| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Need a help in starting using a CAT Thread poster: Olga Dyussengaliyeva
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| "fully compatible" doesn't mean much | Dec 12, 2011 |
Silvia83 wrote:
Is MemoQ fully compatible with Trados and what formats does it support?
"fully compatible with tool X" doesn't mean much, especially if tool X is "Trados", which includes a bunch of tools like Workbench, TagEditor, SDLX and Studio which are not even compatible between themselves.
memoQ does support a wide range of formats, including bilingual Word (Workbench), TTX (TagEditor) and SDLXLIFF (Studio). It offers much better value for the money than Trados IMO.
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Thanks for the replies!
looks like the choice is massive. I do have gazillion of questions, but before asking I should start my learning curve bearing in mind all the helpful suggestions.
Is it a normal practice to use trial versions of CAT to choose the one that'd suite me best?
And by the way - is it really SO crucially helpful to have a CAT? when you start a project - do you open your CAT without doubt or at times choose to edit the document as usual?
| | | | Samuel Murray 
Netherlands
Local time: 20:09
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| Ask why you want a CAT tool | Dec 12, 2011 |
Olga_dyus wrote:
Although I'm not new to translation as profession, I'm new in using CAT tools in my work... Now as I'm broadening my translation practice I found a need in using tool to aid my performance.
Tools like Trados (and to a lesser extent Wordfast Pro) are aimed primarily at translators who want to work in a certain section of the market (i.e. agencies that require the tool). The files such translators receive are often quite complex to edit in the CAT tool, so you won't experience better performance with those tools, unless you become an expert user at them.
Other CAT tools like Wordfast Classic and Metatexis are aimed more at translators who want to increase their performance on their existing client base and their existing document types. Since you are an established translator, and you probably don't want the CAT tool to get more work but to get more work done, I would suggest that you steer clear of Trados and Wordfast Pro, unless you actually want to break into that market.
And of course, you get the middle category of CAT tools, like MemoQ, Dejavu and OmegaT, which is aimed at the same translators as Wordfast Classic and Metatexis category, but which makes translation as complex as Trados anyway. The small upside is that these tools typically aim to be user-friendly and feature-rich, otherwise they would have had little redeeming quality.
Trados etc may claim greater performance but what they really mean is that translating those complex files outside of Trados would have taken much longer, so translating them inside Trados theoretically is a performance booster. But if performance is measured not against how slow it would have been to translate the complex file without Trados, but against how much work (how many words) you can translate in a day or in an hour, then Trados and similar tools often don't quite reach the mark.
[Edited at 2011-12-12 08:15 GMT]
| | | | | It's certainly a recommended practice | Dec 12, 2011 |
Olga_dyus wrote:
Is it a normal practice to use trial versions of CAT to choose the one that'd suite me best?
I don't know whether it's "normal practice", but it's certainly recommended if you don't want to regret having spent hundreds of euros or dollars on a tool you don't like or find useful. Many people select a tool based on hearsay, but only *you* can know what's best for *you*. Would you pick up a husband without having tried him first 
Olga_dyus wrote:
And by the way - is it really SO crucially helpful to have a CAT? when you start a project - do you open your CAT without doubt or at times choose to edit the document as usual?
I don't even ask myself that question and I sometimes use a CAT even if I know I could do it faster without it (for instance very small jobs). Knowing my translations will end in my TM justifies the extra time spent.
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esperantisto
Local time: 21:09
Member (2006)
English to Russian
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SITE LOCALIZER | Not that crucial, but… | Dec 12, 2011 |
Olga_dyus wrote:
And by the way - is it really SO crucially helpful to have a CAT? when you start a project - do you open your CAT without doubt or at times choose to edit the document as usual?
It’s not really crucial. Many translators go along without CATs, some even use ol’ good typewriters. But CATs are really helpful in many ways. For example, after some years of experience with CATs, when I encounter some word I fail to translate, I look up in my TMs first, rather than in dictionaries, since TUs give more relevant context than dictionary entries.
| | | | Emma Goldsmith
Spain
Local time: 20:09
Member (2004)
Spanish to English
| CAT even for very short jobs | Dec 12, 2011 |
Dominique Pivard wrote:
I sometimes use a CAT even if I know I could do it faster without it (for instance very small jobs). Knowing my translations will end in my TM justifies the extra time spent.
Yes, I do too.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 20:09
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
esperantisto wrote: Olga_dyus wrote:
And by the way - is it really SO crucially helpful to have a CAT? when you start a project - do you open your CAT without doubt or at times choose to edit the document as usual? For example, after some years of experience with CATs, when I encounter some word I fail to translate, I look up in my TMs first, rather than in dictionaries, since TUs give more relevant context than dictionary entries.
Yes, same here.
Emma Goldsmith wrote: Dominique Pivard wrote:
I sometimes use a CAT even if I know I could do it faster without it (for instance very small jobs). Knowing my translations will end in my TM justifies the extra time spent. Yes, I do too.
Yes, same here. In fact, even if the text isn't CAT friendly, I'd rather spend time converting it to a CAT-friendly format than simply translating it in its current format. The flipside is that my translation speed is dead slow without my CAT tool.
Using the CAT tool has another advantage for me in that I can convert the TM into a time-sheet that shows during which hours I had translated (needed for tax purposes), since all TUs are time-stamped.
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| Slightly off topic.. | Dec 12, 2011 |
Emma Goldsmith wrote: Dominique Pivard wrote:
I sometimes use a CAT even if I know I could do it faster without it (for instance very small jobs). Knowing my translations will end in my TM justifies the extra time spent. Yes, I do too.
This is where something like T-Window comes in handy as you can still get the translation in your TM but without opening the CAT tool itself.
Regards
Paul
| | | | | CAT tool for Mac | Dec 25, 2011 |
Olga Dyussengaliyeva wrote: Thanks to Jane's comprehensive guideline I see my wa to this world  except for one detail I forgot to mention - I work on Mac, so I need to check availability of CATs for Mac.
http://www.cafetran.republika.pl/download.html
CafeTran is a good and non-expensive CAT tool (80 EUR). The Help is outdated, since a new version of the software has been released some days ago.
You can contact Igor directly to help you set up CT. Or you can wait for the training videos that are being recorded in the next weeks.
CT has its own logic and menu structure (differing from other CAT tools), which might not be relevant to you (since you don't have to migrate from another tool).
Hans
[Edited at 2011-12-25 08:57 GMT]
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