CrowdFlower vs.

Amazon Mehanical Turk for Crowdsourcing

Tasks
I have used both CrowdFlower and Amazon's Mechanical Turk (AMT)
for several tasks including judging the sentiment in a sentence,
obtaining relevance judgments, writing summaries of texts, and
judging

quality

of

machine

generated

summaries.

The main difference between CrowdFlower and Amazon's Mturk is

that CrowdFlower has a lot more channels (venues) where you can
publish your tasks compared to AMT which is just a single
standalone channel (not sure if things have changed since I last
used it). This covers big micro task sites like Amazon Mechanical
Turk

to

smaller

channels

like

Zoombucks,

Probux,

Getpaid,

FusionCash etc. So rest assured your tasks are completed within a

few

days

even

if

you

have

thousands

of

them.

Another nice thing about CrowdFlower that AMT does not have is a
higher degree of quality control on the results. CrowdFlower has
hidden questions called Gold Standard (provided by the requester),
which has contributors (workers) perform tasks that have already
been

completed

in

order

to

determine

their

accuracy

and trustworthiness. This helps avoid task spamming and eliminates

contributors

that

are

not

serious

on

the

tasks.

In terms of ease of use, I think CrowdFlower has a nicer user

interface but the learning curve in using both these Crowd Sourcing
applications is about the same. It might take you a day or two to
get used to it, but once you get then hang of it...you can't have
enough of it as your results come back so fast, and hopefully not all
are spam! Did I miss any other major differences? Another thing to
consider is to have multiple workers on one task, so that you can
use

majority

voting

for

as

the

final

answer.

So what can you use crowd sourcing for? For a lot of things!
Determining the right category of an item, circling out the
sentiment words in sentences, determining the correct sense of a
word in text, summarizing long documents, finding websites on a
specific topic are just a few out of the many tasks you can have
people complete for you.
About CrowdFlower
CrowdFlower, found online at CrowdFlower.com, is a company which
handles the streamlining and posting of tasks for companies who
are interested in utilizing crowdsourcing to fulfill their needs.
Crowdsourcing is a type of online, independent work which was
established

when

companies

discovered

that

certain

basic

assignments are more accurately done by humans than by

computers, but are so basic that they create an unnecessary
expense to have in house employees do them.
Instead, these companies have broken these assignments into small
tasks that can be quickly completed independently by at home
workers.

And

CrowdFlower

says

that

they

are

the

leading

crowdsourcing service with over one billion tasks completed by over

five million contributors.
However, CrowdFlower is actually a service for the companies who
are interested in using crowdsourcing to help their workforce.
Currently, they do not actually post tasks for completion; instead
they partner with over fifty different companies who post them.
People who are interested in being the contributors who complete
the tasks must sign up with one of their partners, which
include Swagbucks, ClixSense, Amazon Mechanical Turk, and more.

When you sign up as a contributor for any crowdsourcing site, the

best way to be successful is to quickly collect as many skills or
qualifications as possible. Depending on the site you are working
with, you may need to take exams or tests, complete a certain
number of tasks, or acquire a certain percentage of accurate
results.
Many people attempt to make money through crowdsourcing by
simply finishing as many tasks as quickly as possible. But this
strategy can cause people to make mistakes, which not only means
you wont be paid for that job, but you will also lose credibility and
have restricted access to jobs.
Achieving skills and qualifications will get you access to the best
paying tasks, as well as access to the more interesting and complex
tasks not just the most basic. Ultimately, this is the only way to
make crowdsourcing profitable.
~Broken questions
~Broken tasks
~When i achieved all goals to get 1st level, i found that "Something
else is preventing you from reaching the next level. Keep on
working in order to gain experience and level up" - very nice, isn`t
it?
ok. Asked the support for any further information. All they said is
"we have now all information and send it to admin. You will receive
your update as soon as possible. But admin has lots of requests, so
it

may

take

much

time

to

get

your

answer"

That is the most unfair thing that i`ve seen at this site.
You have goals. You reach it. You did not get your award. Instead of
this they inform you, that some day you will receive it. Maybe.
Probably. Till then continue working. Lost any trust for that
company.

