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Questions about free CAT tools
Thread poster: Jeff Whittaker
Jeff Whittaker
Jeff Whittaker  Identity Verified
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Spanish to English
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That's right.. Jul 8, 2015

Thanks. Now I remember.

That's one of the reasons I transitioned to Trados because I didn't want to have to buy a new license every three years.

It's odd how some companies are still using a version of Word that in 12 years old, but have no problem updating their CAT tool.

Samuel Murray wrote:

Jeff Whittaker wrote:
I bought the full version of Wordfast (version ?) four-five years ago, but never used it and then I did not reinstall in on my new computer. I wonder if my license is still valid?


No, it will revert to demo mode (which means that all functions work fully, except that your TM is limited to 500 segments per TM). The licence is a 3-year licence.


[Edited at 2015-07-08 01:36 GMT]
 
Philippe Etienne
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Spain
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English to French
Across ter Jul 8, 2015

Jeff Whittaker wrote:
...I am sure that my situation was an anomaly, but I'm scared to death to try it again - at least not before doing a full back-up....

I have installed dozens of CAT tools over the years, either customer-specific, purchased or provided for free by agencies.
It is only with Across (agency-provided) that I have never been able to translate a single word because it would crash just to open a file.

Philippe
 
2nl (X)
2nl (X)  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 07:33
Free or reasonably priced? Jul 8, 2015

I think that for a professional translator the price isn't (shouldn't be) the most important factor to choose a CAT tool.

More important are questions like:

  • Can I run it on any platform?
  • How is the support?
  • Is it innovative?
  • How is the update cycle?
  • Does it really boost my productivity?
  • Can I start right away or do I have to create databases?
  • etc.
     
    • Jessica Noyes
    Jessica Noyes  Identity Verified
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    Across Jul 8, 2015

    I'm glad I didn't read these posts before trying Across, because if I had, I would never have downloaded the program. My principal computer is very finicky and needs constant coddling,
    but Across itself has never crashed or given me any trouble at all, really. Dumb luck, I guess.

    [Edited at 2015-07-08 13:22 GMT]

    [Edited at 2015-07-08 13:22 GMT]
     
    Oliver Walter
    Oliver Walter  Identity Verified
    United Kingdom
    Local time: 06:33
    German to English
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    Segmentation rules Jul 8, 2015

    This is a topic that I have mentioned before (Oct 2014 and Aug 2011).
    In Aug 2011:
    See more
    This is a topic that I have mentioned before (Oct 2014 and Aug 2011).
    In Aug 2011:
    http://www.proz.com/forum/cat_tools_technical_help/204631-segmentation_rules_are_not_intelligent_manual_adjustment_is_vital.html
    and Oct 2014:
    http://www.proz.com/forum/cat_tools_technical_help/274583-choosing_a_cat_tool_for_translating_pdfs_and_word_documents.html#2341936

    It concerns the question of whether the process by which the CAT tool decides what is a segment (sentence) to translate is entirely automated or whether the translator can optionally decide this for individual segments at the time of doing the translation.
    OmegaT is out of the question for me (I don't know whether this applies to the variants that have been mentioned) because:

    • (1) It cannot include a rule that says text formatted in a certain way (in my case, red and strikethrough) must be left unchanged, and excluded from the translation process;
    • (2) The rules that define the end of a segment apply to the entire document. So, I cannot, for example, decide that, in part of the text "This is some text; this is some more text." consists of two sentences, one ending "text;" and one ending "text." and in another part of the document, the same structure would be a single segment from "This" to "text."

    Partial conclusion: automation is not always a good thing.

    Oliver     ▲ Collapse
     
    Jeff Whittaker
    Jeff Whittaker  Identity Verified
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    Local time: 01:33
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    Spanish to English
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    TOPIC STARTER
    Jul 8, 2015



    [Edited at 2015-07-08 16:32 GMT]
     
    Didier Briel
    Didier Briel  Identity Verified
    France
    Local time: 07:33
    English to French
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    You can use any language code Jul 9, 2015

    Samuel Murray wrote:
    OmegaT also has a limit -- you can only use language codes that actually exist. If you happen to translate a dialect that doesn't have an official language code, you can't make one up (in Wordfast you can, but in OmegaT you can't).

    This is not true.
    The list of languages listed is limited to existing ones (why present non-existing ones?), but you can perfectly type whatever you want, as long as you respect the format: 2 or 3 letters for language, 2 letters for country code. For instance, SAM-UE is a valid source language in an OmegaT project. Of course, if you invent the language, you won't benefit from a tokenizer.

    Didier
     
    Samuel Murray
    Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
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    English to Afrikaans
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    Thanks for the correction Jul 9, 2015

    Didier Briel wrote:
    Samuel Murray wrote:
    OmegaT also has a limit -- you can only use language codes that actually exist. If you happen to translate a dialect that doesn't have an official language code, you can't make one up (in Wordfast you can, but in OmegaT you can't).

    This is not true. The list of languages listed is limited to existing ones ... , but you can perfectly type whatever you want, as long as you respect the format: 2 or 3 letters for language, 2 letters for country code.


    Thanks for the correction (although I wasn't trying to be serious in the original post). I think I must have been thinking of WFC's use of numbers in the language codes, which I believe is a remnant of Trados compatability, which OmegaT does not support.
     
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