Poll: How many Translation Units are in your largest TM?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
SITE STAFF
Jan 5, 2020

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "How many Translation Units are in your largest TM?".

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Thayenga
Thayenga  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 15:48
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
I don't know Jan 5, 2020

I've never bothered to count them and most likely never will.

Michael Harris
Kay Denney
 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 14:48
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
I don't know Jan 5, 2020

Much of my work doesn't lend itself too well to CAT tools and at my age I prefer exercising my brain instead of relying so much on technology. Nevertheless, I have worked on a few XTM projects for a client and things went pretty smoothly as its interface is very intuitive (which other CAT tools are certainly not).

 
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 15:48
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
I don't really know Jan 5, 2020

However, I guess between 900,000 and 1,499,000, from the flickering figures I see when it needs updating.

My biggest TM is an all-in-one that started back in the days when Trados Workbench could not handle more than two at a time, and everything went into it. Even with deleting and updating, there is a lot of dead wood in it, I am sure, but there are also fixed phrases that do not change, and it would be impossible to sort it now.

It still functions perfectly well with
... See more
However, I guess between 900,000 and 1,499,000, from the flickering figures I see when it needs updating.

My biggest TM is an all-in-one that started back in the days when Trados Workbench could not handle more than two at a time, and everything went into it. Even with deleting and updating, there is a lot of dead wood in it, I am sure, but there are also fixed phrases that do not change, and it would be impossible to sort it now.

It still functions perfectly well with the latest version of Studio, and when I find errors or out-of-date material, I delete it, partly on the fly (right click in the TM window, then edit or delete segment). Then, in the newer versions of Studio it is increasingly easy to find and edit at least some things in the TM when the job in hand is delivered.

I am also increasingly selective about what goes in - I avoid personal details and other material that might be sensitive, and in any case is no use in a TM. The TM can be set to read-only as I work, with a project TM beside it, and I run client-specific TMs and subject-specific TMs in parallel. But I still add regularly to the 'big momma' too. I intend to delete it when I am no longer actively translating.




[Edited at 2020-01-05 21:13 GMT]
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Alexandra Speirs
 
Wilsonn Perez Reyes
Wilsonn Perez Reyes  Identity Verified
El Salvador
Local time: 08:48
Member (2007)
English to Spanish
+ ...
I do not normally use TMs Jan 5, 2020

So far, 19.9% of respondents (317 votes) say they do not use a TM. I belong to this category. I use a CAT tool only when I am given a file to work on Trados, and a TM if it is given to me by a translation agency. Therefore, I do not maintain TMs.

In 2006, Henry Hinds, who died in 2015 (https://www.proz.com/profile/2102), said that he did not use Trados. He said that it was nonsense. I do
... See more
So far, 19.9% of respondents (317 votes) say they do not use a TM. I belong to this category. I use a CAT tool only when I am given a file to work on Trados, and a TM if it is given to me by a translation agency. Therefore, I do not maintain TMs.

In 2006, Henry Hinds, who died in 2015 (https://www.proz.com/profile/2102), said that he did not use Trados. He said that it was nonsense. I do not think using a CAT tool is nonsense, but guess what: Henry was a fine translator and is still the all-time leader in the highly competitive Spanish-to-English pair with 26,512 points. The second-place leader has 14,617. https://www.proz.com/index.php?sp=leaders_new&pair=esl_eng&field=10&disc_spec_id=&submit=1

This is what Henry wrote (English translation follows): "No uso TRADOS ni me hace falta. Simplemente evoco el texto anterior y lo comparo con el actual, haciendo los cambios correspondientes.
¿Acaso me hacen falta esas payasadas?"
https://www.proz.com/forum/spanish/49786-trados_si_se_ha_traducido_un_texto_sin_trados.html

Translation: I do not use TRADOS and do not need it. I simply recall the previous text and compare it with the current one, making any necessary changes.
Do I really need that nonsense?

[Edited at 2020-01-06 00:44 GMT]
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Rita Utt
writeaway
Jean Shearer
 
Alexandra Speirs
Alexandra Speirs  Identity Verified
Local time: 15:48
Italian to English
+ ...
TMs have their uses Jan 6, 2020

A TM certainly makes it much easier and quicker to "recall the previous text".

