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To invest in a translation software or not yet?
Thread poster: Anne LE ROMANCER
Yun Sue Hwang
Yun Sue Hwang
South Korea
Local time: 02:42
English to Korean
+ ...
Try different types of CAT and decide Jul 18, 2018

Although most of my translation is requested in printed form due to confidentiality, I quite often use Trados.
There are several advantages if you use it fully.
However, if you never used it before, download the trial versions of some famous ones and give them a try. Some CAT tools were not my cup of tea...
If you still cannot decide which one to use, I recommend Trados as it is most widely used.


 
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 18:42
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
Try them out, the sooner the better Jul 18, 2018

I use my CAT for everything, not just for technical work.

Learn to use a CAT creatively! I use the glossary function on mine as a prop to save typing errors, and to keep track of clients' preferred terminology, which comes up in marketing among other things. You can insert slogans and fixed strings by typing the first few letters.

I have even used my CAT to avoid repetition - if a match comes up with last year's campaign, rephrase to hide the fact that you are saying mo
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I use my CAT for everything, not just for technical work.

Learn to use a CAT creatively! I use the glossary function on mine as a prop to save typing errors, and to keep track of clients' preferred terminology, which comes up in marketing among other things. You can insert slogans and fixed strings by typing the first few letters.

I have even used my CAT to avoid repetition - if a match comes up with last year's campaign, rephrase to hide the fact that you are saying more or less the same thing...

With any self-respecting CAT you can merge or break up segments as you need, so you do not need to be bound by them.

I use mine as a tool, but am definitely in charge. I can still translate without a CAT, but prefer to use it if possible.

Start now, while you have time, and it will give you access to clients who simply will not work with a translator who does not use a CAT. Try the demos of two or three, and spend time getting to know them - many people dislike them to begin with, but once you can work with a CAT automatically, without having to think about it all the time, you should be glad you persevered!

My advice is to find which suits your way of working best, and stick to it. I like Studio, and find it well worth the investment, while others just annoy me. Others porefer the 'lighter' CATs and do not use all the features in Studio anyway. You have to decide for yourself, but I would certainly advise you to try two or three of the more popular CATs, and see which you prefer.
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Sheila Wilson
Angie Garbarino
sam@fr-uk
 
Christel Zipfel
Christel Zipfel  Identity Verified
Local time: 18:42
Member (2004)
Italian to German
+ ...
Wordfast & co. Jul 18, 2018

I have mostly used Wordfast (Classic, but occasionally also Pro) since many years and am very pleased with it. It was my first CAT and I found it very easy to learn and am wholly satisfied with this tool.
But nowadays it has become a little costly in my opinion: 400 € just to start (if one wants to buy it) and to get the license and then every 3 years 200 € to renew the license. If you need the suite (Classic + Pro), fairly necessary as translating Excels and Powerpoints with Classic
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I have mostly used Wordfast (Classic, but occasionally also Pro) since many years and am very pleased with it. It was my first CAT and I found it very easy to learn and am wholly satisfied with this tool.
But nowadays it has become a little costly in my opinion: 400 € just to start (if one wants to buy it) and to get the license and then every 3 years 200 € to renew the license. If you need the suite (Classic + Pro), fairly necessary as translating Excels and Powerpoints with Classic is really cumbersome, it's 500 + 250. I won't say it's too expensive for a freelance with a regular income, compared to Trados which I won't never touch for other reasons. But for a translator who is just starting, this may be different. However, there are other tools out there which offer maybe the same or even more and which deserve a glance. (Remember that each tool offers a free download and the possibility to test it for some time or otherwise with functionality limitations.) Have a look at https://www.proz.com/tgb/ where you can get a good bargain. Cafetran Espresso for example is offered actually for 120 € with a lifelong license. Because you have to consider also the cost for the renewal. If I were you, I would possibly go for a CAT tool as soon as possible. If you can't or won't buy one for the moment, OmegaT, like has been already said, is completely free.

As far as productivity is concerned, I really think that on balance it isn't increased so much by such tools but very occasionally, however you find everything you have ever translated in your memory, and this is worth the money spent, whatever tool you choose. I don't agree with Merab's statement that they can save "up to 40% of your time". This could possibly be true only in very very particular circumstances. You save much more time dictating with Dragon than using a CAT.
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Merab Dekano
Merab Dekano  Identity Verified
Spain
Member (2014)
English to Spanish
+ ...
40% Jul 18, 2018

Samuel Murray wrote:

Merab Dekano wrote:
CAT tools save up to 40% of your time. And with normal project flow, you’ll get your investment back in less than a month’s time.