Pros
-

Good

talent

is

recognized

Great

and

work-life

rewarded
balance

- A smart product that fits a real need in a growing industry

- Collaborative, positive culture that allows for new ideas and lets
employees come up with ways they think they can improve the
company, their processes, and ultimately, the business overall
-

Gorgeous,

open,

plant-filled

office

- CrowdFlower cares about culture and genuinely cares about

adhering

to

its

values

- Positively affects lives of both clients and contributors/crowd

- Have cold Trumers in the fridgeShow Less
Cons
- Shifting priorities/metrics within department made planning
harder
-

Hiring

than
decisions

sometimes

necessary
made

unilaterally

- Lost some stalwarts/great performers in the past 6 - 8 months

- Occasionally, there are no cold Trumers in the fridge
CrowdFlower Combines the Best of Machine and Human
Intelligence with New AI Product
October 15, 2015 by Editorial Team Leave a Comment

CrowdFlower, an essential data enrichment

platform for data science teams, announced its new AI product. This

new

module in the CrowdFlower platform combines machine

learning and human labeled training data sets to create predictive

models that can be applied against new data. With this capability
data scientists can now reduce the cost and increase the speed with
which they enrich their data, without sacrificing the quality they
demand.
In the past year technology industry giants such as IBM, Google,
Amazon and Microsoft have all launched their machine learning
platforms. Its an exciting time to be part of a data science team as
this new capability becomes economically feasible for tens of
thousands of companies for the first time, said Lukas Biewald,
chief executive officer and founder at CrowdFlower. But machine
learning

platforms

by

themselves

are

incomplete

to

be

commercially viable they need both more training data and better
training data.
With AI, CrowdFlower customers will be able to apply a predictive
model against new data sets. For rows of data that fall below a
customer defined confidence level, units can be routed to human
contributors to complete the enrichment task such as sentiment
analysis or data categorization. By combining machine and human
intelligence in a single platform, CrowdFlower can intelligently
assign data enrichment tasks to either humans or a machine based
on the customer requirements for scope, quality and cost.
The industry has been having the wrong debate about human
versus machine intelligence, said Biewald. Human intelligence and
machine

intelligence

arent

in

competition

theyre

natural

complements that reinforce each other. Humans great strength is

the cognitive ability of the brain, which brings into play context,
meaning

and

judgment,

and

machines

great

strength

is

consistency and speed. By combining the best of human and

machine intelligence into a single platform like CrowdFlower, the

result is more data and higher quality data delivered faster and at
lower cost. Data scientists who feed their machine learning
platforms with high quality large scale human labeled data sets can
make the transition from interesting

science experiment to a

commercially viable business process generating millions of dollars

of value for their company.
CrowdFlowers AI product is built to be inter-operable with both
open source and commercial machine learning platforms, so data
science teams can make their own choice and avoid vendor lock in.
The company plans to partner with machine learning platforms
ranging from startups such as Dato, Metamind and MonkeyLearn to
the major platforms from Google, IBM and Microsoft.
AI will enter a private beta with customers this quarter, with the
product expected to be generally available in Q1 2016. To learn
more, visit ai.crowdflower.com.

SDL Trados Studio 2014 Review

Here is my short review of SDL Trados 2014. It is aimed at
translators who already have a good understanding of what CAT
tools are and how they work. Going over each and every feature of
SDL Trados Studio 2014 would take ages. I will try to go straight to
the points of interest for freelance translators, in a hope that it will
make your purchasing decision easier.
Notable changes over Studio 2011
-Faster: SDL Trados 2014 introduces performance improvements
over its predecessor. File opening/saving is much faster, project
creation takes a little less time, and since SP2, Multiterm doesnt
use Java anymore, which makes it more reactive.