They are also invaluable if for some reason your computer shuts down unexpectedly or there is a power cut before you have saved your latest work, all except the very last sentence can be retrieved.


Wilsonn Perez Reyes wrote:

This is what Henry wrote

Translation: I do not use TRADOS and do not need it. I simply recall the previous text and compare it with the current one, making any necessary changes.



And there are more than 191,000 translation units in my largest one.

[Edited at 2020-01-06 01:08 GMT]


Christine Andersen
Angie Garbarino
 
Rita Utt
Rita Utt  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 15:48
English to German
+ ...
No TM Jan 6, 2020

Hi, I tried to use TM. What bothered me, was that my final version never was in the TM, because I revised my text in Word. I was never able to do a finished translation in a CAT-Tool. So I prefer glossaries and a desktop search engine (Copernic).

 
Hans Lenting
Hans Lenting
Netherlands
Member (2006)
German to Dutch
It is possible Jan 6, 2020

Rita Utt wrote:

Hi, I tried to use TM. What bothered me, was that my final version never was in the TM, because I revised my text in Word. I was never able to do a finished translation in a CAT-Tool. So I prefer glossaries and a desktop search engine (Copernic).


There are CAT tools where you can re-import the translation that you’ve edited in MS Word, to update your TM with just a few mouse clicks.


Christine Andersen
 
Michael Harris
Michael Harris  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 15:48
Member (2006)
German to English
CAT Jan 6, 2020

Wilsonn Perez Reyes wrote:

So far, 19.9% of respondents (317 votes) say they do not use a TM. I belong to this category. I use a CAT tool only when I am given a file to work on Trados, and a TM if it is given to me by a translation agency. Therefore, I do not maintain TMs.

In 2006, Henry Hinds, who died in 2015 (https://www.proz.com/profile/2102), said that he did not use Trados. He said that it was nonsense. I do not think using a CAT tool is nonsense, but guess what: Henry was a fine translator and is still the all-time leader in the highly competitive Spanish-to-English pair with 26,512 points. The second-place leader has 14,617. https://www.proz.com/index.php?sp=leaders_new&pair=esl_eng&field=10&disc_spec_id=&submit=1

This is what Henry wrote (English translation follows): "No uso TRADOS ni me hace falta. Simplemente evoco el texto anterior y lo comparo con el actual, haciendo los cambios correspondientes.
¿Acaso me hacen falta esas payasadas?"
https://www.proz.com/forum/spanish/49786-trados_si_se_ha_traducido_un_texto_sin_trados.html

Translation: I do not use TRADOS and do not need it. I simply recall the previous text and compare it with the current one, making any necessary changes.
Do I really need that nonsense?

[Edited at 2020-01-06 00:44 GMT]


Hi Wilson,
You are comparing an opinion from more than 20 years ago. The world has moved on since then and I am more than happy using a CAT tool in the technical sector as it significantly increases my output.
Obviously there are more than enough examples that prove this otherwise depending on the text and language pair.
Have a great day ahead!


Liena Vijupe
Angie Garbarino
 
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 15:48
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
Maybe the days of very large TMs should be numbered Jan 6, 2020

Now that Studio, and presumably any other self-respecting CAT tool can handle multiple TMs, there are a lot of reasons for maintaining several smaller ones rather than chucking everything into one big ragbag.

However, I am not sure how I would do it. At one time, I discovered that Trados was creating a new project TM for each new job, and thus not accumulating customer-specific terminology or earlier identical segments. I do not have a memory like the highly respected Henry Hinds, s
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Now that Studio, and presumably any other self-respecting CAT tool can handle multiple TMs, there are a lot of reasons for maintaining several smaller ones rather than chucking everything into one big ragbag.

However, I am not sure how I would do it. At one time, I discovered that Trados was creating a new project TM for each new job, and thus not accumulating customer-specific terminology or earlier identical segments. I do not have a memory like the highly respected Henry Hinds, so my CAT is a great help to me.

I wondered how to organise the separate files - by subject and by client… and ended up clipping out all the names, addresses and similar unique features, and importing a lot of the body texts into my big general TM. In practice I never set up a big job with large numbers of TMs, and when I receive packages from clients, I almost always attach my own TMs and database while I work.

