memSource: What is it like to work with? Any experiences? Thread poster: Thomas Johansson
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I've been asked to take on a quite large project using memSource, a cloud-based translation environment. I wonder if anyone has any experience of memSource. Is it easy and effective to work with?
In my project - if I understand it correctly - it appears memSource will first generate machine translations and I'm then supposed to modify the translations so they become perfect - some sort of linguistic post-editing... I will be paid according to the number of words I change. Does this... See more I've been asked to take on a quite large project using memSource, a cloud-based translation environment. I wonder if anyone has any experience of memSource. Is it easy and effective to work with?
In my project - if I understand it correctly - it appears memSource will first generate machine translations and I'm then supposed to modify the translations so they become perfect - some sort of linguistic post-editing... I will be paid according to the number of words I change. Does this seem like a suitable project to do in memSource...?
There appears to be no forum specialized on memSource, so I post these questions here. Hope that's alright.
Thomas ▲ Collapse
| | | | Luiz Barucke 
Brazil
Local time: 18:00
Spanish to Portuguese
+ ...
| A very friendly tool | Apr 29, 2014 |
Hola Thomas,
I have to use MemSource often for some clients who have their projects already formatted in this cat tool.
I found it very interesting and easy to use. The standalone application has no mystery at all, maybe you will find some little trouble to learn the first steps in MemSource server, since you'll have to prepare the file, download the bilingual one and then upload it and, finally, download the final translated file.
Probably, your project ma... See more Hola Thomas,
I have to use MemSource often for some clients who have their projects already formatted in this cat tool.
I found it very interesting and easy to use. The standalone application has no mystery at all, maybe you will find some little trouble to learn the first steps in MemSource server, since you'll have to prepare the file, download the bilingual one and then upload it and, finally, download the final translated file.
Probably, your project manager will create a specific account and username for you, and you won't need to prepare nothing about the project, just download the bilingual file by your web account and then upload it directly from the standalone application when the job is finished.
About the machine translator, it can be used or not, depending of the project settings on the server (again, probably a task for the project manager).
The program keeps a history of all changes, and maybe your client will pay only for the words you change. I've never worked this way. I charge for source word, regardless of any previous machine translation. The MT feature helps sometimes, but sometimes not.
Anyway, the software is free of charge for freelance translators, so try to download it and learn its features. In my opinion, it's really easy, and a good alternative.
I hope I could help you somehow.
Best regards. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | No need to translate in memSource | Apr 29, 2014 |
I have done several (small) projects with memSource and, while the tool itself is very easy to use, all my work is very tuned based on memoQ, so I in fact translated the files in memoQ and then imported them into memSource.
memSource allows you (or should allow you, if the customer has not blocked it in some manner) to export a XLIFF file which you can translate in your XLIFF-compatible tool of choice.
Edited to add this: The file produced and imported by memSource has ... See more I have done several (small) projects with memSource and, while the tool itself is very easy to use, all my work is very tuned based on memoQ, so I in fact translated the files in memoQ and then imported them into memSource.
memSource allows you (or should allow you, if the customer has not blocked it in some manner) to export a XLIFF file which you can translate in your XLIFF-compatible tool of choice.
Edited to add this: The file produced and imported by memSource has the extension "mxliff". You can temporarily rename this to "XLIFF", "XLF", or whatever your CAT tools requires for XLIFF files. After your work is finished in your CAT tool, rename the file back to "mxliff" and import into memSource.
[Edited at 2014-04-29 06:12 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Emma Goldsmith
Spain
Local time: 23:00
Member (2004)
Spanish to English
| Past experience | Apr 29, 2014 |
If you're used to working with other CAT tools, you'll quickly get used to memSource, because the layout (translation grid) and workflow is so similar.
I used it extensively a couple of years ago, when some basic features (on-the-fly spellcheck, etc.) were still missing, and I wrote a blog article about my experience here:
... See more If you're used to working with other CAT tools, you'll quickly get used to memSource, because the layout (translation grid) and workflow is so similar.