Sure, but the OP is a new translator. I doubt that she has "normal project flow" or will have it anytime soon. Also, a 40% increase in speed can only be the result of extensive fuzzy matching, so 40% is too optimistic for work done for new clients.



I agree. I meant that; you need to build up your TM. This takes years and is effective if you work with the same clients over and over again.

But you have to start somewhere... We all did.


 
Riccardo Schiaffino
Riccardo Schiaffino  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 11:42
Member (2003)
English to Italian
+ ...
About 125 Euro / year per license Jul 18, 2018

Samuel Murray wrote:

The long-term cost of MemoQ is higher, because their upgrade cost is calculated based on how many years it's been since your previous upgrade (but I was unable to find out how much that costs, after 5 minutes of Googling, so they must have decided to make it a secret).


I've just upgraded a pair of licenses. They cost was about 125 Euro each.


Kevin Fulton
 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
"Save up to 40%" Jul 19, 2018

Merab Dekano wrote:
CAT tools save up to 40% of your time


This reminds me of Sports Direct warehouses: "Everything up to 80% off!"

Which translates into most things only 20% off a price already inflated by 50%...

CAT tools can save a lot less than 40%. Or be a net waste of time.

In my (very limited) experience, Trados plus customer memory plus lots of matches = 50% more time than translating from scratch in Word.

Then again, Wordfast plus my memory plus annual accounts I've done in previous years = 80-90% time saving.

But I think if I were just getting started then I would get one just so I didn't rule out too many potential customers. It's not a big investment in the greater scheme of things. Many agencies also let you use their own software or their own licences for free (e.g. Memsource) but it's probably best to have a CAT of your own as well.


Kevin Fulton
 
Elisabeth Purkis
Elisabeth Purkis  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 12:42
German to English
+ ...
In a similar situation...as a newbie Jul 19, 2018

Hi,
Is it okay to add to this discussion, or do I need to start my own? It's basically on the same subject.

I will briefly summarize: I have bought the starter (cheapest of the cheap $120) version of Trados, and after a few hours with it, was already tearing my hair out. Since then, I have been in contact with a local translation company (with a friendly face, fortunately) and they are willing to start using me once I get some better computer translation skills, e.g CAT tools
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Hi,
Is it okay to add to this discussion, or do I need to start my own? It's basically on the same subject.

I will briefly summarize: I have bought the starter (cheapest of the cheap $120) version of Trados, and after a few hours with it, was already tearing my hair out. Since then, I have been in contact with a local translation company (with a friendly face, fortunately) and they are willing to start using me once I get some better computer translation skills, e.g CAT tools such as MemoQ or MemoSource and some design software like InDesign. Which leaves me wondering if I should try CafeTran as it seems to be compatible with several CAT tools. It sounds a bit more user-friendly from some of the posts...and I am assuming one can receive translation packages from different CAT tools via CafeTran. it seems as if it would be the answer to some of my challenges right now...but I wondered what others think? Maybe this would also be of help to our original poster as we are in similar situations.

Thanks, and apologies if I erred in adding to this thread.
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Anne LE ROMANCER
 
Christel Zipfel
Christel Zipfel  Identity Verified
Local time: 18:42
Member (2004)
Italian to German
+ ...
Time saving = urban legend Jul 19, 2018

Chris S wrote:


CAT tools can save a lot less than 40%. Or be a net waste of time.

In my (very limited) experience, Trados plus customer memory plus lots of matches = 50% more time than translating from scratch in Word.



Yes, this is an urban legend invented by XXX's marketing many years ago (maybe you know who I mean). And since then, everyone - and of course, agencies, after more or less brainwashing - thinks that's the truth, and for every CAT! After all, otherwise any request for discounts for fuzzy matches would be without foundation and in fact, it is, since you have still to pay the software, at least normally. I am not at all against CAT tools for the reason I wrote earlier, but I am against the mystification that they can save you a lot of time which is simply not true in my opinion. If you have a memory/memories of your own to maintain (which is my case), you lose even the little time you could possibly have saved doing the regular maintenance.


 
Jean Dimitriadis
Jean Dimitriadis  Identity Verified
English to French
+ ...
@Anne and @Elisabeth Jul 19, 2018

Hello Elisabeth,

Given the nature of this post, I would suggest you start out a new thread. As a CafeTran user myself, I would be glad to participate in it.

---

Hello Ann,

Sheila and others have highlighted other valid reasons why consider taking up a CAT tool, aside from “recruitability”.

You don’t necessarily need to shell out money right now, although a CAT tool could represent a worthy investment. That can wait, and there
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Hello Elisabeth,

Given the nature of this post, I would suggest you start out a new thread. As a CafeTran user myself, I would be glad to participate in it.

