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Which free cat tool do you advise?
Thread poster: albaalbetti
albaalbetti
albaalbetti
Italy
Local time: 09:30
Dec 21, 2009

Hi,
I'm going to translate from English and Spanish vs. Italian.
Can someone advise me any free good CAT tool? I've found ACROSS ( http://www.across.net ) but it seems to me that it's just free for trial version, isn't it? Am I right? I'd like to begin by using free one.

Thanks in advance.
Alba


 
Laurent KRAULAND (X)
Laurent KRAULAND (X)  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 09:30
French to German
+ ...
OmegaT / Anaphraseus Dec 21, 2009

albaalbetti wrote:

Hi,
I'm going to translate from English and Spanish vs. Italian.
Can someone advise me any free good CAT tool? I've found ACROSS ( http://www.across.net ) but it seems to me that it's just free for trial version, isn't it? Am I right? I'd like to begin by using free one.

Thanks in advance.
Alba


As far as I know, Across is quite complicated to handle... OK, with OmegaT or Anaphraseus you will need OpenOffice - but that's free too, and compatibility issues with MS Office formats are not so extreme as some would like us to believe.

http://www.omegat.org/

http://anaphraseus.sourceforge.net/

[Edited at 2009-12-21 16:24 GMT]


 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 08:30
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Wordfast? Dec 21, 2009

The old "Classic" version comes free - no time limit, just a limit to the size of memory. I don't know about the "Pro" version as I use Wordfast Classic.

Believe me, if I can get the hang of (most of) it, it can't be too difficult.


 
Laurent KRAULAND (X)
Laurent KRAULAND (X)  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 09:30
French to German
+ ...
Wordfast Pro Dec 21, 2009

Sheila Wilson wrote:

The old "Classic" version comes free - no time limit, just a limit to the size of memory. I don't know about the "Pro" version as I use Wordfast Classic.

The limit is the same, that is 500 segments per translation memory. By the way, and just for the record, Anaphraseus is based on Wordfast Classic.


 
Susan Welsh
Susan Welsh  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 04:30
Russian to English
+ ...
check the forums Dec 21, 2009

Across is free for freelancers - not just as a trial version. It is quite complicated, much more than OmegaT (I don't know about Anaphraseus).

Regarding conversion from Open Office to Word and back: I am having more problems with this than ever before, for some reason. Especially with tables and other fancy formatting, but not only.

This topic has been discussed exhaustively in previous forums. Take a look in the technical forums under CAT tools.

Susan


 
jacana54 (X)
jacana54 (X)  Identity Verified
Uruguay
English to Spanish
+ ...
MetaTexis Lite Dec 21, 2009

Very intuitive and easy to use!

L


 
James McVay
James McVay  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 04:30
Russian to English
+ ...
Try several Dec 21, 2009

Like you, I didn't want to invest heavily in a program like TRADOS, so I stuck with the cheap and free. Everybody is different. I suggest you try several tools to see what you are comfortable with and what your needs are.

Personally, I have tried OmegaT, Wordfast Classic, MetaTexis and Across Personal Edition. When using OmegaT and Wordfast, I often found myself accidentally deleting the tags that define segments. Not a good thing. That's harder to do with MetaTexis and impossi
... See more
Like you, I didn't want to invest heavily in a program like TRADOS, so I stuck with the cheap and free. Everybody is different. I suggest you try several tools to see what you are comfortable with and what your needs are.

Personally, I have tried OmegaT, Wordfast Classic, MetaTexis and Across Personal Edition. When using OmegaT and Wordfast, I often found myself accidentally deleting the tags that define segments. Not a good thing. That's harder to do with MetaTexis and impossible with Across.

I ended up buying a MetaTexis Pro license, but I often use Across for larger jobs and for file formats that MetaTexis Pro won't handle, such as PowerPoint.

I would advise against Across unless your computer meets their minimum suggeted requirements for memory and speed. On older computers Across takes a long time to load, and it will run slow. I just bought a new PC with 4 GB of RAM and a 2.66 GHz processor, though, and it loads quickly and runs great now.

Also, Wordfast Classic and MetaTexis work in the MS Word environment and are pretty intuitive, meaning you can get productive using them fairly quickly. Across, however, has a steep learning curve.

I like the Across business model -- they make their CAT tool available to translators free of charge. Wouldn't it be nice if they all did that?
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Pablo Bouvier
Pablo Bouvier  Identity Verified
Local time: 09:30
German to Spanish
+ ...
Which free cat tool do you advise?" Dec 21, 2009

albaalbetti wrote:

Hi,
I'm going to translate from English and Spanish vs. Italian.
Can someone advise me any free good CAT tool? I've found ACROSS ( http://www.across.net ) but it seems to me that it's just free for trial version, isn't it? Am I right? I'd like to begin by using free one.

Thanks in advance.
Alba


Hi, Alba: no, the Across Personal Edition is fully free for true freelancers. The link is somewhat hidden at the right bottom of his webpage: http://www.my-across.net/. Although it is a personal opinion, I believe that in return it is ethical to sign up to his translators network. And it is not too involved, it is more a question of habit.

Another tool I would recommend is Kilgray MemoQ 2.0: http://en.kilgray.com/?q=node/products/memoq/postcardware . It is postcardware and you can extend it form version to version for a relatively moderate price. Quite good to beginn, but if you can afford the last version... Of course free version has less utilities than the actual version, but by far more as some other similar translation tools and it is fully functional without time limit.