I used it extensively a couple of years ago, when some basic features (on-the-fly spellcheck, etc.) were still missing, and I wrote a blog article about my experience here:
http://signsandsymptomsoftranslation.com/2012/11/09/memsource/
One thing that's worth finding out is whether you can add your own TMs to an online memSource project or not. It wasn't possible a year ago, when I last used the tool, so I'd also be interested to hear whether you can now.
A post-editing project is certainly possible in memSource, especially as it has a post-editing analysis tool to see, as you say, "the number of words you change". I'd be careful of taking this sort of project on board, but there is clearly great potential for this work in the translation industry of the future. The blog post mentioned above sparked a guest post that specifically addressed this issue:
http://signsandsymptomsoftranslation.com/2012/12/11/post-analysis/ ▲ Collapse
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Spiros Doikas
Local time: 00:00
Member (2002)
English to Greek
+ ...
| Responsiveness | May 17, 2014 |
Responsiveness is one thing that I do not like with MemSource.
It can be slow to edit, type or perform copy/paste (applies to both online and offline applications).
| | | | | IMH, the only fair way to be paid... | May 18, 2014 |
Thomas Johansson wrote:
In my project - if I understand it correctly - it appears memSource will first generate machine translations and I'm then supposed to modify the translations so they become perfect - some sort of linguistic post-editing... I will be paid according to the number of words I change. Does this seem like a suitable project to do in memSource...?
... would be on the basis of a hourly rate:
This quote from one the links Emma provided seems spot on to me:
"If I perform just a few changes to a MT segment, the post analysis may deem my efforts to be 90% similar to the original MT. However, despite the apparent similarity, the amount of effort required to edit MT is entirely different than that required to recycle my own or a colleague’s work in the form of a match extracted from a specially assigned, checked, and subject-matter and client-specific TM which has presumably already been checked by one human being and possibly even proofread by a second. In contrast, when leveraging MT, there is obviously no presumption that the results will be relevant, consistent, accurate, etc. and so a translator must focus his or her efforts on the entire segment, not just the changed or new bits."
| | | | | Post removed: This post was hidden by a moderator or staff member because it was not in line with site rule | | MemSource is OK | May 19, 2014 |
Hi Thomas,
Memsource has an 'editor' app that can be downloaded. Memsource offers basic CAT functionality (but misses handy features like autocomplete) and is stable. As Tomas says, you may be able to work in your own tool, but only if you are not required to work online in the cloud (for example because you are part of a team working on the same project). As for MT, I use it myself as an aid, but I would never accept a lower rate for using it.
Olly
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| And even more than that | May 25, 2014 |
Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote:
I have done several (small) projects with memSource and, while the tool itself is very easy to use, all my work is very tuned based on memoQ, so I in fact translated the files in memoQ and then imported them into memSource.
memSource allows you (or should allow you, if the customer has not blocked it in some manner) to export a XLIFF file which you can translate in your XLIFF-compatible tool of choice.
Edited to add this: The file produced and imported by memSource has the extension "mxliff". You can temporarily rename this to "XLIFF", "XLF", or whatever your CAT tools requires for XLIFF files. After your work is finished in your CAT tool, rename the file back to "mxliff" and import into memSource.
[Edited at 2014-04-29 06:12 GMT]
+1 to working in MemoQ and using memsource editor just to upload translation to the server. Autocomplete is really a time-saver in MemoQ compared to memsource.
We made a small regex filter for memsource tags, so they are not plain text, but memsource is still occasionally needed if in doubts about the tag content (masculine|feminine or singular|plural).
There is still a problem of locked segments - they get unlocked in MemoQ, but you can always just translate the empty segments and then make the final editing-proofreading in memsource.
And even no need to rename the file extension - you can choose "All files" at the import phase, select the file type XLIFF, apply the saved regex filter - and that's all. And then the memsource editor launches automatically when you save the target file.
The best thing is we can do anything we want in MemoQ, i.e. dividing the translation and proofreading each other.
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