How to analyze, pretranslate, clean files in multiple folders and subfolders in Trados

Many people seem to manually add the files in each folder/subfolder when they receive big projects with complex and deep file structure. This can take an inordinate amount of time but there is a simple trick to save you all the hustle. I have tried to illustrate this procedure with a number of screen shots.

1. Click on the Window button (bottom left of the keyboard, next to Ctrl) and E to open Windows Explorer.



2. Navigate to the main folder of your translation project and click on the main folder.



3. Click on the Search button (on top, next to the Folders button). In What do you want to search for dialog click on All files and folders



4a. If searching for rtf documents in the All or part of the file name field enter *.rtf
4b. If searching for rtf documents and ttx documents in the All or part of the file name field enter *.rtf *.ttx



5. Click on Search below. The files will appear on the right pane.



6. Resize the Windows Explorer Window and bring it on the right side

7. Run Trados Translators Workbench

8. Click Tools-> Analyse (or Translate or Clean up)

9. Move the Analyze (or Translate or Clean up) window to the left

10. Click on the right pane of the Windows Explorer window

11. Press Ctrl+A to select all documents

12. Drag and drop all documents to the Files to Analyze window in Trados. (You can see the trail of the drag and drop movement in this screenshot).




13. Click Analyze (or Translate or Clean up) on Trados. Done!