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Can a translator work without any CAT tools?
Thread poster: joannebenz
Riccardo Schiaffino
Riccardo Schiaffino  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 06:18
Member (2003)
English to Italian
+ ...
"There were no CAT tools"??? Apr 27, 2021

conejo wrote:

When I first got into this business 17 years ago there were no CAT tools and everything was lovely.



You may say that you were not aware of CAT tools, but by 2004 (when you started), CAT tools had been available for Windows for over a dozen years, and certain CAT tools had been introduced even earlier for MS-DOS.


Kevin Fulton
Jorge Payan
Tony Keily
 
Hans Lenting
Hans Lenting
Netherlands
Member (2006)
German to Dutch
CafeTran is simple Apr 27, 2021

Samuel Murray wrote:

Don't even bother with MemoQ, CafeTran or Wordfast Pro 3 or 6 -- they're all very complicated tools (often the more complicated the tool, the more powerful it is, but only if you can figure out how it works). OmegaT is on the simple side of the scale, although some of its aspects are very complex.


My feeling is exactly the opposite: omegaT looks to me like an MS-DOS nerd tool.

Though CafeTran has advanced features, its basic use is very simple.

Install it, launch it, drag a document on the Dashboard and start translating. A project glossary will be created automatically. A free Machine Translation engine will support you.

How simple is that?

Here's a short video:

https://youtu.be/LyueZotpowk

And a screenshot:

Screen Shot 2021-04-27 at 08.48.08


[Edited at 2021-04-27 06:51 GMT]


P.L.F. Persio
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:18
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Nerdy Apr 27, 2021

Hans Lenting wrote:

.... omegaT looks to me like an MS-DOS nerd tool.


I agree. I tried OmegaT for a while and just couldn't get it to do what I wanted to do. It was constantly trying to force me do what *it* wanted to do. So I tried CafeTran instead, and found it much easier.

Complicated? Sure - like all CAT tools, CafeTran uses processes that require the user to be computer-literate to a fairly advanced level before they even start. At the beginning, my first reaction was bewilderment and frustration.

CafeTran has a messy, labyrinthine interface that offers an enormous range of tools and options. I still don't know what 75% of them do. But it was much easier to get started with as compared to OmegaT, because I find it more intuitive. You learn it as you go.

There is in fact no manual - which is just the way I like software to be. By searching online I found numerous YouTube videos, presentations, and forums, most of which I found incomprehensible (sometimes in an English that was so bad that I couldn't understand it - with no offence intended to the people who made them).

So basically, with CafeTran you're on your own. To use it you have to just jump in and try it out. Which was what I did with OmegaT. The difference was that when I jumped in to OmegaT I drowned, whereas when I jumped into CafeTran I flailed about for a while and discovered I could (a) float (b) make progress.

So I purchased the full version of CafeTran and started to work with it it a small way. Now it has become an essential tool in my translator's toolbox. It isn't always useful but for documents that contain a lot of repetition, it saves a lot of time.

CafeTran comes closer to being user-friendly and intuitive.


Hans Lenting
 
Paul Dixon
Paul Dixon  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 09:18
Portuguese to English
+ ...
WF Anywhere Apr 27, 2021

Is there a tutorial for Wordfast Anywhere?

 
Milan Condak
Milan Condak  Identity Verified
Local time: 13:18
English to Czech
Support_Documentation Apr 27, 2021

Paul Dixon wrote:

Is there a tutorial for Wordfast Anywhere?


https://www.wordfast.com/Support_Documentation

Wordfast Anywhere
Wordfast Anywhere User Manual
Wordfast Anywhere Start Guide
Wordfast Anywhere Videos
Wordfast Anywhere Wiki

Milan
Czech Wordfast Trainer


Jorge Payan
 
Mario Cerutti
Mario Cerutti  Identity Verified
Japan
Local time: 21:18
Italian to Japanese
+ ...
Except for preview and project management Apr 27, 2021

Tom in London wrote:
CafeTran comes closer to being user-friendly and intuitive.

It took me three attempts in a span of several years to finally get started with CTE. Now I like almost everything of it, and use it extensively even for non-repetitive texts thanks to the way it manages and displays memory fragments and multi-lingual terms.

But, I must say that I particularly miss a preview function, while project management needs a complete overhaul because it's not intuitive at all.


 
Hans Lenting
Hans Lenting
Netherlands
Member (2006)
German to Dutch
Source preview Apr 28, 2021

Mario Cerutti wrote:

But, I must say that I particularly miss a preview function, while project management needs a complete overhaul because it's not intuitive at all.


There is a Source preview (but no Target preview):

https://www.proz.com/forum/cat_tools_technical_help/338258-first_look_at_the_user_interfaces_of_several_cat_tools.html


 
Mario Cerutti
Mario Cerutti  Identity Verified
Japan
Local time: 21:18
Italian to Japanese
+ ...
Target preview, of course. Apr 28, 2021

Hans Lenting wrote:

Mario Cerutti wrote:

But, I must say that I particularly miss a preview function, while project management needs a complete overhaul because it's not intuitive at all.

There is a Source preview (but no Target preview):

It goes without saying that I meant "target" preview, where by clicking on a given sentence in the preview takes CTE to that very segment in the translation grid.

I would find the target preview even more useful if it were possible to edit the translation directly in the preview and have the editing results automatically reflected in the grid, but alas that would be asking too much.


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:18
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Export translated document doesn't work... Apr 28, 2021

... and the only work-around I've discovered is to choose the option to preview the translated document and then save it with a different name.

 
Mario Cerutti
Mario Cerutti  Identity Verified
Japan
Local time: 21:18
Italian to Japanese
+ ...
Real-time target text preview Apr 28, 2021

I should have specified that the target text preview I was referring in my previous message is the function that leading CAT tools offer to view in real time in a separate pane the ongoing translation. That is, it gets refreshed automatically upon pressing Alt+right-arrow, therefore without having to export the target document each time.

 
Tony Keily
Tony Keily
Local time: 13:18
Italian to English
+ ...
CAT tools are just that Apr 28, 2021

I find these and other IT aids useful. They're just tools of the trade. All of my agencies require use of CAT tools to a greater or lesser degree, but most have them also have translators who don't use them. They're essential for some jobs (for example, EU institutional jobs where the translation memories contain wording from related documents that's simply not negotiaable and must be included as is).

You're not alone though. Everyone who hasn't used them probably goes through sce
... See more
I find these and other IT aids useful. They're just tools of the trade. All of my agencies require use of CAT tools to a greater or lesser degree, but most have them also have translators who don't use them. They're essential for some jobs (for example, EU institutional jobs where the translation memories contain wording from related documents that's simply not negotiaable and must be included as is).

You're not alone though. Everyone who hasn't used them probably goes through scepticism phase and maybe even an early-use WTF phase.
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Tom in London
P.L.F. Persio
 
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