-Ribbon, slightly more user friendly: The ribbon was the most
noticeable change between Trados 2011 and 2014, and sparked lots
of discussions online. Its not a fundamental change, though, it
simply gives access to some of the frequently used functions of
Trados in a more visual way. If you are new to SDL software, it will
probably make the learning curve a little smoother.
-Possibility to merge several files in a single working pane: Pretty
cool feature for projects with a great number of small files. No need
to open 200 tabs anymore. It saves time and makes things like
Search & Replace much less tedious.
Strengths
Complete: Trados Studio 2014 is still the most complete CAT tool
when it comes to compatibility with file formats. It also offers an
impressive number of customizable options to make it work ideally
for you. In theory, you should be able to translate the vast majority
of the files youll ever need to.
OpenExchange Apps: I have to admit its the one thing that makes
me stick to Trados for most projects not requiring any specific CAT
tool. On the OpenExchange website, you will find tons of really
useful plugins, often available for free. They make a lot of tasks
easier, especially when it comes to TM management. Some of the
dictionary/glossary tools can also give you a good productivity
boost.
Shortcomings
Buggy crashy laggy: Despite updates being made on a regular
basis, SDL Trados Studio 2014 is still awfully buggy. It will crash
rather often, most of the time without a clear/reproducible reason.
There are also regularly problems with opening/saving files that
Trados should be able to handle (and that other CAT tools handle
very well). Saving issues are particularly annoying when you realize,
after finishing a project, that you cant output your translation in the
original format
For large files, Trados still seems to be overall slower than its
competitors. For files over 10,000 words, switching between
segments takes me so much time that I prefer to split the source file
to save time.
Complex, unintuitive: Trados Studio offers lots of options, which is
great, but they are rather poorly organized. Some very simple
actions will require browsing through several layers of sub-menus.

Option labels are often confusing and you have to try them out to
really understand what they do. Another problem is that a ridiculous
number of shortcuts is set by default mistype something and you
will trigger functions that you didnt even know about.
In general, every process seems to have more steps than it should.
Even creating a simple project with a source file and TM takes you
through a long series of screens
Unresponsive and condescending support: Responsiveness of the
support team seems pretty random. If you want a quick response,
the fastest way seems to be shouting it out on social networks
and/or translation forums. But then still, you are likely to get only
partial help: either you get workarounds that take a ridiculous
amount of time to execute (arent CAT tools supposed to save time?)
or they put the blame on you/your client/some third party. To sum it
up, I will quote the SDL support itself, which responded to a feature
request this way: Yes there is always hope, but this is pretty
unlikely to be something coming from SDL.
Conclusion
If you are new to CAT tools, I would recommend starting with a more
simple tool, like Wordfast, which doesnt have all of Trados features
but is much more user-friendly and stable. Once you are
experienced and that you start looking for advanced productivity
tips, Trados Studio 2014 and Open Exchange Apps may provide a
real boost. Even if you purchase Trados, I would recommend
translators to keep a lighter and more reliable tool for when
Trados decides it just doesnt want to translate your file. Remember
that you can always import/export your TMs and bilingual files
between software.
Trados can save you big time once you understand how to use it and
that it doesnt crash or decide it doesnt want to handle your files.
With a better interface and less bugs, it would clearly be the best
tool of the market. As such, it should be approached with care and
patience for projects that seem suited to it.
By the way, its pretty expensive. The good news is that, most of
time, group buys (Proz) and seasonal promotional offers are
available (generally 20-30% off discounts). Even if none is available
at the time you check promotions out, one will probably pop out
soon enough, so make sure you wait to get it at a more reasonable
price.

New Features
Studio 2014 uses the same concepts and workflows as the previous
versions of SDL Studio, so there are no fundamentally different changes
to get used to in terms of creating project or handling files. However,
SDL Studio 2014 does introduce some new features and functionality
that I will describe in short in this section.

