Trados TMs
Thread poster: Conor Jarrett
Conor Jarrett
Conor Jarrett
Ireland
Local time: 09:52
French to English
+ ...
Apr 1, 2019

When you receive a Trados package to translate, can you take the Translation Memory from it and add it to one of your own? First of all, is it technically possible? Second, is it ok to do it on moral grounds?

Then, can you put your own TM(s) into a translation package to make it easier?


 
Andriy Yasharov
Andriy Yasharov  Identity Verified
Ukraine
Local time: 11:52
Member (2008)
English to Russian
+ ...
Trados package is a zip file Apr 1, 2019

You can unzip a Studio package into a folder or just open it with a file archiver like 7-zip and extract a TM from the package.

Once you open your Studio package, you can try extracting from and adding files to it and decide what to do with them on your own.

[Edited at 2019-04-01 16:41 GMT]


 
Joe France
Joe France  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:52
Member (2016)
German to English
+ ...
Depends on your question... Apr 2, 2019

If your question is "can I nick all of my clients' TM entries from the past 9 years and use them in future", then I suppose from a technical perspective that you absolutely could.

Whether that's a good idea or not is a different issue entirely - not least in terms of data privacy and any NDAs you might have signed, but also because you have no guarantee as to the correctness or quality of the entries in the TM. I would worry less about moral and more about legal and practical issue
... See more
If your question is "can I nick all of my clients' TM entries from the past 9 years and use them in future", then I suppose from a technical perspective that you absolutely could.

Whether that's a good idea or not is a different issue entirely - not least in terms of data privacy and any NDAs you might have signed, but also because you have no guarantee as to the correctness or quality of the entries in the TM. I would worry less about moral and more about legal and practical issues!

If you had a disorganised PM who doesn't always send packages with TMs or who might occasionally fire over a lone document you know that the TM *for the same client* could benefit, then I think you're absolutely fine. Otherwise, I would tread exceptionally carefully...
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Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 10:52
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
@Conor Apr 2, 2019

Conor Jarrett wrote:
When you receive a Trados package to translate, can you take the translation memory from it and add it to one of your own? First of all, is it technically possible?


Yes, simply unzip the package and convert the SDLTM file to your TM format of choice. If you want to have just one TM file, you can merge TMs. But since Trados is able to consult multiple TMs, merging them shouldn't be necessary.

Second, is it okay to do it on moral grounds?


I don't think clients intend you to use their translation memories for other jobs. And the TMs they send you, are not available in a publicly accessible place. So, no, I don't think it's acceptable. But if you are going to use one client's TMs for another client, the least you can do is to keep everything separate (i.e. don't merge them, but keep them as separate files). Something that might be half acceptable would be to use other clients' TMs for reference searching but not for fuzzy matching. Still, I think most clients would not want you to do this.

Then, can you put your own TM(s) into a translation package to make it easier?


I think you can, but why would you want to do that? Are you trying to trick Trados into saying that a match came from the client's TM, when in fact it came from your own TM? If you simply want to improve your match capability, then: I think when you translate a project that came as a package, you're not limited to using only the TM that came in the package. I think you can connect to your own TM as well.


Andriy Yasharov
 
Robert Rietvelt
Robert Rietvelt  Identity Verified
Local time: 10:52
Member (2006)
Spanish to Dutch
+ ...
Yes you can Apr 2, 2019

Conor Jarrett wrote:

When you receive a Trados package to translate, can you take the Translation Memory from it and add it to one of your own? First of all, is it technically possible? Second, is it ok to do it on moral grounds?

Then, can you put your own TM(s) into a translation package to make it easier?


As you can read in the comments of our colleagues, but like Samuel, I am also wondering why you want to add your own TM's into the package. Just open them. You can work side by side with many TM's, even server based.

Open package, click on Add TM file based (or something like that) and add your own translation memory to the project.

[Edited at 2019-04-02 19:25 GMT]


 
Panopticon
Panopticon
Spain
Local time: 10:52
Member (2012)
Spanish to English
Personally, I'd be more concerned about the quality of the memory Apr 5, 2019

As other people have said, I'd be more worried about the quality of the memory that you would be importing into your own. I have seen some terrible memory entries in my time and wouldn't want to run the risk of polluting my memories with them. There is also the legal issue that you mention, although it's quite a grey area. If they are importing your work into their memories, it would only seem fair that you be permitted to reciprocate ... See more
As other people have said, I'd be more worried about the quality of the memory that you would be importing into your own. I have seen some terrible memory entries in my time and wouldn't want to run the risk of polluting my memories with them. There is also the legal issue that you mention, although it's quite a grey area. If they are importing your work into their memories, it would only seem fair that you be permitted to reciprocate . But it all depends on the NDA you signed. Usually there is a clause in there that says something along the lines of "The translator undertakes to delete and/or return any copies of any documents that may contain confidential information within 30 days of completing the translation", or something to that effect. I imagine this could be interpreted to cover the memories too, although it's unlikely that anybody would seek to enforce such a clause.Collapse


 


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