Lucia Cavalli wrote:
I've been reading previous forum postings and other material on the Web, but I still cannot make up my mind.
I have Trados Freelance 5 (5.0.1.217 Build 217)and my main client has Trados 5.5. So far so good, everything works perfectly. Now my second client wants me to upgrade to Trados 7. In principle I don't have anything against it but my aim is to remain 'perfectly compatible' with my main client. I work on a huge memory for them, which is regularly updated. In turn, I have to send them my uncleaned files to be checked and fed into the memory. I often translate large jobs comprising up to 100 files.
What would happen then if I upgrade? I have asked the IT-Services of both clients and the first one says 'it's better if you don't do it', the other one says 'you'll be fine'.
I've found this on TranslationZone:
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"Is TRADOS 7 Freelance backward compatible?
Yes, you can use Translation Memories created in earlier versions of TRADOS. You cannot open Translation Memories created in TRADOS 7 Freelance in earlier versions of TRADOS Workbench. This is due to support for new languages, but also because of enhanced support for Unicode. You can now store Unicode content in any language in the Translation Memory data fields.
Can I export files from TRADOS 7 Freelance into earlier versions of TRADOS?
Yes, a backward-compatible file format is provided that allows you to export content for use with earlier versions. However, the default export is encoded in Unicode (UTF-8) and can only be opened on other copies of TRADOS 7.
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Sorry about my ignorance, but what does that mean in practical terms for my everyday work? What is Unicode?
I was hoping to be able to run both versions on my PC but I read on a Proz thread that they clash. It has also been suggested to me that I load Trados 7 on my laptop but my laptop is old and slow and is not broadband-ready.
Any suggestions? Thank you so much for any help.
Lucia
Read more here about Unicode:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode
The cheapest/easiest solution for you would simply be to run a dual boot system on your main computer.
You don't write which OS you're running, but in recent Windows version you can also set up user accounts and designate programs to run only for one user.
I haven't ran two Trados versions like this, but it should work - in theory at least...
If the program versions still interfer, buy a second hard disk and keep each version physically separated on each hard disk, but still running on the same computer. This wouldn't cost you more than €75 or so.
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