The Ribbon
Studio 2014 has dropped the use of traditional toolbars in favor of the
Ribbon interface, now used by both Microsoft Office and Windows as
the main User Interface. By doing so, SDL Studio is the first TEnT to
switch to the Ribbon interface which is a topic ofgreat controversy, and
probably will reaming so. Ive participated in the Ribbon-for-or-against
debate since it was first introduced in Office 2007 and there is no other
way to sum it up except for a matter of personal preference. Each side
has very valid arguments and points, and it should be acknowledged
that a major UI change is something that may hurt experienced users
more than novice ones, but ultimately I think that in case of the Ribbon
the UI change is not as fundamental as it may look at first glance
because it still uses the same navigation and presentation principles as a
traditional toolbar, from which it differs mostly in the visual style.
Personally I find the Ribbon to be an improvement over the traditional
toolbars for the following reasons:

It doesnt get out of position, sometimes even at random;

I find it easier to navigate because the commands are

(arguably) grouped in a way that makes them more visible,
accessible and logically ordered, and this is something that
users from all levels can benefit from. In fact, just recently I
recommended a colleague who just switched to Studio
2014 from Trados 2007 to go through the Ribbon tabs and

commands groups to quickly explore the various options

and commands;

Many experienced users prefer to use keyboard shortcuts

over clicking icons and options with the mouse because the
find it to be faster, and therefore dont need toolbars or
icons to clutter their workspace. The Ribbon complements
this preference very elegantly because it can be minimized
when not in use to eliminate the visual distraction and
clutter, while still remaining accessible when hidden in case
of need. Also, minimizing the Ribbon can save some
vertical screen space that in some systems may be a
concern.;

The switch to the Ribbon currently has also two shortcomings:

Some common shortcuts (Alt+Letter) of earlier versions

of SDL Studio are now assigned to Ribbon commands and
elements . This takes getting used to for those who are in a
habit of using them;

Currently the Ribbon and the Quick Access Toolbar cannot

be customized. As far as I know SDL has plans to add this
option in future updates, and I think that it will be very well
received, not least because it may make it easier for those
who like to use customized toolbars to get used to the
Ribbon;

The Welcome View

SDL Studio 2014 introduces a new view: The Welcome view, which
replaces the old Home view of earlier Studio versions and adds quite a
lot to it. The Welcome screen serves the same function as the old Home
view a general hub to get users, especially novice, going after
launching the software, but in Studio 2014 it got a major face-lift that

puts the focus on accessibility by grouping various resources into four

groups:

Home: quick commands for start working on a file or a

project;

Get Started: a series of videos and documents about the

basic functionality in Studio and MultiTerm;

More Resources: links to more comprehensive resources

such as SDLs knowledgebase and SDL OpenExchange; and

Latest News: official communications and updates from

SDL;

Studio uses Projects over working with individual files. Projects offer
many advantages, but they are also a source of confusion for new users
who are used to working with individual files . Im happy to note that as
part of the Welcome view overhaul the quite confusing Open
Document command was renamed Translate a Single Document,
which is a much more appropriate name for it.

SDL Studio 2014 new Welcome view. Note the links to the SDL
OpenExchange and the installed OpenExchange apps on the left
pane

Autosave and improved Drag and Drop for adding

files
Autosave
SDL Studio 2014 now saves the currently open SDLXLIFF file in a
predefined time interval (default is 10 minutes). This is quite a basic, yet
important, feature that in my opinion should have been integrated from
day one, so it is good to see that it was finally added. One usually doesnt
appreciate this type of under-the-hood features until something goes
terribly wrong.
The Autosave feature can be disabled and the interval can be changed
from the File Tab > Options > Editor menu.
What I would like to see added is an automatic Save Target As
(Shift+F12) of all the files in a project as part of the project creation
process. Experienced users of SDL Studio and Trados know that it is a
good idea to save the target file as soon as the file is opened to make
sure that ther are no technical issues that will prevent saving the target
file at the end of the project. Adding this as an automatic step will be
greatly useful and appreciated, at least by me.

