Forum: SDL Trados support
Topic: Care for preview (and fairness)? Don't buy SDL.
Poster: Ekhangel
The bottom line is this: [url removed] #82579
There is a commonly known issue with malfunctioning Word preview in the latest (or not so latest, in fact) SDL Trados releases. I personally have noticed the problem after purchasing Studio 2017 some two years ago. I inquired about this in the SDL forums (these were the times when I still had the patience and kindness to be polite to the SDL staff). They told me there are issues with Click-2-Run installs of Office showing problematic compatibility with the Trados scripts responsible for previewing .docxs. Fair enough, I naively thought. Microsoft must have screwed something up again, maybe it'll get fixed, maybe I'll just get "the right" Office version in the meantime.
After upgrading to 2019 the problem remained, and I got more and more tired of having being deprived of this crucial feature. I believe anyone who translates, and translates a lot knows how important it is to know where you are EXACTLY in the document. The preview worked on my former Studio 2011 copy perfectly and was one of the key features of the software that made me very fond of it from the beginning.
Therefore I inquired further about the problem, and requested Mr. Filkin to record vidoes demonstrating the functioning of the feature on his end, on his supposedly compatible version of Office. And he granted me this pleasure, which I appreciate. However, to my surprise it turned out I must have been mislead for two years because the feature on his PC shows exactly the same basic flaws as on my platform! One of the problems I managed to identify in the video - showing a rather unextensive working scenario, by the way (which, as I am made to believe, was purposeful) - was segment highlight disappearing by itself and rendering the preview feature virtually useless. Another thing is the lag when highlighting, which is survivable but definitely something to work on in the future.
Another thing is the HTML preview, which did work decently - though not without problems, including disappearing cursor on my end - a year or two ago (that was on Studio 2017 or the initial release of 2019, I'm not sure), and with the present release it seems to have been simply ridden of the highlight feature entirely, as Mr. Filkin's video doesn't show the HTML preview following the edited segments in the document. The only sensible explanation as to why SDL would remove important features from its software is because they proved to be compromisingly unreliable.
The bottom line is: everything seems to suggest that SDL doesn't offer a properly working .docx preview whatsoever at present, be it embedded, external Word preview or HTML preview. What's more, it mislead its users as to both the reason for and solution to the deficiency of their software.
These are practices that I believe deserve condemning by the translation industry, and I definitely recommend against purchasing SDL Trados if you care for a functioning preview or commercial fairness. SDL is well known for releasing buggy and unreliable software. Whether their software is statistically more or less buggy than the competition holding the minority share of the market I don't know, but misleading their customers and concealing problems with the software is sure not a way to improve this reputation or expand their customer base.
Now - don't get me wrong. I understand that software can get problematic, and don't expect every single thing to always work. But had I been honestly warned about SDL's failings in the preview field, I would definitely have considered the competitors before making the purchase decision, be it MemoQ which is a little more sluggish in handling files and projects and doesn't enable running multiple instances, BUT has a neatly working HTML preview (and other great features such as wonderfully convenient find&replace), the way cheaper (and blazing fast) CafeTran, or perhaps DejaVu, which I haven't tested thoroughly.
Be warned! And shame on you, SDL!
[Edited at 2019-08-30 18:18 GMT]