Exciting times are just around the corner for our freelancers as Supertext is about to start using SDL’s GroupShare to host its projects.
What does this mean exactly? It means that we will no longer send freelancers links to download and manually open Trados packages. Similarly, freelancers will no longer be expected to upload the return package on the Jobs webpage.
The new order
The new process for freelancers should be simpler:
- You’ll still be emailed job offers as before. You’ll then click on the link to open the job page, review it, and hopefully click ‘Accept job’.
- Once you’ve accepted the job, you’ll receive a notice that the Trados package should be opened via GroupShare.
- Next, open Trados and click on ‘Open Project’ in the GroupShare section of the Home menu.
The first time you login to GroupShare, you will also be required to enter the details for Supertext’s GroupShare server: click on the ‘Servers…’ button on the right-hand-side.
The URL for our server is: groupshare.supertext.com – also, ensure that the checkbox has been selected for SSL.
For your username and password, choose ‘Use SDL authentication’ and then enter the same username and password as you would use to login to the Supertext website.
- Once you’ve logged in, you will see a list of organisations on the left and projects on the right.
The Projects ‘organisation’ is the most pertinent for freelancers; click on the little arrow icon adjacent to Projects to reveal its sub-organisations.
- Under Projects, you should see an organisation that corresponds to the order ID – the order ID is visible on the webpage on which you accepted the job:
- Click on the organisation whose name corresponds to the order ID, and the project should appear on the right. Select it (if it’s not already) and then click ‘Next’ at the bottom of the window.
- Confirm where you want to save the project, and then click ‘Finish’ at the bottom of the window.
- A progress bar will then show the status of the download. Once it’s complete, you can close the Open GroupShare Project window.
You should now have reached the same stage as if you’d downloaded a package from our website and opened it in Trados. You can double-click on the project to start work.
Checking in and checking out
There is, however, one further step to bear in mind: you need to check out the file(s) you want to work on, like taking a book from a library. Once you’re finished, check them in again.
If you start working on a file without checking it out, you’ll see this message:
You can also check out the file from the toolbar.
If you check out a file, you have to check it back in when you’re done. To do this, click on the ‘Check In’ option (as seen on the above screenshot, directly below ‘Check Out’).
Before you click the ‘Check In’ button, be sure to select the correct phase. The correct phase will be detailed on the Jobs webpage.
Once the file has been checked in you will see Trados synchronising its files with the server: when this is complete, you should return to the Jobs webpage and click on the ‘Finish job’ button – this button will only be enabled if the correct phase has been set during check in.
You may also have to refresh the webpage if you haven’t done so since checking in the file(s) – you can use the ‘refresh’ option (at the top of the above screenshot) to reload only the GroupShare-related information.
Further info
A couple of points to note:
- Projects that have been obtained from GroupShare have a small green circle over the folder icon on the left of the Projects list. The keen-eyed among you will have noticed that this correlates with the Open Project icon in the GroupShare section of the Home menu.
This offers a quick indication as to which projects have been obtained via GroupShare.
- Any associated TM(s) and/or termbase(s) will also be obtained from GroupShare. This means less volume for freelancers to download and upload. The associated TMs and termbases are listed in the same place as usual.
The benefits
An important point to remember when using GroupShare is that the TM and termbase exist and remain on the server as a single file. While Supertext benefits from not having to store multiple packages that contain the same TM
and/or termbase, freelancers also benefit from not having to download a large package for each job.
Furthermore, multiple freelancers working simultaneously with the same TM or termbase will benefit from immediate updates.
Opening projects within Trados from GroupShare should be that little bit more convenient than downloading a file to a specific location and then double-clicking the file to open in Trados. And of course, there’s no more creating return packages: just complete
the job inside Trados.
Feedback
As more jobs are processed through GroupShare we’ll probably all have ideas on how it could be improved. As always, we’re happy to receive feedback on this new process – are there any inconveniences we’ve overlooked? Are there any other steps you’d like
to see us automate in the job process?
The featured image at the start of this article is from
An Introduction SDL Studio GroupShare 2015