| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5 6] > | Translators not owning CAT tools: How do they manage? Thread poster: Yasutomo Kanazawa
|
|---|
Dear Yasutomo,
The majority of my work consists of scanned medical lab reports which do not convert well to a format that can be used with a CAT tool.
So, I have never bothered to get one/use one and to me Trados is too cumbersome to just learn it for a couple of projects. I hear that a lot of other CAT tools are user friendly. Just never had the time to learn them.
And yes, I have steady work. Unfortunately people do continue to get sick and need lab rep... See more Dear Yasutomo,
The majority of my work consists of scanned medical lab reports which do not convert well to a format that can be used with a CAT tool.
So, I have never bothered to get one/use one and to me Trados is too cumbersome to just learn it for a couple of projects. I hear that a lot of other CAT tools are user friendly. Just never had the time to learn them.
And yes, I have steady work. Unfortunately people do continue to get sick and need lab reports which in turn need to be translated.
Maybe one day!
Interesting topic, glad you brought it up.
Lucinda
[Edited at 2010-02-24 21:52 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Brian Young 
United States
Local time: 10:33
Danish to English
| just to make my method clear | Feb 24, 2010 |
thanks Amy, and here is probably what we both do-
I make a copy of the source text, and usually translate one sentence at a time.
I normally start by placing the cursor at the very beginning of a sentence, before the first letter. Then I hit the spacebar 3 times, and then the back arrow 3 times. That sounds silly, but it gives me some space between what I am typing, and the source text, which I just leave in place. When I am finished with the first sentence, the source sentence is st... See more thanks Amy, and here is probably what we both do-
I make a copy of the source text, and usually translate one sentence at a time.
I normally start by placing the cursor at the very beginning of a sentence, before the first letter. Then I hit the spacebar 3 times, and then the back arrow 3 times. That sounds silly, but it gives me some space between what I am typing, and the source text, which I just leave in place. When I am finished with the first sentence, the source sentence is still right there, in the same document. So it is easy to look at both, and when I am satisfied I just highlight the source, hit the spacebar, and it's gone. Then I move on to the next sentence. This procedure at least works well for me.
One other thing- when I get source documents in Danish, Word (Office for Mac) defaults to Danish, so I have to reset the language to English. I normally wait until I am finished, to avoid a blizzard of red squiggly lines everywhere. I suppose this would happen in other languages as well.
I used to just spilt the screen, and have two documents open at once, but that was confusing, and led to occasionally missing a sentence, because it's easy to get confused when you have to keep scrolling in two separate screens. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Count me in your team... | Feb 25, 2010 |
Amy Duncan wrote:
Brian Young wrote:
I have Wordfast and Omega T on my Mac, and I can't stand using either one. I agree with John, Henry, Laurent, and others. If a client demands the use of a CAT, then they can find someone else. I am not that hungry, and I have no desire to do the type of translation that might actually benefit from a CAT tool. I think too that it is part of a plot to demand discounts and lower rates. Fuzzy matches? Give me a break! Clean and unclean documents?
That type of BS will soon be handled by Google Translate. I want no part of it.
Couldn't have said it any better myself. I had to use Trados (that was before I switched to Mac) for one agency I worked for some years ago and I hated it. There was no reason to use it, since the texts were press releases and had practically no repetitions. I found it claustrophobic, buggy and just a general pain in the arse.
Haven't used a CAT tool since, and don't intend to. I agree with Brian that if someone insists on it they can find another translator.
Exactly my experience and my thoughts.
Not to mention the fact that it was impossible for me to switch Trados from my old computer to a new one after the old one crashed, because the license document was gone with my old computer's hard drive. Getting help from Trados was a nightmare; they say their customer service has improved now, but I really have no intention of finding out. The US$1000 I spent on Trados were probably one of the worst investments in my translation career.
However, I am getting curious about WF Pro now. I hope to get it and to learn to use it (for my own benefit) as soon as I find some time (which is not the near future).
Most of my clients are direct, and my subjects are mainly marketing, environment, health. No manuals!
| | | | Nicole Schnell
United States
Local time: 10:33
English to German
+ ...
In memoriam | I'd like to start from the beginning | Feb 25, 2010 |
Yasutomo Kanazawa wrote:
For some time, this question has been boggling me.
I am a CAT tool user, and presently 99% of the job I get requires a CAT tool.
Your jobs or the other 99,9999999..... of the industry?
But while I was browsing through directories and reading forums regarding CAT tools and colleagues responding that they don't have any, I wondered how these translators manage to get work.
That's easy: Colleagues who don't have to use CAT tools rarely discuss them. Why should they? They are busy.
All I could think of a translator doing jobs without CAT tools are contracts, patents, sub-titling and business cards, but many of the agencies who ask me to do the first two and even PR materials insist on using CAT tools.
Amazing and funny.
Especially patents scream for CAT tools. Also, if one has to translate, say, 1500 business cards for a major international company - why would anyone want to retype or copy/paste the same address 1500 times?
