This article tries to show you what Cyclotis is, from the point of view of a Trados user. This is a demonstration in an environment where all is already installed: if you want to reproduce this tutorial, remember first to install the Trados plugin; then, if you don't have a server, another article will give you the occasion to do a real test. Then you have to create a Trados project and declare the distant memory. Now let's consider that all of this is ready and concentrate about the usage during the translation.

An article about our project has been written in english and we want to translate it in french. Due to the emergency we want to divide it between two translators. So, we have created the project in Trados, made a copy, and each translator initially shows the same thing:

For the simplicity of the example, so that you can see the result immediately if you do the test, we will say that the first translator has responsability for the 4 first segments, and second translator will do the rest of the work. Of course, in real word, the work should be better divided!

Second translator began his work, and validated segment 5. At this step, the two translators do not see the same thing anymore:

Now translator 1 sends his first translation. Here is what he should see:

So, nothing special for the moment. But here is what happens if he goes to segment 5:

The result is the same as if the same segment was in an SDLTM file, and has been inserted automatically. Difference? First, you see the name of the database and a different logo in the "translation memories" pane. Second, the segment has been inserted in Cyclotis less than one minute ago, by another translator!

And what for the second translator? Here is what happens when he goes to the first segment:

Yes, it works in both directions! And not only it works in real time, but it can even work if the colleague was using another CAT tool connected to the database!

Of course, usually you do not want to go back to first segment. But that is not a problem: exactly as SDLTM, Cyclotis stores segments, not context, meaning that it can retreive identical segments in a different location (perfect matches), and even partial matches, with score less than 100%. In other words, what you have is a translation memory which is at same time updated by two or more translators!

All works exactly as for an SDLTM : you can activate automatic insertion or not, you can even do a batch insertion (but which will provide nothing if your colleague did not yet start his work), etc.