Importing AutoText Entries in SDL Trados Studio

SDL Trados Studio is most useful during the translation process when we have added as many resources and assets to it as possible. One of these resources are AutoText entries, which, when present, can save us typing time as they are offered in the list of AutoSuggest hits.

AutoText entries can be added on the fly to the active target language list by selecting the appropriate word or phrase and pressing Alt+F7, but if we already have a long list of entries, it is more efficient to import the entire list at once, as explained below.

First, we need to get to the right place where our entries will be imported. If we have SDL Trados Studio 2019, then that's as easy as typing "autotext" in the Tell Me box, which will take us to the appropriate setting. In versions older than 2019, we will need to navigate to the right place (shown below).

The window that opens next displays any existing AutoText entries for the selected target language. As you can see in the example below, my ES-ES list on this computer is pretty empty. Luckily, I keep a backup in Dropbox of my main computer's AutoText entries (which can also be exported from this same screen), so it's just a matter of importing it if I need to.

To import the list, click the Import button...

and find the file that contains the appropriate AutoText entries.*

*This is a plain text file, and we can easily open it in any text editor and make changes to its contents.

TIP: This being a very simple text file, we can also use the file for one language variant as the basis for a file in a different language variant, simply by changing the language codes inside the file.



After importing, we will see something like this, with the entries now being available to us as we type.

Typing the first four letters of an AutoText entry will bring it up in the AutoSuggest list while working in Studio.

Points to remember:

1. AutoText entries are monolingual (target language only)
2. The minimum threshold to display an AutoText entry in the AutoSuggest hit list is 4 characters typed.

And that's all we need to do to take advantage of this very simple way to save us some typing while working in SDL Trados Studio.

AutoSuggest gets even better with Studio 2011 SP2

AutoSuggest has always been one of my favorite Studio features, but what I didn't like was the fact that it was case sensitive. Suggestions from termbases, translation memories and AutoText entries were only offered if the translator started typing the entry in the same case it was stored in.  My workaround for this was storing frequently-used items in a variation of case combinations. As an example, for the phrase "for example", my termbase included the following Spanish translations:

POR EJEMPLO
por ejemplo
Por ejemplo

This meant more work, of course, and could only be done with Multiterm termbases and AutoText entries, and not with suggestions coming from AutoSuggest dictionaries (which are automatically created by Studio from TMs and not user-editable).

With the release of Studio 2011 SP2 a few days ago, this is no longer an issue. There is now an option to enable/disable the case-sensitive feature of AutoSuggest. Here's how to do it.

Note: If you haven't downloaded SP2 yet, make sure you do, as this feature is not found in previous releases.

Go to Tools - Options - AutoSuggest, you will see this screen:

The checkbox is checked by default, so if you liked the original AutoSuggest behavior, just leave it checked.

Uncheck the Case sensitive checkbox if you want AutoSuggest to override the case of your entries. With "Case sensitive" unchecked, suggestions are adapted to the first letter you type, whether uppercase or lowercase, as shown here:

I think other Studio users will agree that this is certainly one of those little things that make a big difference.