So what kind of translations don't need any CAT tools, and I would like to ask this question to all translators who do not OWN a CAT tool(s).
The truth? Nobody NEEDS CAT tools. They are helpful, like power steering in a car. However, cars without power steering will drive just as fast.
Here are some observations from my point of view:
- You really need to distinguish between "using CAT tools" and "owning CAT tools". I work with five different ones. However, the heck will I do to spend a single cent on this kind of stuff which means that I don't own a single one. I work with free copies provided by my clients who paid for multiple licences. It is easy to learn. Advertising and marketing is my profession. Which is why I don't follow each and every gospel sung by major software developers. I am an adult and I am not easily influenced.
- I do not "own" any CAT tools and probably never will. I am swamped with high-end projects. I have to outsource / decline approximately 30% of incoming projects. I am booked up to my eyeballs. I do not take on "one shot" little projects that force me to use TMs from total strangers.
- After working with CAT tools for a while I notice that my brain has become lazy and bone-dry. This is scary. I don't like it.
- At times, using CAT tools slows me down. Chopping up concise and high-octane ad copy into little segments simply to harvest the last bit of TM-material is dumb beyond belief.
I could go on.
| | |
|
|
|
Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 13:33
Spanish to English
+ ...
Jeff Whittaker wrote:
It looks like Wordfast/Wordfast Pro does not have this limitation.
Unless, of course, Trados purchases Wordfast too!
| | | | Laurent KRAULAND (X)
France
Local time: 19:33
French to German
+ ...
Jeff Whittaker wrote:
Jeff Whittaker wrote:
It looks like Wordfast/Wordfast Pro does not have this limitation.
Unless, of course, Trados purchases Wordfast too!
One mega-CAT, one tera-TM and MT for the rest: unity !
| | | | | WF Pro got some limitations well hidden | Feb 25, 2010 |
NMR wrote:This happy WF user never heard of such a limitation, and even mixes up two and sometimes three source languages in one translation memory. (will have to work properly with WF Pro, though).
Try to analyze more than 20 files using WF Pro and you will discover that you have to spend additional 300 EUR to be able to do this.
| | | | NMR (X)
France
Local time: 19:33
French to Dutch
+ ...
Wojciech Froelich wrote:
NMR wrote:This happy WF user never heard of such a limitation, and even mixes up two and sometimes three source languages in one translation memory. (will have to work properly with WF Pro, though).
Try to analyze more than 20 files using WF Pro and you will discover that you have to spend additional 300 EUR to be able to do this.
Can you elaborate?
Didn't go into this yet. Will take WF Classic for the moment.
=========================================================
Total on 23 files:
Analogy segments words char. %
---------------------------------------------------------
| | |
|
|
|
| Working faster and better - yes | Feb 25, 2010 |
FarkasAndras wrote:
Edit: my opinion on CATs in general: of course it is possible to get lots of well-paid work and translate well without a CAT, and quite a few people do it. However, a CATs are useful in almost all translation jobs. They can help you work faster and better.
I agree with this. I started out my freelance career without using a CAT tool, which I didn't really think I needed at the time due to a lack of repetitive work. Then a client suggested I get Wordfast to ensure consistency on their projects. I did and am still using it due to the benefits it has brought me, even on non-repetitive texts -
* Not leaving anything out. The overwriting method didn't do this for me as consistently as having the text split up and spit back out at me in discrete chunks. No reason you can't split and combine sentences in Wordfast, so style isn't an issue here.
* Consistency with (end) customer terminology, whether the text is repetitive or not. One agency customer I have gives me an Excel glossary with multiple *thousands* of terms I am expected to apply consistently on every project for a particular end client. Without Wordfast, which highlights the terms that appear in the text, I would be switching back and forth between Word and Excel looking up every term that appeared = waste of time.
* A lot of financial reporting work consists of texts that are essentially just updated from the previous year's version with some new information or sections added. Aligning the previous year's text and feeding into my TM, then pretranslating, has saved me countless hours of comparing PDFs by hand, not to mention saving my hands from the strain of retyping (or even copying and pasting) mass amounts of text. I've had repetitive strain problems, so this is a boon. Usually these customers don't want creativity in the repetitive parts - they want exactly what was there last year.
Anyway, no one is forcing me to use Wordfast, but I just find it so incredibly useful, I don't want to go back to working without it. It's taken the repetitive, boring junk away and left me with the meat to translate. The consistency issue is huge for me, too.
| | | | Nicole Schnell
United States
Local time: 10:33
English to German
+ ...
In memoriam | Better? Define better. | Feb 25, 2010 |
Two observations:
- Once the slightest mistake has been made, it might be propagated throughout the document.
- Does it improve your style? No, it does not.
My favorite experience:
Once a direct client contacted me. They fired their translation agency because they were tired of the stiff and repetitive translations they had received. I was asked not to use any CAT tools.
This company has become my largest client.
