Possibly creating Trados files and TMX 1.4 outside Trados?
Thread poster: Tomas Foltyn
Tomas Foltyn
Tomas Foltyn  Identity Verified
Slovakia
Local time: 18:23
English to Slovak
+ ...
Dec 14, 2012

Dear proz.com members,

I’ve been translating EU documents for some time, but most recently I was told by the agency concerned that unless I can provide my translations in Trados along with translation memories in the TMX 1.4 format they won’t be able to send any more work to me. Being only a part-time freelance translator, I haven’t bought Trados or any other CAT tool and I’m still reluctant to fork out €650+ (via the 'group buy' thing) or more for Trados when apparently t
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Dear proz.com members,

I’ve been translating EU documents for some time, but most recently I was told by the agency concerned that unless I can provide my translations in Trados along with translation memories in the TMX 1.4 format they won’t be able to send any more work to me. Being only a part-time freelance translator, I haven’t bought Trados or any other CAT tool and I’m still reluctant to fork out €650+ (via the 'group buy' thing) or more for Trados when apparently there are tools that many claim are far more user-friendly, don’t involve nowhere near as much learning and getting used to as Trados and, ultimately, cost much less than Trados. I know there’s some degree of compatibility between the different CAT tools, so my question (somewhat naïve I must admit) is whether or not it is possible to use another CAT tool such as OmegaT, MemoQ, Across, etc. and still deliver translations in the required Trados format and with the translation memory in the TMX 1.4 format? Or alternatively, can you think of a different way how to make all those concerned happy?

Many thanks,

Tomas
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Hermann Bruns
Hermann Bruns  Identity Verified
Local time: 18:23
English to German
Try MetaTexis Dec 14, 2012

Hi Tomas,

any professional CAT tool can produce TMX files. As regards the documents, this is a different story.

MetaTexis, for example, can process the old TRADOS Word document format, and it can even produce such documents. And MetaTexis can process TTX and the current SDLXLIFF files, but it cannot produce the original files.

So, if you get such files by your client, you will be able to process them with MetaTexis and send them back in this format.
<
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Hi Tomas,

any professional CAT tool can produce TMX files. As regards the documents, this is a different story.

MetaTexis, for example, can process the old TRADOS Word document format, and it can even produce such documents. And MetaTexis can process TTX and the current SDLXLIFF files, but it cannot produce the original files.

So, if you get such files by your client, you will be able to process them with MetaTexis and send them back in this format.

In other words, it depends on the way you receive the documents to be translated, and on the specific requirements of your client, if you can use another program than TRADOS.

I would suggest you install a trial version of MetaTexis (www.metatexis.com) and check with your customer, if MetaTexis meets all customer requirements.

Best regards
Hermann
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Stanislav Pokorny
Stanislav Pokorny  Identity Verified
Czech Republic
Local time: 18:23
English to Czech
+ ...
Check out the resellers Dec 14, 2012

Tomas Foltyn wrote:

...I haven’t bought Trados or any other CAT tool and I’m still reluctant to fork out €650+ (via the 'group buy' thing) or more...


Hello Tomáš,
I recommend that you check out the Slovak and Czech resellers who usually offer SDL Trados at better prices.


 
Zoltán Kulcsár
Zoltán Kulcsár  Identity Verified
Local time: 18:23
English to Hungarian
- Dec 14, 2012

by meaning "Trados" you are likely required to provide bilingual doc files, which can be produced with the old Trados 2007, but also with a number of other translation tools, e.g. MemoQ, Translation Workspace etc.

 
FarkasAndras
FarkasAndras  Identity Verified
Local time: 18:23
English to Hungarian
+ ...
Compatibility Dec 14, 2012

Zoltán Kulcsár wrote:

by meaning "Trados" you are likely required to provide bilingual doc files, which can be produced with the old Trados 2007, but also with a number of other translation tools, e.g. MemoQ, Translation Workspace etc.

I wouldn't jump to that conclusion. They could just as well want the new formats.

To the OP: SDL, the maker of Trados rewrote the software from the ground up in 2009, and changed its native format. Before 2009, they used TTX and the "bilingual Word file" format, now they use sdlxliff for bilingual files. When a client wants a "trados bilingual file", that could be any one of these three formats. You have to ask which one they mean.

My suggestion would be: if you decide to buy translation software, just buy Trados. There are ways and means of delivering trados formats with other tools (depending on what exactly your client wants), but they are usually not perfect solutions and they often require you to know quite a bit about how the software works - for starters, you have to know what is and what isn't possible with whatever alternative tool you're using. It's a lot simpler and a lot safer to just use Trados if that's what they are asking for.
You can get it for 400-450 EUR, which is expensive, but it's not that horrible. It's actually a lot cheaper than MemoQ.


 
Recep Kurt
Recep Kurt  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Local time: 20:23
Member (2011)
English to Turkish
+ ...
Cafe Tran? Dec 14, 2012

Hello Tomas,

You might wanna look into a relatively new CAT tool called Cafe Tran Espresso, very competitively priced too:

http://www.cafetran.republika.pl/
http://cafetran.wikidot.com/


 
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 18:23
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Too big an investment? Dec 15, 2012

Tomas Foltyn wrote:
I’ve been translating EU documents for some time, but most recently I was told by the agency concerned that unless I can provide my translations in Trados along with translation memories in the TMX 1.4 format they won’t be able to send any more work to me.

Is 650 euros (and the time needed to learn Trados, or some other tool, for that matter) too much of an investment for the work you get from this agency?

Every professional has to invest constantly in tools and training, and we are no exception. If you are operating in translation without a CAT tool and a bit of knowledge about CAT tools, your work for agencies will be definitely shrinking in the long run and your chances of running a profitable business might not be not that high as time goes by. This could be a good moment to stop and think about it all.


 
Tomas Foltyn
Tomas Foltyn  Identity Verified
Slovakia
Local time: 18:23
English to Slovak
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
thank you Dec 15, 2012

Thank you all for your replies, you've all provided me with lots of food for thought.

Tomas


 
Tom45 (X)
Tom45 (X)
Local time: 18:23
Translating SDLXLIFF Dec 16, 2012

Recep Kurt wrote:

Hello Tomas,

You might wanna look into a relatively new CAT tool called Cafe Tran Espresso, very competitively priced too:

http://www.cafetran.republika.pl/
http://cafetran.wikidot.com/



I can confirm that. Especially translating the 'not so new anymore' SDL file format SDLXLIFF is very easy with CafeTran.

When you're translating with Slovak as a source language, you can benefit from CafeTran's Prefix matching. From the Wiki:



Prefix matching

When this option is selected, CafeTran will analyze the beginnings of words (here called prefixes) and discard any endings responsible for inflection of words. It is an option which increases significantly the number of hits for highly inflected languages. The length of prefixes is set by a percentage number. The bigger the percent number the longer the prefix of words which the program will analyze. The minimal prefix length option (menu Edit | Options | Memory | Minimal prefix length) lets you set the minimal allowed length of prefixes. The length can also be fixed, when the "fixed" option selected, instead of a set percentage length. It means that all the words will have the minimal prefix length, no matter their actual length.


 


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Possibly creating Trados files and TMX 1.4 outside Trados?







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