I separate out big specialist subject areas - law, medicine, food and menus and tourism, but I usually run the big general TM in parallel as a read-only, and it comes up with a lot of useful material!
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Liena Vijupe
Liena Vijupe  Identity Verified
Latvia
Local time: 16:48
Member (2014)
French to Latvian
+ ...
I don't have a TM Jan 6, 2020

I used to keep a general TM and several specific TMs (by language, client or subject), but I stopped as there was little use of them. Now I only use TMs provided by the client. On the rare occasions when the client hasn't provided anything but I still choose to work with Trados for my own convenience I just create a new one for that particular job.

 
Mario Freitas
Mario Freitas  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 11:48
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Different and very clean TMs Jan 6, 2020

The answers to this question must be devided into people who clean up their TMs and people who simply confirm all segments and let the TM be.

My TM's add up to about 488k segments.
However, I do something that most people don't. I clean up my TMs every week. I erase all tags, all repeated segments, all segments with only numbers and symbols, all segments with translation identical do source, all segments with names/address/url/etc., all segments with single words or expressio
... See more
The answers to this question must be devided into people who clean up their TMs and people who simply confirm all segments and let the TM be.

My TM's add up to about 488k segments.
However, I do something that most people don't. I clean up my TMs every week. I erase all tags, all repeated segments, all segments with only numbers and symbols, all segments with translation identical do source, all segments with names/address/url/etc., all segments with single words or expressions that are already in the TBs, etc. This reduces the TMs a lot, leaving only text and olny useful segments.

If I didn't do this, my TMs would have about a million segments for sure.
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Xanthippe
 
Vladimir Pochinov
Vladimir Pochinov  Identity Verified
Russian Federation
Local time: 16:48
English to Russian
OFF TOPIC: Keeping up with the times Jan 13, 2020

Wilsonn Perez Reyes wrote:

In 2006, Henry Hinds, who died in 2015 (https://www.proz.com/profile/2102), said that he did not use Trados. He said that it was nonsense.
...
This is what Henry wrote: I do not use TRADOS and do not need it. I simply recall the previous text and compare it with the current one, making any necessary changes. Do I really need that nonsense?


I joined ProZ.com back in Dec 1999. I remember reading a posting by one elder translator who stated that he would not buy a computer because he preferred using his favorite typewriter. Well, he served his local clients delivering the translations in hard copy by hand. I hope he is alive and kicking now. However, do you think his clients, if any, would still be happy to receive translations in hard copy?

I am confident Trados (or any other CAT tool of choice) is one of the best investments ever for many fellow translators.

Henry was a fine translator and is still the all-time leader in the highly competitive Spanish-to-English pair with 26,512 points.


My hat goes off to this gentleman. However, I think each of us knows at least one very successful translator who has never participated in the KudoZ system, thus having zero points.


 
Vladimir Pochinov
Vladimir Pochinov  Identity Verified
Russian Federation
Local time: 16:48
English to Russian
Worst-case scenario: an online CAT tool without an option to connect your own TMs and termbases Jan 13, 2020

Christine Andersen wrote:

In practice I never set up a big job with large numbers of TMs, and when I receive packages from clients, I almost always attach my own TMs and database while I work.


I hate it when a client wants you to work in an online tool but would not provide an option to connect your own resources.

I separate out big specialist subject areas - law, medicine, food and menus and tourism, but I usually run the big general TM in parallel as a read-only, and it comes up with a lot of useful material!


I use the same approach. My industry-specific TMs contain several attribute fields, such as 'Subject matter', 'Client' (since clients may prefer different Russian equivalents for the same English term), etc.


 
Vladimir Pochinov
Vladimir Pochinov  Identity Verified
Russian Federation
Local time: 16:48
English to Russian
Cleaning your TMs Jan 13, 2020

Mario Freitas wrote:

However, I do something that most people don't. I clean up my TMs every week. I erase all tags, all repeated segments, all segments with only numbers and symbols, all segments with translation identical do source, all segments with names/address/url/etc., all segments with single words or expressions that are already in the TBs, etc. This reduces the TMs a lot, leaving only text and only useful segments.


Mario, I do clean my TMs occasionally. Generally, I just edit or delete specific TUs as required while using the Concordance function in SDL Trados Studio.

I believe your life will be easier if you simply leave unwanted TUs unconfirmed. They will still make it to the target document exported from your CAT tool but they won't get into your TM.


 


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Poll: How many Translation Units are in your largest TM?






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