Improved Drag and Drop for adding files

As Ive mentioned earlier, SDL Studio is a project oriented environment.
In a project all the project resources are organized and managed
together. Projects can be used to handle running or reoccurring
projects more efficiently and sometimes a project gets additional parts

when it is alreayd underway. In previous versions of SDL Studio the

user had to manually switch to the source language under the Files view
to add new files to an existing project and prepare them for translation.
Studio 2014 makes the whole process a little easier by automatically
switching to the source language when files are added via the Ribbon
command or by drag and drop.
These are by no stretch of the imagination a game changing features,
but they do make for an improved and less frustrating user experience,
which I appreciate.

Automatic Concordance Search

With Studio 2014 SDL brings back this extremely useful feature in my
opinion that was dropped in earlier Studio versions. With the Automatic
Concordance Search enabled, if the Translation Memory lookup does
not return result, a concordance search is automatically performed for
the active segment. This is wonderful aid that produces some
meaningful results that help maintain better consistency and style.
This feature is not enabled by default. To enable it go to the File tab >
Options > Editor > Concordance Search Window >
select the Perform search if the TM lookup returns no
results option.

Quick Merge
The previous versions of SDL Studio suffered from a major inefficiently
when working with several files in a single project. The inability to
merge files ad-hoc or to add/remove files from already merged files was
sorely missing. The merge itself was physical (they were merged into
one big SDLXLIFF file) and took some preparation and doing, and
overall it resulted in quite a cumbersome experience. Many users just
opt to (or were forced to) work individually with the project files which
became an issue with large number of files and also meant going back to

correct a segment in one file and batch search and replace operation a
problem.

Selecting multiple files in a project and opening them for

translation, review or sign-off via a Ribbon command or the right
click context menu

The QuickMerge feature in Studio 2014 solves all the issues associated
with working with individual files in a project. The QuickMerge allows
the user to select some or all the files in a project and open them
together for Translation, Review, or Sign-off. Unlike in previous
versions, the files are not physically merged; they are just displayed in
the Editor window as one consolidated unit. A nice touch is the fact that
the orange tabs that indicate the beginning and end of a file are still
there to indicate where one file end and the next begins.

The four files of the example project merged together using the
QuickMerge feature in the Editor window. Note the orange tabs that
indicate the end of one file and the beginning of the next.

This feature is nicely complemented by the file list on the left Editor
pane from which the user can quickly and easily switch to a specific file
in the project without needing to scroll through the editor window.

A closer look on the File List in the left Editor pane that allows the
user to quickly navigate to a certain project file from within the
Editor window

Alignment
Alignment is the process of creating a Translation Memory from past
translation that are available as separate source and target documents.
Previous versions of SDL Studio and Trados featured the WinAlign tool
that I personally never really liked. It worked generally well but was far
from intuitive for new users,, from my experience had a tendency to
crush, and in recent years started to feel outdated a in terms of handling
some file formats.

The icon of the new Alignment Tool in the Ribbon of Studio 2014

Studio 2014 features a new alignment tool that seems to be easier to use
and also creates by default a Translation Memory that can be added to
Studio with no extra importing or processing needed, which is nice.
However, while WinAlign was a complete Alignment tool, the
new alignment tool in Studio 2014 lacks one critical feature
an alignment editor that allow the user to correct
misalignments before creating the final Translation Memory
that might render it ineffective for many alignment projects.
With the default settings Studio 2014s alignment tool works
very well with simple and closely formatted source and target

documents, but with documents that are not as closely

formatted the alignment results are kind of off, and there is
editor for fixing the misalignment issues before producing the
final Translation Memory. Some basic realignment is possible
from the Translation Memories view that opens by default at
the end of the alignment project, but it is not as powerful. A
proper Alignment Editor was introduced in Studio 2014 SP1 (Service
Pack 1) and brings back the ability to edit the alignment results.

