| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | What are the unique features of your CAT tool? Thread poster: Hans Lenting
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Every CAT tool has some features that other tools don't offer. What are the unique features of your favorite CAT tool that allow you to work faster and ensure better translation quality?
| | | | Baran Keki 
Türkiye
Local time: 02:57
Member
English to Turkish
I don't have a favourite CAT tool. "Every CAT tool has some features that other tools don't offer" this sounds like the very problem with most CAT tools. CAT tools should be simple and straightforward, like Phrase/Memsource (come to think of it, it's my favourite CAT tool), not like MemoQ where you feel like you're in command of a bleeding Boeing 747. I know you boffins like all them bells and whistles, but simpletons like us just want to confirm segments, do a basic concordance search an... See more I don't have a favourite CAT tool. "Every CAT tool has some features that other tools don't offer" this sounds like the very problem with most CAT tools. CAT tools should be simple and straightforward, like Phrase/Memsource (come to think of it, it's my favourite CAT tool), not like MemoQ where you feel like you're in command of a bleeding Boeing 747. I know you boffins like all them bells and whistles, but simpletons like us just want to confirm segments, do a basic concordance search and not want to deal with CAL server issues and spend hours emailing back and forth with the helpdesk. So there. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Wordfast Anywhere | Dec 18, 2023 |
Hans Lenting wrote:
unique features of your favorite CAT tool
Wordfast Anywhere has been my favorite for many years. Some features I like that are not readily found elsewhere:
_TM and Glossary sharing
_TM maintenance tools (filtering, cleaning extracting, editing)
_Flexible MT connector
And I'll add Wordfast Pro as my second best. Unique features:
_Live Preview: that's the only one with a live preview that looks exactly like the target file and if you click in the live preview, it takes you to the corresponding segment (docx, xlsx, pptx only).
_Chain files
_Segment filtering drop-down (see only segments with numbers or segments with QA warnings etc).
| | | | Hans Lenting
Netherlands
Member (2006)
German to Dutch
TOPIC STARTER | Not so unique | Dec 18, 2023 |
Thanks for your Reply, Philippe!
[quote]Philippe Locquet wrote:
Hans Lenting wrote:
_TM maintenance tools (filtering, cleaning extracting, editing)
CafeTran Espresso offers that too.
_Live Preview: that's the only one with a live preview that looks exactly like the target file and if you click in the live preview, it takes you to the corresponding _Segment filtering drop-down (see only segments with numbers or segments with QA warnings etc).
Trados offers these too.
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Hans Lenting
Netherlands
Member (2006)
German to Dutch
TOPIC STARTER | You're absolutely right | Dec 18, 2023 |
Baran Keki wrote:
CAT tools should be simple and straightforward
They should indeed.
However, it's always nice to have this very handy feature available for those rare occasions when you need it.
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 01:57
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| Sticky notes | Dec 18, 2023 |
An actual sticky note that could hang above my work as I go along. None of them has it. The prices are gigantic, the features are not.
| | | | | Wordfast Classic | Dec 18, 2023 |
It runs in Word, so there are no tags, which in my opinion slow down the work and often create problems, and it has all I need normally. I have used it since 20 years and it has never let me down - it's simple and reliable! I find it too expensive, though, compared to Cafetran for example which is my second favourite tool that offers really all one could possibly ever need.
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Hans Lenting wrote:
Every CAT tool has some features that other tools don't offer. What are the unique features of your favorite CAT tool that allow you to work faster and ensure better translation quality?
...it's definitely Cafetran with its Prompter, a feature others never entirely managed to realize.
And the fact that TMs are in the TMX format.
And the TMX management features.
QA is so-so in my opinion, could be made a bit more clearer, it's a strain for the eyes.
But all in all and IMHO it's the best CAT tool around.
For me.
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| Maybe, maybe not, let's see. | Dec 18, 2023 |
[quote]Hans Lenting wrote:
Thanks for your Reply, Philippe!
Philippe Locquet wrote: Hans Lenting wrote:
_TM maintenance tools (filtering, cleaning extracting, editing)
CafeTran Espresso offers that too.
That's hard to define, because that's the kind of tech that you have to use to know what it does, and I don't have the knowledge regarding that specific set of features in CafeTran so here are a few highlights of what you can do with TM in WFA that is not commonly found in other (I'll skip the reversing converting etc. which are common).
Extract TU based on:
_Date range
_TU author
_Specific attribute
Clean TM:
_Remove tags
_Remove inconsistency in source/target
_Remove TUs where there is significative length difference between source and target
_Remove TUs where there no stopwords found ("smart" feature to eliminate not relevant text).
That's what I can think out out the top of my head.
Hans Lenting wrote
_Live Preview: that's the only one with a live preview that looks exactly like the target file and if you click in the live preview, it takes you to the corresponding _Segment filtering drop-down (see only segments with numbers or segments with QA warnings etc).
Trados offers these too.
Well I had compared this a year or two ago and did not find Trados live preview to be as good as in Wordfast Pro, that may have changed this year, I didn't try in the past 6 months. Maybe there's a thread in here that show how they compare (mind you, if there's no thread about this, it could be useful to users that need the visual approach).
| | | | Hans Lenting
Netherlands
Member (2006)
German to Dutch
TOPIC STARTER | Please explain | Dec 18, 2023 |
Lingua 5B wrote:
An actual sticky note that could hang above my work as I go along. None of them has it. The prices are gigantic, the features are not.
