Downgrading to Trados: a survival guide

You were happily translating with Wordfast when suddenly your agency decided you should use Trados for this one particular job, or else walk the plank.

Wordfast is now equipped with a special setup that turns it into a Trados-friendly companion (in Wordfast/Setup/Gen, click the Reset button and perform a "Sputnik" setup). All features are offered without the need to purchase a license.

In the event you're stuck with Trados and can't add the Wordfast template at all, the information below may come handy:

Alt+Up (Whoops - move back to previous segment)
This feature, already implemented in Wordfast 1.0 back in 1999, is what made Wordfast famous. Whoopsability is essential to any software. You just realized that accented letter is missing in the previous segment and want to get back "up". This simple step is pretty complicated with Trados, since you have to close the session, manually move up to the previous segment and re-open.

Someone asked one day if translators in Australia were using Alt+Up all the time. I don't know, I have not yet been down under there to check. This is very possible though, judging by the contributions regularly made by one user down under, which I will not name here.

A macro can actually make Trados behave Wordfast-like in this respect (this macro can be assigned to Alt+Up or Alt+NumericSubstract ). Here it is:

Sub tw4winOpenPrevious()
'by Yves Champollion
Dim Here As Long

Application.ScreenUpdating = False

If Not ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Exists("tw4winFrom") Then
MsgBox "No Trados session in progress!"
Exit Sub
End If

With Selection.Find
.ClearFormatting
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
End With

Here = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("tw4winFrom").Start

Selection.SetRange Here, Here
If Not Selection.Find.Execute(findtext:="^p<0}", Forward:=True) Then Exit Sub
Here = Selection.Start
Application.Run "tw4winSetClose.Main"
Selection.SetRange Here, Here

If Selection.Find.Execute(findtext:="{0>", Forward:=False) Then
Selection.Collapse
If Selection.Find.Execute(findtext:="{0>", Forward:=False) Then
Selection.Collapse
Application.Run "tw4winOpenGet.Main"
Exit Sub
End If
End If

MsgBox "Sorry, no previous segment!"
End Sub


To include this macro into your Normal.dot: Use the Tools/Macros/Visual basic Editor menu. A new window opens. Double-click "Normal" on the left side, then "Modules". If no module is present, use the Insertion/Module menu to add a code module. Double-click the code module. In the right side, where the code module opens up, paste the macro above.

To associate this macro with Alt+Up: Back in Ms-Word, use the View/Toolbars/Customize dialog box. Click "KeyBoard" then in "Categories", select "Macro", then select the tw4winOpenPrevious macro. In "New shortcut", type Alt+Up then click "Assign and close the dialog box.

Long to explain, but quickly done. And now you know how to add macros and shortcuts: not bad for a beginning.

Concordance
Wordfast calls "Contexts" what Trados calls "Concordance". So downgrading can be a little confusing. One thing is sure, you will miss Wordfast's Concordancer. Some persistent rumour has it that all Trados users have a Wordfast template active to use its Concordancer (which does not require you to be a licensed user).

Alternatives are many. One of them is to dump all your "Concordance" material into a new Word document, and have that document opened behind your work document. When needed, you Ctrl+F6 to that window then use Word's Search feature to find things but of course, it's painstakingly slow and the results are not nicely laid out before your eyes.

There are third-party concordancers - at a price. If you already paid an arm and a leg for Trados, you could consider yet another leg for a concordancer. After all, translation is an armchair job.

Dictionaries
Wordfast has an all-purpose "Dictionary" feature that lets you query practically any third-party dictionary on-the-fly, during a session. This is cruelly absent from any Trados package.

Here again, running a Wordfast template alongside Trados gives you that service at no cost - no need for a license here again. See Wordfast's manual on how to start Wordfast in the presence of a concurrent template like Trados.