The Trados Tax: Why working with Trados Studio sucks
Trados termbase woes (finally being fixed?)
Termbases not working reliably in Trados Studio is a long-standing issue. The underlying technology (MultiTerm + the old Microsoft JET/Access-style stack) has been fragile for years, and it shows up as:
- term recognition that stops working
- termbases that won’t accept new entries
- general instability over long sessions
The community forum history is extensive, and it’s hard not to see this as a persistent “tax” on translators’ time.
References and links (selected)
- https://www.proz.com/forum/trados_support/371995-trados_terminological_databases_fail_to_work_after_windows_11_24h2_update_affects_certain_computers.html
- https://community.rws.com/product-groups/trados-portfolio/trados-studio/f/multiterm/56343/multiterm-is-unable-to-add-the-entry/180772
- https://community.rws.com/product-groups/trados-portfolio/trados-studio/f/multiterm/55704/unable-to-add-a-new-term-to-termbase-multiterm---error-message
(There are many more links on the original page; I’ve kept this Astro version readable while retaining the core idea and key references.)
Typical Trados time wasters
- Staring at your screen while Trados struggles to open dialogs and process files
- Battling with Trados to get the termbase to work
- Changing Overtype mode (OVR) back to Insert mode (INS) repeatedly
- …and so on
Do yourself a favour: use a decent CAT tool like CafeTran or memoQ.
Misc.
- https://www.loekalization.com/blog/blog/2025/11/01/the-collapse-of-rws-facts-cash-and-the-cost-of-evasion/#comment-1208
- https://community.rws.com/product-groups/trados-portfolio/trados-studio/f/studio/59853/update-from-bilingual-review-not-working-and-driving-me-crazy