What information do you want to write on these sticky notes?
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:57
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| What are the unique features of my CAT tool? | Dec 18, 2023 |
Ease of use. Intuitive. You just jump in and use it. Drag and drop your file anywhere on the interface and hey presto, CafeTran breaks it all up into segments, preserving the layout of the original, and simultaneously providing you with the data you need (word counts partial and total, repetitions, etc.)
This all happens by itself. You don't need to do anything.
What's more you can completely customise the interface so that it looks the way you want it to look. This is... See more Ease of use. Intuitive. You just jump in and use it. Drag and drop your file anywhere on the interface and hey presto, CafeTran breaks it all up into segments, preserving the layout of the original, and simultaneously providing you with the data you need (word counts partial and total, repetitions, etc.)
This all happens by itself. You don't need to do anything.
What's more you can completely customise the interface so that it looks the way you want it to look. This is very Mac-like (when you are working with something all day, it really matters for it to be easy on the eye). You can arrange the windows any way you like, and change the colours of everything.
I don't know if those are unique features or not because I don't, and wouldn't, use any other CAT tool.
BUT
No CAT tool can do a finished translation. It can only do a first "dirty" translation that you can then work on. It can reduce your working time depending on what type of text you're translating. For the exhibition catalogue I've been working on for the past 3 days, I estimate that my CAT tool reduced my workload by no more than 10%. The remaining 90% was hard work, done by me the Translator.
[Edited at 2023-12-18 11:43 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 01:57
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Well, the one unique feature of WFC is that it runs inside Microsoft Word. There were other such tools but they're mostly abandonware and/or were not updated to work with the latest version of Office. WFC is actively developed, and the general look and feel of the program hasn't changed in a decade.
WFC is a project-less CAT tool, and this is one of its nicest features for me. I can create sets of settings for various types of jobs or for various different clients, and load these... See more Well, the one unique feature of WFC is that it runs inside Microsoft Word. There were other such tools but they're mostly abandonware and/or were not updated to work with the latest version of Office. WFC is actively developed, and the general look and feel of the program hasn't changed in a decade.
WFC is a project-less CAT tool, and this is one of its nicest features for me. I can create sets of settings for various types of jobs or for various different clients, and load these settings by selecting from a list in WFC, which automatically loads the customized project settings, TMs, glossaries, segmentation rules, etc. in an instant. I am free to reuse settings from one job for that of another job, or customize just one small part of it, if I wish.
WFC's TM and glossary formats are both tab-delimited plain text, which makes it quite easy to merge/split/edit TMs and glossaries. I haven't seen WFC blacklist feature in many other CAT tools (it's like a glossary that checks the target text for certain words, and then warns the user if those words are used).
The fact that WFC doesn't work with an intermediary file that must be recreated every time you decide to segment it differently, is also a bonus. I have much more flexibility in custom segmentation than in e.g. MemoQ or Trados. Also, WFC works with tw4win internal and external styles, which makes it possible for me to improve matching in paragraph segmented files by achieving customized sub-segmentation.
You can also link a set of settings to a specific file. So, if you work on various files at various times and you want to ensure that you're always using the correct set of settings that you chose for a file, you can link the settings to the file, so that WFC warns you if you have the wrong set of settings loaded when you open the file.
[Edited at 2023-12-18 13:19 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 01:57
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| My work notes | Dec 18, 2023 |
Hans Lenting wrote: Lingua 5B wrote:
An actual sticky note that could hang above my work as I go along. None of them has it. The prices are gigantic, the features are not. What information do you want to write on these sticky notes?
I may have specific notes, reminders, terms, etc. Anything I need to get out of the job window to get. I think I suggested it to Trados a long time ago, it never happened. The Trados versions are always the same, year in, year out.
| | | | Hans Lenting
Netherlands
Member (2006)
German to Dutch
TOPIC STARTER | Actively developed | Dec 18, 2023 |
Samuel Murray wrote:
Well, the one unique feature of WFC is that it runs inside Microsoft Word. There were other such tools but they're mostly abandonware and/or were not updated to work with the latest version of Office.
You are right: the latest version of Anaphraseus is four years old, the latest version of MetaTexis is almost three years old.
WFC's TM and glossary formats are both tab-delimited plain text
As you know, CafeTran Espresso's and omegaT's glossaries are tab-del too.
CafeTran Espresso can save TMs as tab-del files with one click. It can also open them, but it will convert them to TMX, which is indeed an impractical file format with a large overhead that in my opinion isn't always very relevant to freelance translators. I'd welcome tab-del TMs.
| | | | Hans Lenting
Netherlands
Member (2006)
German to Dutch
TOPIC STARTER | The only programmable CAT tool? | Dec 18, 2023 |
Samuel Murray wrote:
Well, the one unique feature of WFC is that it runs inside Microsoft Word.
This makes WfC the only CAT tool that can be programmed without the need of any third-party tools (AutoHotkey, Keyboard Maestro, ...). And VBA's objects are very powerful.
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