Exciting new cloud functionality As always, when you first launch a new product, customer feedback is essential. From the day we released Trados Live, the new cloud companion for Trados Studio 2021, we have paid close attention to what you, our users, are saying (whether good or bad!) and have worked hard to implement changes to improve your experience in line with this. In this release of Trados Studio, I am pleased to announce that we have again taken your feedback on board and are introducing some highly sought-after functionality that will make transitioning to the cloud from Trados Studio a much smoother and more enjoyable experience.Ability to save local projects to the cloudHave you ever created a local project in Trados Studio and then later wished you had created it in the cloud, so you could share it with your team or work on it from a different device? Or, have you ever received a Studio project package from a client and been frustrated that you couldn’t open and work with it in your new cloud environment? Well, thanks to the new functionality being released in SR2 you will never find yourself in this situation again! All users will be able to save their local projects to the cloud through an easy-to-use wizard in Trados Studio. Migrate file-based translation memories to the cloudWhile it is already possible to migrate your translation memories to the cloud through manual processes, there was a lot we could do to make this process more seamless for users. In SR2, users will be presented with a wizard that will facilitate batch upload of your file-based translation memories to the cloud. From this point you will then be able to continue using your new cloud-based translation memories on both cloud and file-based projects as part of our existing support for cloud translation engines.Improved compatibility when working with cloud projects in Trados StudioSince we released Trados Live, we have seen a growing number of users starting to explore the new cloud-based ways of working in Trados Studio. With so many people now opting to work with cloud projects in their desktop application, it is essential the core Trados Live functionality is replicated in Trados Studio as much as possible so that users can transition between the two environments effortlessly. This release of Trados Studio will now be able to support multi-factor authentication (MFA), the new Translation Quality Assessment functionality in Language Cloud Translation Management, and will offer refined support for customized workflows and pricing models. Unicode 13 and support for Emojis Whilst our cloud adoption is picking up pace, we also appreciate working in the cloud is not yet everyone’s preference, so as usual we have committed to improving Trados Studio for those that wish to remain working in their existing desktop computer-assisted translation (CAT) tool. Which leads us nicely onto our next Trados Studio enhancement – improved support for Unicode 13, which is a personal favourite of mine. Unicode is a universal character encoding standard that assigns a code to every written character, technical symbol and punctuation in every language in the world. These days, computers run on this code as it enables them to retrieve or combine data using any combination of languages. Trados can support most characters and symbols in the latest standard, Unicode 13, however there are a few characters that Studio was so far unable to recognise, such as certain Chinese symbols and emojis.Over the years we have received many requests to expand the range of supported characters in Trados Studio as the missing characters were naturally causing issues for translators, such as their translated text was not perfectly matching the original source document. So, for Trados Studio 2021 SR2, we have reviewed the supported characters and I can now announce that Trados Studio will preserve all characters defined in the Unicode 13 standard (March 2020), except, of course, the 66 control characters which are not to be used according to the Unicode definition. Excitingly, this also includes the 3,500 emojis that are regularly seen in today’s communications! In Studio, emojis will be handled through placeholder tags, just like you will be used to when working with formatting and footnotes. This should give every Studio user peace of mind that when using Trados Studio what goes into their CAT tool will look the same as what comes out. The fact that emojis are handled through placeholder tags will also ensure maximum compatibility in the supply chain. A Studio 2021 user will be able to prepare SDLXLIFF files with emojis, share this with a Studio 2019 user who can then work on it and return the translated file without any compatibility issues. File type support To accommodate support for emojis, certain file types have been adapted to read these new characters. From the launch of SR2, users will be able to handle emojis in Microsoft Word, IDML, HTML, XML and InDesign file types, the most popular filters used in Trados Studio, and more will come with time.In addition, we’re introducing support for the Memsource file type (MXLIFF) in both Trados Studio and Trados Live. With this file type, users will be able to translate in Trados as usual and feel confident that when they reimport the file back into Memsource all the metadata in the translatable file, such as translation status’s and split and merged segments, will be retained. Enabling translators to accept any job from any work giver in their supply chain has always been at the heart of what we do, so we’re very proud to announce this new compatibility. API enhancements For all you developers out there, this section will be of significant interest to you! With SR2, users will now be able to access and utilise the Reports API to build their solutions. This has been a longstanding gap in our API coverage. An example of what this could look like is ‘Reports Viewer Plus’, a new app on the RWS AppStore developed by our own AppStore Development Team. But that’s not all. In addition, we have rewritten and rehomed our API documentation for Trados Studio to make it easier for developers to use. You can find our new documentation centre here. And finally… We’re also completely rebranding Trados Studio in line with the new RWS look-and-feel and are resolving over 50 bugs! As you can see, a lot will be packed into Trados Studio 2021 SR2. Our scope has been quite broad – not only are we enhancing cloud compatibility, but we’re also further improving the core translation functionality in Studio. I’d like to personally thank all of you for sharing your ideas and feedback that will yet again make this release possible. Should you wish to learn more about SR2 when it arrives, keep an eye on the RWS Community forums where we will announce the release and share comprehensive release notes. Plus, if you are not yet using Trados Studio 2021 but would like to take advantage of these new features as soon as they are released, I'd encourage you to upgrade now from your existing Trados Studio 2017 or Trados Studio 2019 versions.