[Editado a las 2009-12-21 19:31 GMT]


 
Laurent KRAULAND (X)
Laurent KRAULAND (X)  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 09:30
French to German
+ ...
Additional note Dec 21, 2009

I think one of the most challenging issues nowadays is to deal with the multiple proprietary formats and the solutions offered by various CAT tools (or TEnT(*), for those who prefer this term). See e.g. this post by our colleague Kevin Lossner: http://tinyurl.com/yb4bfhn

Quote: A bit of quiet reflection and a bit more well-grounded understanding then and now, however, leads to the sam
... See more
I think one of the most challenging issues nowadays is to deal with the multiple proprietary formats and the solutions offered by various CAT tools (or TEnT(*), for those who prefer this term). See e.g. this post by our colleague Kevin Lossner: http://tinyurl.com/yb4bfhn

Quote: A bit of quiet reflection and a bit more well-grounded understanding then and now, however, leads to the same conclusion: there is no ideal, universal solution to be found anywhere. Some solutions are better on the average for most situations than others, but even the worst tools on offer probably have some scenario which they handle better than any others. (my emphasis)

(*) Translation Environment Tools

[Edited at 2009-12-21 20:34 GMT]
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Pablo Bouvier
Pablo Bouvier  Identity Verified
Local time: 09:30
German to Spanish
+ ...
Which free cat tool do you advise? Dec 21, 2009

Laurent KRAULAND wrote:

I think one of the most challenging issues nowadays is to deal with the multiple proprietary formats and the solutions offered by various CAT tools (or TEnT(*), for those who prefer this term). See e.g. this post by our colleague Kevin Lossner: http://tinyurl.com/yb4bfhn

Quote: A bit of quiet reflection and a bit more well-grounded understanding then and now, however, leads to the same conclusion: there is no ideal, universal solution to be found anywhere. Some solutions are better on the average for most situations than others, but even the worst tools on offer probably have some scenario which they handle better than any others. (my emphasis)

(*) Translation Environment Tools

[Edited at 2009-12-21 20:34 GMT]


Hi, Laurent: You do not think the armistice has been already signed? Near all CATs or TEnTs I know are now able to import or export to standard formats. I do not believe they will survive without this.

[Editado a las 2009-12-21 20:53 GMT]


 
Laurent KRAULAND (X)
Laurent KRAULAND (X)  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 09:30
French to German
+ ...
I don't know Dec 22, 2009

Pablo Bouvier wrote:

Hi, Laurent: You do not think the armistice has been already signed? Near all CATs or TEnTs I know are now able to import or export to standard formats. I do not believe they will survive without this.


Hi Pablo,
frankly I don't know. While software editors certainly have made an effort, some of them still insist on developing their own flavour of open-source formats like XLIFF, making them apparently unusable outside of a given CAT/TEnT solution.
And of course, there are still clients insisting on proprietary formats as they don't even know about the existence of said open-source formats (like: "TMX? Uh, what's that?"). The same applies when one is requested to deliver bilingual ("unclean") files, which seems to become a thing of the past at least for software editors.

[Edited at 2009-12-22 07:39 GMT]


 
Kevin Lossner
Kevin Lossner  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 08:30
German to English
+ ...
Thank you, Laurent, for highlighting yet another example of my hasty grammar :-) Dec 22, 2009

On the subject of MemoQ and the PostcardWare version Pablo mentioned, you can also (concurrently) use the latest version unlicensed (aka MemoQ4Free). There are certain limits on file count (ONE FILE), TM (project only), etc., but you can still do a lot of good work. The filters are super, so I could see using it in combination with a tool like Anaphraseus with a roundtrip using the Trados-compatible bilingual exports. That way, for example, you could probably do InDesign translation jobs with An... See more
On the subject of MemoQ and the PostcardWare version Pablo mentioned, you can also (concurrently) use the latest version unlicensed (aka MemoQ4Free). There are certain limits on file count (ONE FILE), TM (project only), etc., but you can still do a lot of good work. The filters are super, so I could see using it in combination with a tool like Anaphraseus with a roundtrip using the Trados-compatible bilingual exports. That way, for example, you could probably do InDesign translation jobs with Anaphraseus, using the latest free MemoQ as a "filter". (I haven't tried this, but it's plausible.)

Pablo, it's one thing for vendors to handle a few common bilingual formats and offer semi-compatible TMX exports. Quite another to share data smoothly on a collaborative project with or without a server. And the tone of the advertising in some quarters hasn't improved as much as it ought to.
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marlenedbarrera
marlenedbarrera
Local time: 04:30
Spanish to English
+ ...
Word Fast Classic is CURRENTLY SOLD not FREE Oct 10, 2012

In response to these comments I went on line to download Wordfast Classic to discover that they are now charging €350 Euros per license!!!!! Still searching for a free CAT TOOL for FREELANCERS. Will take suggestions! Thanks.

 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 09:30
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Wordfast Classic is free for small jobs Oct 10, 2012

marlenedbarrera wrote:
In response to these comments I went on line to download Wordfast Classic to discover that they are now charging €350 Euros per license!


Reread the comments and you'll discover that it was never said that Wordfast Classic is freeware. Wordfast Classic can be used for free, as long as you don't use it for large jobs.


 
Rolf Keller
Rolf Keller
Germany
Local time: 09:30
English to German
Demo is demo Oct 11, 2012

Samuel Murray wrote:

Reread the comments and you'll discover that it was never said that Wordfast Classic is freeware. Wordfast Classic can be used for free, as long as you don't use it for large jobs.


From the WF website:
"Demo modes: both WFP and WFC offer demo modes that let translators perform small production jobs for evaluations (up to 500 segments; emptying the TM/database lets you repeat the demo mode indefinitely). WFS' demo mode only allows evaluation, not production."


 
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Which free cat tool do you advise?







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