OpenExchange Apps Integration

SDL OpenExchange Apps were introduced a couple of years ago. Some

of them are even installed with Studio 2011 and 2014, but they never
really got much attention, and I dont think that Im wrong in assuming
that they are still largely a relatively little known secret. The
OpenExchange platform is based on the same principle as browser
extensions or Smartphone apps that allow the user to install additional
pieces of software to extend or augment the functionality of the main
program. Through a series of APIs (Application Programming Interface)
that define how software components interact with each other,
developers can harness the powerful capabilities of Studio to develop
some useful value-added apps for some specific workflow requirements
and needs.
OpenExchange is a potentially powerful concept, but much like every
other market or store that are based on the same concept, its long-term
success will be largely determined by the variety and quality of apps
available in SDL OpenExchange. In Studio 2014 a greater focus is given
to OpenExchange as they are better integrated and more easily
discoverable and accessible from within the environment itself. I think
that this is the right move for raising awareness and making
OpenExchage integral part of SDL Studio experience. More awareness is
usually leads to more attention and larger user base which is an
important precursor for turning such a platform from a gimmick into a

quality, reliable, and value adding ecosystem.

Users of Studio who lack the knowledge and/or resources to develop an
app themselves can suggest apps, which I find interesting. The
suggestions may or may not get developed as apps, but sharing ideas
based on real needs and challenges is a valuable resource all around, I
think. Sometimes one idea could have a great influence.
That said, like every other market/store that involve third party pieces
of code, there are some concerns about stability, security, longevity (i.e.
maintenance of apps by independent developers in the long-term) and
commercial acquisition of successful apps by stakeholders for
commercial purposes. Paul Filkin posted an article in his blogthat
explains how SDL approves the SDL OpenExchang apps.

Performance
One of the first things that Ive noticed after working with Studio 2014
for a couple of days is a performance gain. I must admit that I wasnt
expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised. Indeed, without
benchmarks performance is somewhat subjective, but in general I dont
care much for software/hardware performance benchmarks that to me
are far from a reliable method because they are very sensitive to many
factors that significantly influence the results and could mean that the
findings are not transferable in the same way to other system, and
instead prefer to measure things in terms of overall experience. The
most noticeable performance gain that I have noticed is with processing
common file types. Preparing, finalizing or saving files in a project seem
to be very smooth and quick. Exporting and Importing of Translation
Memories, which was the other area I tested with various TM sizes,
seem to remain on a similar performance level as Studio 2011.
For my needs file processing is probably the most important area in
terms of performance, so in that context Im very happy with Studio
2014.

Note about BiDi support

Although Studio 2011 and 2014 support the BiDi algorithm quite well
and offer a very efficient method for inserting the BiDi control
characters, some BiDi issues still exist. Unfortunately, Studio 2014 does

not bring major improvements over Studio 2011 in terms of BiDi

handling, but like Studio 2011 can be considered a BiDi capable
environment.
The main BiDi issues in Studio 2014

The cursor still skips the last Latin letter in an RTL

segment and jumps to the next segment. Although this
does seem to be improved a little compared to Studio
2011, I have yet to identify the pattern for this behavior;

DOC files still lose all formatting when translating into a

RTL language (or at least to Hebrew). DOCX files largely
retain the formatting and with the DOC file format file
becoming slowly but gradually obsolete this becomes less
of an issue. Nevertheless, it would be nice if this could be
fixed.

It seems that perhaps there is a bug in the way Studio

handles the LRM and RLM control characters that causes
the target document (mostly DOCX, so maybe it is a DOCX
issue, I need to investigate further) to ignore the presence
of a LRM control character in a RTL sentence. The
workaround is to immediately follow the LRM character
with a RLM character, even if the next visible inline
character is a RTL character.

