| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Poll: Do you enjoy working with client-specific CAT tools? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you enjoy working with client-specific CAT tools?".
View the poll results »
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 01:06
Spanish to English
+ ...
I prefer to use my own stuff, because I'm used to it.
| | | | DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
+ ...
Most real clients are not aware of CATs, nor require specific brands, because they just want their translation done.
It's middlemen who [besides extra styleguides and preferences] demand very certain CAT tools, promoting some names--they are not my clients
| | | | Bora Taşdemir 
Local time: 02:06
Member (2012)
English to Turkish
+ ...
| It's Totally OK | Dec 26, 2018 |
Much better than saying "please buy the license for ..." like one big company did.
They did it via providing the translators with "special offers" for the CAT tool in question which was still expensive. I buy this license for this CAT tool (which means for your company), how about the other CAT tools?!?
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I don’t use CAT tools except for one agency that sometimes requires me to use one (XTM) on some projects. Most of my work consists of transcreation jobs, texts of journalistic nature and documents for EU institutions and UN agencies and I continue to get all the work I need without using CAT tools. Anyway, I prefer helping my brain work well and improve my own memory than being confronted with text fragments.
| | | | | It depends on the CAT | Dec 26, 2018 |
some client-specific CAT tools are worse (more primitive) than others.
The one I like the best among them is MemoQ, which is used by two of my regular clients.
But I much prefer my own Wordfast Pro.
I should add that I would never purchase a license to comply with a client's wishes. If I use their CAT it must be free for me.
[Edited at 2018-12-26 11:36 GMT]
| | | | | Offline vs. online | Dec 26, 2018 |
I don't mind using any specific offline CAT tool, especially if the client provides the license, but if I am asked to use an online one that does not support export to/import from offline formats, I will either raise my rate or decline altogether (except very small jobs, under 100 segments or so).
| | | | Anna Herbst
Australia
Local time: 09:06
English to Swedish
+ ...
MODERATOR SITE LOCALIZER | I don't use CAT tools | Dec 26, 2018 |
I find my own brain is the best tool for the production of translations that don't look like translations, so CAT tools are out as far as I am concerned.
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Peter Simon
Netherlands
Local time: 01:06
English to Hungarian
+ ...
| Option missing | Dec 26, 2018 |
The provided options do not provide an important distinction, i.e., although I don't "hate" them, I don't like working with them. I can use a couple but that doesn't mean I don't mind them, let alone like them. I prefer using my own tool, paid for, and those agencies often force their choices on us. The best ones have their own tool but make it so that it's flexible and allows me to convert it into my format, then accept a back-conversion from mine.
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I refuse to use them. I tell them I use Trados and that I'm not wasting unpaid time and energy using a proprietary tool, no matter how "quick and easy" it is learn.
| | | | Michael Harris
Germany
Local time: 01:06
Member (2006)
German to English
Depending on the company, I do try it out and if it works, then why not. There is no point in being narrow minded nowadays.
| | | | Amandine Added
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:06
Member (2010)
English to French
+ ...
| Why not but. | Dec 26, 2018 |
In principle, I do not mind but I have more and more the feeling we have to learn a different tool for a different client and it is time consuming and sometimes difficult to stay ahead of those techs and to remember every little detail for each tool or platform. And that is not speaking of configuring the computer the right way to be able to use some of those techs working with one type of OS, one type of browser.....
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Ricki Farn
Germany
Local time: 01:06
English to German
| I haven't found one yet that I liked | Dec 26, 2018 |
I have very specific requirements on keyboard shortcuts, predictive typing etc. that I have never found fulfilled in a client-specific CAT tool. I need to minimize typing and hand movements (to the trackball and back), and that is not negotiable.
I have the impression that all current advancements in CAT tools are technical stuff like CMS connectors (great feature!), while the user experience of new-ish CAT tools is that of around 20 years ago.
If someone invents a CAT... See more I have very specific requirements on keyboard shortcuts, predictive typing etc. that I have never found fulfilled in a client-specific CAT tool. I need to minimize typing and hand movements (to the trackball and back), and that is not negotiable.
