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Why do I need a CAT tool? Trådens avsändare: Susan Welsh
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Nicole Schnell 
USA
Local time: 10:06
Engelska till Tyska
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In memoriam | I admit, I am a little bit sore right now | Mar 20, 2008 |
For the first time I shared a large project with another translator whose ego and pompousness unfortunately exceeded the necessary basic technical understanding by far, yet created a highly interesting and entertaining TM that I was supposed to work with. It wasn't pretty.
That was the last time.
The essence, however:
A TM is only as good as the brain that created it.
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| YOU don't need a CAT tool - the agency does | Mar 20, 2008 |
I use them all the time, find them useful - but hate the fact that many agencies force translators to use them even if the translator is not interested. Some translators become less productive with CAT tools - and the agencies pay them less because of CAT rate schemes. In the end, these translators lose money. Asking why you need to use a CAT tool is the same as asking why you need to lose money...
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Sven Petersson
Medical translator
Website: www.svenp.com
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Susan Welsh
USA
Local time: 13:06
Ryska till Engelska
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TOPIC STARTER
Thanks to all for your helpful and often humorous posts. You've given me a lot to think about.
Susan
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| To all antiCATs | Mar 26, 2008 |
Just to add some more personal experience:
Imagine you are given a help localization project of about 1,200,000 words (say 800 html files) and there are 350,000 repetitions. There is also a database of terminology from GUI localization and this terminology has to be maintained throughout the project (the GUI can't say "Save" while you use "Store" in your helpfiles translation).
Now I'd like you to tell me:
1. How do you maintain consistency within those 350,000 repetitiv... See more Just to add some more personal experience:
Imagine you are given a help localization project of about 1,200,000 words (say 800 html files) and there are 350,000 repetitions. There is also a database of terminology from GUI localization and this terminology has to be maintained throughout the project (the GUI can't say "Save" while you use "Store" in your helpfiles translation).
Now I'd like you to tell me:
1. How do you maintain consistency within those 350,000 repetitive words (and 800 files) without using a translation memory;
2. How do you maintain correct terminology if you get a list of 2,500 terms in an Excel table: will you perform CTRL+F search for terminology every single time you come across a GUI term? And how do you actually know it's a GUI term and you need to perform manual search, not using active terminology recognition offered by a CAT tool?
3. Even if you could comply with the two above points (and I really doubt it), your translation will take two, maybe three, maybe even for times longer and your price will be at least 100% higher (given the time needed) than mine.
Many translators struggle enough with terminology, consistency, and deadlines even if they do use CAT tools. Now I'd rather avoid seeing the result from somebody who doesn't.
I'm not saying CAT tools are indispensable. But they can definitely save vast amounts of time and money, provided you work with repetitive texts. If you don't, you can stay at ease with using Word for translation and Excel for terminology. But you should definitely try e. g. WordFast (so you don't leave the Word environment you're already familiar with) and see what it can do.
But I totally agree with Nicole's point: "A TM is only as good as the brain that created it."
[Upraveno: 2008-03-26 21:53] ▲ Collapse
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