The Phrase Localization Platform is an AI-powered language platform that integrates translation, scoring, and automation tools in one place for businesses and language service providers. It offers scalability, a vendor-neutral approach, and advanced analytics for performance optimization, with single sign-on to facilitate easy setup.
$27
per month
Trados Studio
Score 5.1 out of 10
N/A
Trados Studio is a translation management and language localization platform, from multinational SDL headquartered in the UK. It is a computer-assisted translation product, designed to be a complete translation environment for language professionals who want to edit, review and manage translation projects whilst in the office or on the move.
I like Memsource because when I am not home and I don't have my laptop, I can borrow a computer, log in to my Memsource account and I'm ready to begin translating. I can even download the source files and check the TM and glossary there. It's not necessary to download the software and lose time on that.
Although now there are competitors, it held a monopoly on computer assisted translation packages for some years. If high prices and poor customer support are not an issue for you, by all means purchase it. Other translators can find better options elsewhere in 2022.
In the case of EN to JA translation, we enter text and then convert it to get the correct final text (word or phrase) which uses correct Chinese character(s), as there are often multiple Chinese characters with the same reading but different meanings. When those conversion options are displayed, it is usually possible to change our selection among them by hitting the Tab key, but in Memsource, hitting the Tab key makes us leave the text conversion and move to the source segment, so we must make sure to use arrow keys to choose the right conversion option when using Memsource.
When there are tag elements used in the source text, the tags must exist in the target text of course, but the tag order also must be the same. The tags cannot be moved around in the segment, which causes problems in the case of the Japanese language, because the word order differs between EN and JA.
In the Japanese language, Italics are basically not used, so there must be no texts between the tags which specify Italic font. But then the segment cannot be confirmed and the job status cannot be changed to "Complete".
I use and manage an Academic edition (approx. 15 students) and the corporate license (10 users). In both cases, the features are easy to find, set and use. My students and my translators understand the dynamics of the platform easily and get used to them quickly.
It is designed to be a lean system, but that means that things are clustered in weird groups and a lot of trial and error is involved getting the settings right. If something goes wrong first level support is very quick and has very fast answers which are quite typical of first level support and essentially equate to asking you if you have switched it off and on yet. Anything more involved is challenging for support to address.
Again, the list of functions is impressive but the way it is organized (not process-driven) and the fact that complex tasks should be close to basic tasks make the product suitable to hardcore users that have a lot of time to research the manuals and blogs. By the way, Nora Diaz is one of the most respectable users of this product. Her videos help a lot!
We rarely use support, but most questions were answered in a timely fashion, although we didn't exactly find them satisfactory. That's mostly the fault of the software and not the Support team because we asked for things that Memsource couldn't do.
Support has been fast, precise and thorough. There is support on the web, by chat, by email, from the communities, from the experts, on the product Help section, on YouTube, and other social media. There is also a paid support for companies. This area is where the company stands out. I was not able to evaluate the support in languages other than English.
It is very expensive and more difficult to navigate. Compared to the other support is slow and ineffective. Dealing with anything more involved is all but impossible. It has become more prone to bugs since being bought by TMS. Support suggests things like "use incognito" mode to log in. Use a different browser to log-in. That is a concern given the customer data involved if things at that level are not being fixed. If that's what it's like in the showroom, what is the kitchen like?
We have tried a variety of other CAT software at times. The problem is that few have the market penetration or critical mass of users that SDL Trados does. It's not that the software is the best out there, it's long term stability and the number of users that is more important. We need to be compatible with our suppliers, so the choice is made on that basis.