I have the impression that all current advancements in CAT tools are technical stuff like CMS connectors (great feature!), while the user experience of new-ish CAT tools is that of around 20 years ago.
If someone invents a CAT tool with technological innovations *and* a better translator experience, that could really be the next big thing. Working CMS connectors, a general absence of bugs ... *plus* a focus on the user.
Putting the translator's needs first could even redeem AI into something that helps rather than hinders. Instead of using AI to generate word hash (a machine translation) upfront and spit it in the translator's face in one piece, AI in combination with a common or garden dictionary could be used while the translator types, to continously improve the predictive typing. If the source segment contains the word "cherry", surely a simple (non-AI) algorithm could use a dictionary to determine which of the relatively small number of words in the translation corresponds to "cherry", and add it to the list of predictable words? And if it's not an age-old word like "cherry" but a new one like "staycation", an AI could figure it out with the help of available corpora?
Such a tool would help the translator write what s/he really wants to write, just faster and with fewer typos, instead of forcing the translator to work uphill against a machine-generated jumble of text. This help could only be achieved by predicting individual words or at most very short repetitive phrases.
Any prediction of more than three words means uphill work. Any attempt to proactively present phrases from the concordance means that the translator has to read through loads of text snippets that are either obvious or beside the mark. Current attempts to provide context of strings (e.g. website or software strings) are amateurish and inflexible and just take up "screen real estate" unnecessarily.
If the developers of CAT tools could start working with translators rather than ignoring them, that would be great (meme reference intended).
Of course, all this segmentation and predictive typing is limited to certain text types. Transcreation, literary translation and some other types are best left alone. But as a technical translator trying to tackle, say, a huge Drupal website, I could tell a developer about needed features and UX best practices until said developer's ears fell off.
[Edited at 2018-12-26 18:05 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 20:06
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
I hate them for a simple reason: I've been "forced" to work with several of them and they are all lousy, terrible, useless, no exceptions.
Even when the client uses decent tools like MemoQ or Memsource online, I cannot use my own TBs and TMs, unless I upload them, which I'll obviously never do.
In addition, tools like find/replace, predictive typing, export/import and many others are usually not available. The way clients usually configure the cloud-based CATs for their own "security... See more I hate them for a simple reason: I've been "forced" to work with several of them and they are all lousy, terrible, useless, no exceptions.
Even when the client uses decent tools like MemoQ or Memsource online, I cannot use my own TBs and TMs, unless I upload them, which I'll obviously never do.
In addition, tools like find/replace, predictive typing, export/import and many others are usually not available. The way clients usually configure the cloud-based CATs for their own "security" or "exclusivity" makes a CAT a useless non-CAT, in general.
I've been exporting the text to html files, opening them with Word, translating them using my CAT, and copying and pasting all segments to the cloud for a while now. It's still a lot better than using their online pseudo-CAT. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Nilton Junior
Brazil
Local time: 00:06
Member (2009)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Ricki Farn wrote:
Putting the translator's needs first could even redeem AI into something that helps rather than hinders. Instead of using AI to generate word hash (a machine translation) upfront and spit it in the translator's face in one piece, AI in combination with a common or garden dictionary could be used while the translator types, to continously improve the predictive typing. If the source segment contains the word "cherry", surely a simple (non-AI) algorithm could use a dictionary to determine which of the relatively small number of words in the translation corresponds to "cherry", and add it to the list of predictable words? And if it's not an age-old word like "cherry" but a new one like "staycation", an AI could figure it out with the help of available corpora?
Such a tool would help the translator write what s/he really wants to write, just faster and with fewer typos, instead of forcing the translator to work uphill against a machine-generated jumble of text. This help could only be achieved by predicting individual words or at most very short repetitive phrases.
[Edited at 2018-12-26 18:05 GMT]
I believe Lilt does that kind of prediction at least partially, but I only used it in a couple of minor pilot projects requested by a client. I would suggest you to look into it and see if it matches your expectations.
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