Top translation

memory tips
from localization
professionals
 Top translation memory tips from localization professionals

Using a translation memory (TM) makes translating faster and easier, though like the translation process working with a TM is a fine art in itself.
We asked our customers and colleagues for their top TM tips — things they wanted to share from their experience to help make translating
more effortless. We have pulled together a selection of those tips here for you. We hope you find them useful.

To keep your TMs organised make sure you use standardised To boost your sub-segment translation suggestions,
naming. For example, include languages in the memory name, go to your Settings > Translation Memory and Automated
so you know at a glance which language combination the Translation > Search and tick the ‘TU fragment’ box.
TM is for, and in my experience, it is always a good idea to
separate translation memories per client. Instead of ‘memory’ Camille Avila
or ‘test’, you could use ‘client xyz legal EN(US)-FR(CA).sdltm’. Product Marketing Executive,
SDL
Almudena Ballester
Language Resources & Technologies Coordinator,
LinguaServe

Use filters when making batch changes and work

Make sure your translation memory is part of your daily
back-up to a local external device. Your TMs are probably
the most important files on your computer!
on multiple documents at once to maximise
autopropagation and consistency!
Remember, filtering options are available from
the ‘Review’ tab in the SDL Trados Studio ribbon.

Emma Goldsmith Claire Cox

Spanish to English Translator, French and German to English Translator,
Goldsmith Translations Claire Cox Translations

AnyTM is an extremely useful addition to TM functionality in
Studio, as it means that TMs with different language variants
or with the opposite language combination can be used in a
translation project. It is now no longer necessary to change
the language pairs in project files before a TM can be applied.
To use this feature, select ‘AnyTM: Any file based TM’ or
‘AnyTM: Any server based TM’ from the drop down options
when adding a TM to a project.
Helga Petzel
Senior Translator,
SDL
You can populate a TM with names of persons or products
eg. ‘Mac OX’ or ‘Microsoft Windows 10’ in the Language
Resources area. Select your TM, and click ‘Settings’ to access
‘Language Resources’ and start adding name strings to a
‘Variable List’. The strings entered here are recognized as
placeables, similar to numbers and dates. That way you
can insert long-winded product names easily using Ctrl+
(the shortcut for QuickPlace), while translating.
Ziad Chama
Independent Business Consultant
Top translation memory tips from localization professionals
I would stress the importance of TM maintenance.
A good quality TM is only possible with constant
TM maintenance. You can leverage on that and
add value/efficiency to your translation process.
To use the TM maintenance area in Studio select the
‘Translation Memories’ view from the bottom left hand
corner and open a TM from the ribbon.
Mark Cheetham
Chief Operating Officer,
SwissGlobal Language Services
Work with a tool that allows you to merge source segments.
To do this in Studio shift click on the numbers
of the segments you want to merge, right click and select
‘Merge Segments’.
It’s important to be able to merge segments as source
languages can structure thoughts in a way that requires
reformulation in the target language, and sometimes clients
don’t format documents appropriately for translation.
Ben Karl
French and Chinese to English Translator,
BK Translation

Make sure to always update your TM after you translate
each segment — confirming a segment not only changes
its status but also saves the content into the memory if the
TM is set to be updated in ‘Settings’. But to ensure that
all content is captured into the memory, once the
translation is finished it’s a good idea to run the
‘Update Main Translation Memories’ batch task.
Greta Magyar
Customer Success Representative,
SDL
Fuzzy matches need to be given special attention to ensure
that the new formatting and wording have been captured in
the target language. As fuzzy matches from the translation
memory are clearly visible in SDL Trados Studio and can be
filtered, reviewers can focus on them.
Use the ‘Advanced Display Filter’ in the ‘View’ tab to filter
multiple attributes (e.g. ‘fuzzy matches’ with a ‘draft’ status).
Maria Pous
Project Manager,
EHLION
Top translation memory tips from localization professionals
If you have a client who uses abbreviations that are not
standard you can avoid the TM creating a new segment
after these by adding them to the abbreviation list in Studio.
For example, if this was your source sentence:
In pict. 3 you can see how to set this up
Studio would create two segments, because pict. is not
a standard abbreviation:
Segment 1: In pict.
Segment 2: 3 you can see how to set this up
If you want to avoid this you need to add ‘pict.’ to the
abbreviation list. You can access these lists by selecting
your TM, opening the TM ‘Settings’ > Language Resources >
Abbreviation List. Scroll to the bottom of the list and
start typing in the abbreviations you would like to add.
Stine Lyngholm Eriksen
Head of Project Management,
World Translation
 Top translation memory tips from localization professionals

It is important to use text fields to understand the context of a
translation match. Text fields can automatically categorize your
translation units, which adds valuable information for future
use. It can determine the domain, product family, customer
name, etc., which can be crucial information for the translator.
To add Fields, select your TM, click ‘Settings’ and then select
‘Fields and Settings’. From here you could add a Customer
Name picklist to the Fields, e.g. EasyJet. Then select ‘Update’
under ‘Translation Memory and Automated Translation’ in
your project settings and choose the value of your Customer
Name field for that TM. New translation units added to the
TM will have Customer name ‘EasyJet’ associated with them.
TMs are particularly useful when working on accounts with
one or more client reviewers. Once you’ve implemented a
reviewer’s corrections, you update the TM with the approved
files, using the field name “Client amends”. When performing
concordance searches or TM lookup on future projects,
anyone working on the account can clearly see the client’s
preferred terminology and style in the
matches marked “Client amends”.
Mirjam Eulen
Translation Line Manager,
SDL

Agenor Hofmann-Delbor
Owner,
Join the conversation with your own TM tip on
Localize.pl
Twitter.com #TradosTMTips

Find out more about translation memories.

Did you know?
You can easily find TM features and For translators and agencies:
settings by using the Tell Me tab, sdltrados.com/translation-memory
which you’ll always find above the
ribbon in SDL Trados Studio 2019. For corporations:
sdl.com/translation-memory

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