Trados Studio

Trados GmbH was founded as a language-service provider (LSP) in 1984 by Jochen Hummel and Iko Knyphausen in Stuttgart, Germany.[4] The company began developing translation software in the late 1980s, and released the first Windows versions of two of the suite's major components in the early 1990s – MultiTerm in 1992, and Translator's Workbench in 1994. In 1997, the company received a major boost when Microsoft decided to use Trados for its internal localization needs.[4]

Trados was acquired by SDL in 2005.[5]

SDL merged with RWS on 4 November 2020.

Trados Studio is delivered with several tools and applications. These are:

Trados Studio

The main application providing a complete environment to edit or review translations, manage translation projects, organize terminology, and connect to machine translation.

MultiTerm

A terminology management tool that is integrated with Trados Studio for adding, editing and managing terms.

RWS AppStore

Trados Studio includes several applications on an online marketplace which offers apps to help with a range of translation processes, for example further file format support and task automation.

Trados Studio supports over 70 different file types,[6] including: various markup and tagged formats such as SGML, XML, HTML, XLIFF, SDLXLIFF (Studio's native format for translation), OpenDocument files; straight text files; source code files, such as Java and Microsoft .NET; Microsoft Word, Excel, Bilingual Excel and PowerPoint; and some Adobe file formats, such as PDF, scanned PDF (OCR is included), FrameMaker, InDesign, and InCopy.

The translation memory (TM) format of Trados Studio is SDLTM, which consists in a particular SQLite database.[7]

When creating a new (file-based) translation memory, Trados Studio creates a database file in which all translation units are stored. The translation memory also stores structural and context information to link all the different segments and their position in a document. This allows the tool to select the most relevant translation memory segment.

• Main translation memory database file: .sdltm

In previous version of Trados a neural network of files that enable fuzzy search capability was also created. A new translation memory consists of five new files:

• Main translation memory database file: .tmw
• Neural network files: .mdf, *.mtf, *.mwf, *.iix

When copying a translation memory, all five translation memory files must be copied. Otherwise, the translator's Workbench displays an error message when opening the copied translation memory.

Trados Studio can also work with server-based translation memories by connecting to Trados GroupShare, or cloud-based translation memories from Trados Team or Trados Enterprise.

Glossaries are handled by the MultiTerm application. Glossaries can be bilingual or multi-lingual, file-based or Server based.

Trados Studio has integrated machine translation and postediting into its translation workflow. If the appropriate parameter setting is made, Trados Studio will insert a machine translation of a translation unit (TU) if no match is found in the translation memory. The translator can then post-edit the machine translation for added clarity. Trados currently supports the following MT systems: Language Weaver, and Google Translate. Trados Studio also supports the integration of Microsoft Translator and other MT system through its open API.

In December 2010 SDL launched the SDL OpenExchange, now known as RWS AppStore, a web portal allowing independent developers to leverage the software's open architecture to create applications and plug-ins for Trados Studio. Apps can be downloaded to add functionality missing from the base product, such as legacy file support and new machine translation plugins. As of the end of August 2017 there have been over a million downloads of apps from the store.

Today the RWS AppStore supports the needs of users through the ability to download and install additional functionality that often addresses niche requirements that cannot be solved in any translation tool. It also supports the needs of developers who use the APIs that are freely available for the products to integrate and add new features that support their own business needs.[8]

According to a 2004 survey by the World Bank, Trados Studio held an estimated 75% global market share.[2]

According to the ICU Translation Memory Survey from 2006, Trados Studio is used by a total of 75% of surveyed users (See table 21).[9]

A survey done by ProZ.com in 2013 indicated that 73% of ProZ translators have Trados.[10]

A number of solutions have been created for handling the different versions of Trados file formats.[11] SDL did apparently respond to user complaints of licensing complexity and problems by simplifying the licensing scheme used in the SDL Trados Studio 2011 Freelance release.[12] Successive versions of Trados Studio have resolved the backward compatibility issues.