... See more Two observations:
- Once the slightest mistake has been made, it might be propagated throughout the document.
- Does it improve your style? No, it does not.
My favorite experience:
Once a direct client contacted me. They fired their translation agency because they were tired of the stiff and repetitive translations they had received. I was asked not to use any CAT tools.
This company has become my largest client.
I guess it depends HOW you use such tools. However, any attitude such as: "Without CAT tools you can only translate a business card" is a bit off the wall. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Martyn Greenan
United States
Local time: 12:33
French to English
+ ...
| It's a fallacy... | Feb 25, 2010 |
...that all agencies require, work with or are even remotely interested in CAT tools, Yasutomo, as you've probably ascertained by now from the various responses you've received.
Until quite recently, I worked as a PM for an agency (that would probably be described as 'high-end') that specialised in marketing and advertising material - they couldn't have cared less about CAT. It just wasn't an issue.
As a freelancer, I deal mainly in marketing, sport-related and tourist... See more ...that all agencies require, work with or are even remotely interested in CAT tools, Yasutomo, as you've probably ascertained by now from the various responses you've received.
Until quite recently, I worked as a PM for an agency (that would probably be described as 'high-end') that specialised in marketing and advertising material - they couldn't have cared less about CAT. It just wasn't an issue.
As a freelancer, I deal mainly in marketing, sport-related and tourist-y texts, and I've just never had a need for CAT tools. I know that many translators find them very useful, but to suggest that they're a prerequisite is a bit wide of the mark. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Nicole Schnell
United States
Local time: 10:33
English to German
+ ...
In memoriam | Thanks, Martyn! | Feb 25, 2010 |
Martyn G wrote:
It's a fallacy...
...that all agencies require, work with or are even remotely interested in CAT tools, Yasutomo, as you've probably ascertained by now from the various responses you've received.
Until quite recently, I worked as a PM for an agency (that would probably be described as 'high-end') that specialised in marketing and advertising material - they couldn't have cared less about CAT. It just wasn't an issue.
As a freelancer, I deal mainly in marketing, sport-related and tourist-y texts, and I've just never had a need for CAT tools. I know that many translators find them very useful, but to suggest that they're a prerequisite is a bit wide of the mark.
I couldn't agree more.
| | |
|
|
|
Martyn G wrote:
...that all agencies require, work with or are even remotely interested in CAT tools, Yasutomo, as you've probably ascertained by now from the various responses you've received.
Until quite recently, I worked as a PM for an agency (that would probably be described as 'high-end') that specialised in marketing and advertising material - they couldn't have cared less about CAT. It just wasn't an issue.
As a freelancer, I deal mainly in marketing, sport-related and tourist-y texts, and I've just never had a need for CAT tools. I know that many translators find them very useful, but to suggest that they're a prerequisite is a bit wide of the mark.
You and I apparently have similar backgrounds. I also worked for quite a while as PM for a pretty reputable agency here in Washington, D.C., and we never cared for CAT users, for reasons I have already expressed: they tend to become careless.
As a freelancer, my work is quite diverse: Legal translations of all kinds, but mostly large international litigations with lots of different documentary evidence involved. I also work with medical and educational materials, besides the usual business stuff, and I cannot even begin to tell you how much I DON't miss not having CAT tools. But, I can see how, for some people, it would be helpful to have them. All I can say, though, is that I rather not having to deal with the technical issues they seem to have rather frequently... just sayin'
| | | | Amy Duncan (X)
Brazil
Local time: 15:33
Portuguese to English
+ ...
| I just remembered a funny bit... | Feb 25, 2010 |
One time a Brazilian agency contacted me for possible work. When the owner discovered that I didn't use Trados and was a Mac user, he said:
"If you don't use Trados and a PC, you'll never get any work as a translator."
Hahahahahahahahahaha!!!
| | | | Laurent KRAULAND (X)
France
Local time: 19:33
French to German
+ ...
| Useful? Sometimes... | Feb 25, 2010 |
Martyn G wrote:
As a freelancer, I deal mainly in marketing, sport-related and tourist-y texts, and I've just never had a need for CAT tools. I know that many translators find them very useful, but to suggest that they're a prerequisite is a bit wide of the mark.
but giving the orientation I have taken, I cannot work in a "segmented" way anymore and just like to change the boilerplate texts from time to time. Oh, only every now and then...
[Edited at 2010-02-25 17:10 GMT]
| | | | | Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5 6] > | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Translators not owning CAT tools: How do they manage? | Pastey | Your smart companion app
Pastey is an innovative desktop application that bridges the gap between human expertise and artificial intelligence. With intuitive keyboard shortcuts, Pastey transforms your source text into AI-powered draft translations.
Find out more » |
| | Trados Studio 2022 Freelance | The leading translation software used by over 270,000 translators.
Designed with your feedback in mind, Trados Studio 2022 delivers an unrivalled, powerful desktop
and cloud solution, empowering you to work in the most efficient and cost-effective way.
More info » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
Translation news