---

Hello Ann,

Sheila and others have highlighted other valid reasons why consider taking up a CAT tool, aside from “recruitability”.

You don’t necessarily need to shell out money right now, although a CAT tool could represent a worthy investment. That can wait, and there are plenty of options out there.

I’d say you have to decide if you wish to invest some of the most valuable resource you have right now, one that you will probably and hopefully “lose” before long, as you pick up more projects and clients: time.

Because you will need to invest time to learn and train yourself. What use will a CAT tool be if it makes you slower or if it gets in the way of your focus and creativity?

Because, once you learn the ropes, if it does not make you more efficient, a CAT tool won’t make you a worse translator than before either. It certainly won’t suck up your translator skills.

What I would do is take Christine’s advice and try some paid software demos or free programs, spend some time getting to know the software, use it to perform non-critical/non-time-sensitive (possibly personal) projects, and learn some key concepts that you will find in various forms in any translation tool. Definitely try more than one, but try at least one not superficially.

If you test drive Trados or MemoQ for example, during the trial, you can also assess their interoperability with other translation tools, so that you can see for yourself if CAT tool alternatives can be viable choices for you.

I’m also sending you a quick PM on this subject.

All the best,

Jean


[Edited at 2018-07-19 21:05 GMT]
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Stepan Konev
Stepan Konev  Identity Verified
Russian Federation
Local time: 20:42
English to Russian
Doubtful Jul 20, 2018

Kay Denney wrote:

The more creative input is required, the less sense it makes to use a CAT tool.

A doubtful statement. Even just having source and target sentences next to each other makes CAT tool worthy of that. You don’t need your eyes to locate the beginning/middle/end of a sentence within a block of text. Yes, you may have a big monitor or even two and place source and target files next to each other, but you cannot do the same with sentences. Unlike CAT tool.
Not to mention many other helpful features that have nothing to do with repeatability.

[Edited at 2018-07-20 03:54 GMT]


tabor
 
DZiW (X)
DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
+ ...
doctoring a prosaic story of... Jul 20, 2018

While CAT goes ok with routine manuals and general texts, I agree with Kay that unification, consolidation, and standardization of segmental dissection makes little to nothing good in fiction, let alone poetry. At least not for me, not as a mere line-by-line approach, distancing from the style and fabula and making me to reread the passage to regain the point.

Problem #1: One-to-many.
Problem #2: Re/moved-reworded-
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While CAT goes ok with routine manuals and general texts, I agree with Kay that unification, consolidation, and standardization of segmental dissection makes little to nothing good in fiction, let alone poetry. At least not for me, not as a mere line-by-line approach, distancing from the style and fabula and making me to reread the passage to regain the point.

Problem #1: One-to-many.
Problem #2: Re/moved-reworded-concatenated-split "segments".

Problem #3: Quasi-synonyms.
Problem #4: Different languages tempo and flow.
Problem #5: Different stylistic means/devices.
And so on, which can be helped to some extend via toilsome tweaking.

Why, a couple of times I did try to CAT imaginative writing, and it was a relatively poor, yet valuable exp. Using CAT in prose often* renders it rather unnatural, choppy, mechanical, and dull as a vivisected robo-language, not to mention it doesn't speed up the process, aggravating MT-like appearance instead. (Not to forget the literature translation is one of the demanding whereas the worst paid niche!)

However, for the general purpose, CAT tools (free, online, and paid) are quite handy, when used properly--with a decent TM.

[Edited at 2018-07-23 09:13 GMT]
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Anne LE ROMANCER
Anne LE ROMANCER  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:42
English to French
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you ☺️ Aug 11, 2018

Dear all,

I read each and every answer. Thank you so so much for all you’ve said. So I have downloaded OmegaT to get started and will have a look at that. I have just finished a big translation for a recruitment company...all excel files, very repetitive and it would probably have saved me loads of times. A Spanish colleague advised me to have a look at Memosource so gonna download their free trial too and have « a play » as I’m now in between projects. Although I need to hu
... See more
Dear all,

I read each and every answer. Thank you so so much for all you’ve said. So I have downloaded OmegaT to get started and will have a look at that. I have just finished a big translation for a recruitment company...all excel files, very repetitive and it would probably have saved me loads of times. A Spanish colleague advised me to have a look at Memosource so gonna download their free trial too and have « a play » as I’m now in between projects. Although I need to hurry and find a new project asap 😳😱 I don’t have enough cashflow yet to wait long in between projects unfortunately 😞

Will know rummage through the forum files and see if there’s anything about LinkedIn. I could be using that tool more effectively I think. My current clients have all found me via my Facebook page/Google maps but I think I’ve been lucky. So will some time reviewing my marketing.


Thanks guys 👍

Anne
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