Quick Summary or tl;dr Version

The Good

The Ribbon: although will probably remain a topic of

controversy, and without taking anything from the valid
arguments of those who oppose it, I like it. I find it to bring
more value to novice and experienced users alike by
grouping all the commands in a more orderly fashion while
making them more discoverable and accessible, with the
added bonus of minimizing and hiding it out of sight
without actually disabling it. Adding the ability to customize
the Ribbon and the Quick Access Toolbar (in future service
pack perhaps?) will improve it even more;

QuickMerge: To me, the most important new feature in

Studio 2014. The ability to group all project files ad-hoc and
work on them in a single Editor Window is simply great;

Automatic Concordance Search: Simple and efficient way

to get meaningful results for maintaining better
consistency and style while reducing the number of manual
concordance search needed;

Autosave and Improved Drag and Drop operations: Not

marquee type of features, but small touches that complete
the user experience and eliminate some minor
inefficiencies. Adding an Automatic Save Target As step to
the project creation process is another feature of this kind
that I think will be greatly appreciated by many users;

Better OpenExchange integration: The OpenExchange

concept allow users to extend the functionality of Studio by
installing apps. It has a great potential, but its long-term
success will be largely determined by the variety and
quality of the available apps. Like all others app markets or

stores, some concerns about stability and security exist;

and

Performance: A noticeable performance gain in common

file processing (creating and finalizing projects for eample)
operations.

The Not so Good

The Alignment Tool: Although it is easier and more

intuitive to set up a project with the new alignment tool
compared to WinAlign, and despite the fact that it works
fairly well with similarly formatted documents, the lack of
an alignment editor might render it ineffective from some
alignment projects;

Slow terms editing. For more information and a

workaround, see Tackling Studio 2014 Terminology Editing
Slowness.

Java: Studio 2014 still uses Java. In light of the security and
performance issues of Java, I would love to see it go and

Studio turning into a self-contained program that does not

(or not as much) rely on external components to function.
(Edit: Shortly after the release of Studio 2014 a Java update
broke some functionality; it is now fixed)

The Inbetween (things that are neither here nor

there)

Shortcuts assignments: The Ribbon steals some of the

Alt+letter shortcuts that many users have grown
accustomed to. Its not ideal, but to me not a make-it-orbreak-it type of thing;

The Ribbon and the Quick Access Bar are not

customizable yet. SDL states that the ability to customize
them will be added later on;

Not much improvement in terms of BiDi handling.

Is it worth the upgrade? and takeaway

In this review I have attempted to give an overview of some of the new
features in Studio 2014. The purpose of this review is not to compare
SDL Studio 2014 to other TEnTs, only to the previous iterations of SDL
Studio.
So, is it worth the upgrade? As always, the answer is very subjective and
there is no one-size-fits-all answer. In my opinion Studio 2014 is a
definitive improvement over 2011, more than 2011 was over 2009. It
adds true functionality (as opposed to gimmicks) and improvements,
highlighted by the QuickMerge and Auto Concordance Search features
that will probably benefit the workflows of many users.

Takeaway
In my opinion, with the launch of Studio 2014 SDL Studio has finally
became a truly matured and well-rounded translation environment. It
adds major functionality improvements that tackle some of the
annoyances and inefficiencies of previous Studio versions, with the
entire Ribbon interface issue, whether one is for or against it, being
quite negligible by comparison, I think. The better integration of the
OpenExchage apps is good, and it would be interesting to follow the
direction and development of this platform the upcoming years.
SDL Trados and Studio were the subject of some onslaught in the past,
some of it justifiable and some not. I have my own love and hate
relationships with Studio (and previously Trados) throughout the years,
and although there still things to improve and features to add, there
always are, with the release of Studio 2014 I feel that in this point in

time SDL Studio is finally a matured Translation Environment Tool that

deserves its recognition based on merit.
I hope this review helped to better understand the new features in
Studio 2014 for reaching a more educated decision about upgrading.
Emma Goldsmith in her SDL Trados Studio 2014: new features for
beginners post and Nora Diaz in her SDL Trados Studio 2014: A First
Look at My 5 Favorite Features have also published their reviews on

Studio 2014, and with the opinions of other users in online forums,
groups and on Twitter (#studio2014) I hope that you will be able to
reach an even more educated decision.