuguese to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Tom in London wrote: ZeHgS wrote: Tom in London wrote:
No finished translation should ever seem like a translation. There should not be the slightest hint that it was ever in any other language. If there is, then it is not a good translation.
[Edited at 2015-01-26 19:14 GMT] I don't think you understood me, that's not what I am talking about at all. What I mean is, is it possible to tell whether SDL Trados Studio was used on a file? I know. I reconfirm what I said. If it is possible to tell that SDL Trados Studio - or any other CAT tool - was used on a file, then it is not a good translation.
Then you still have not understood it. The means through which I'm concerned someone will be able to tell Trados was used is not in the final result of my translation, in the words themselves.
I want to know whether Trados adds something to the Word document that shows Trados was used. I know it does this if you connect to open Translation Memories such as Google Translate's, and it does this in order to help clients tell whether the translator used automatic translations. I wanted to know whether it also adds some general text somewhere in the file's properties that states the document was produced by Trados.
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Joakim Braun
Sweden
Local time: 21:41
German to Swedish
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| Plaintext editor | Jan 26, 2015 |
.docx files are XML files, so you could open the Word file in a plaintext editor and have a look.
| | | | | No it doesn't! | Jan 26, 2015 |
ZeHgS wrote:
Then you still have not understood it. The means through which I'm concerned someone will be able to tell Trados was used is not in the final result of my translation, in the words themselves.
I want to know whether Trados adds something to the Word document that shows Trados was used. I know it does this if you connect to open Translation Memories such as Google Translate's, and it does this in order to help clients tell whether the translator used automatic translations. I wanted to know whether it also adds some general text somewhere in the file's properties that states the document was produced by Trados.
Hi ZeHgS,
Maybe worth clarifying few things first. If you are using SDL Trados Studio then the target translation doesn't leave anything in there that could indicate the translation was carried out by a translation tool. The TM and MT information you refer to is held in the bilingual file, the SDLXLIFF. But if your client wants the SDLXLIFF then I guess they know you're using a translation tool
In the old days with Trados Workbench in Word then the tw4WinMark style used to be added to the file during translation and I'm pretty sure it stayed in the file after it was "cleaned", so this was potentially a giveaway to an educated customer.
Studio on the other hand replaces the translatable text in any file format it handles and doesn't leave any trace that the file was processed this way at all... at least none that I have seen anywhere so far!
Regards
Paul
| | | | B D Finch
France
Local time: 21:41
French to English
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| To be extra sure | Jan 26, 2015 |
You could always run Word's document inspection tool to remove any metadata. Prepare > Inspect and select what to inspect for, then delete anything the tool identifies and that you might not want.
| | | | | It did stay in the file... but it was easy to clean away | Jan 27, 2015 |
SDL Support wrote:
In the old days with Trados Workbench in Word then the tw4WinMark style used to be added to the file during translation and I'm pretty sure it stayed in the file after it was "cleaned", so this was potentially a giveaway to an educated customer.
Paul
The style did stay in the file after cleaning, but it was easy to remove (as any other Winword style).
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Phil Hand
China
Local time: 03:41
Chinese to English
| Technical expertise... | Jan 27, 2015 |
ZeHgS wrote:
No, I actually want to use Trados when the client doesn't want me to for silly reasons and it really ruins my productivity (and quality, since it is so much easier to keep everything consistent using Trados).
Edit: He says I can't use it because the instructions he received say you can't "OCR (Optical Character Recognition)" the file, which is when you use a type of software to make images into editable text. However, the document is already in an editable text format and contains no images, so there would be no OCRing whatsoever taking place.
[Editada em 2015-01-26 19:13 GMT]
I wouldn't worry too much about it, as your client doesn't seem to know what Trados is - he's hardly going to be scouring it for digital traces of CAT use if he doesn't understand what CAT does.
On the other hand, I personally would advise you to be a bit flexible. If the client doesn't want Trados, best not to use it. If translating in Word is that hard, perhaps you need to shake up your routines a bit!
| | | | tietzes (X)
Japanese to German
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Tom in London wrote:
No finished translation should ever seem like a translation. There should not be the slightest hint that it was ever in any other language. If there is, then it is not a good translation.
[Edited at 2015-01-26 19:14 GMT]
First thing you learn in translation studies: there will always be hints of translationese, no matter how good the translator is.
| | | | Radian Yazynin
Local time: 22:41
Member (2004)
English to Russian
+ ...
| Your reply should be as follows: | Jan 27, 2015 |
Yes, it is possible to not use Trados but in this case
- terminology consistency might not be kept nor would it be be checked with necessary accuracy,
- the translation process would take more time than usually expected in my schedule,
- some additional automatic checks guaranteeing higher quality would be excluded in the process.
Please state clearly that you don't intend to obtain perfectly translated texts using professional tools.
I reserve the right to bill fo... See more Yes, it is possible to not use Trados but in this case
- terminology consistency might not be kept nor would it be be checked with necessary accuracy,
- the translation process would take more time than usually expected in my schedule,
- some additional automatic checks guaranteeing higher quality would be excluded in the process.
Please state clearly that you don't intend to obtain perfectly translated texts using professional tools.
I reserve the right to bill for extra time spent in case of any additional improvements as requested by you to improve the quality of such texts, etc. Something of the kind.
[Edited at 2015-01-27 06:31 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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