| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | What's wrong with Across? Thread poster: Heinrich Pesch
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Heinrich Pesch 
Finland
Local time: 05:11
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
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People often complain about Across. Is it so bad? What are the problems?
| | | | Platary (X)
Local time: 04:11
German to French
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| No problem for me at all | Mar 12, 2020 |
Hello Heinrich,
Nothing to reproach, but it depends on how you use Across. It depends on whether you work completely independently or with a client that uses Across itself and can prepare the files with the necessary rights and download them from a server. In this case you work completely independently and the work is perfectly stable. Across is a very special product for Germany and the German-speaking world. It is therefore very interesting to know how to use it, as many German co... See more Hello Heinrich,
Nothing to reproach, but it depends on how you use Across. It depends on whether you work completely independently or with a client that uses Across itself and can prepare the files with the necessary rights and download them from a server. In this case you work completely independently and the work is perfectly stable. Across is a very special product for Germany and the German-speaking world. It is therefore very interesting to know how to use it, as many German companies only use Across when using such a tool. I myself have been using Across for a long time and now use the v7 of the translator (free) edition. Nothing to complain about.
To translate a file independently, I prefer Wordfast Classic, but other tools are of course possible.
Kind regards ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Let me name two .... | Mar 13, 2020 |
.... slow and not compatible with any other CAT.
| | | | Stepan Konev
Russian Federation
Local time: 05:11
English to Russian
| They just did not try Logoport | Mar 13, 2020 |
aka Translation Workspace XLIFF Editor...
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Daniel Williams
United Kingdom
Local time: 03:11
Member (2018)
German to English
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| Nothing - but it's just not as good as the alternatives | Mar 13, 2020 |
I use Across. Trados, MemoQ and Memsource regularly and I would say that although there is nothing wrong with Across as such, it lags behind all of these other systems. It is the interface that I struggle with most; the way the text appears on screen forces you to work one sentence at a time, because it's all you can fit on screen without losing the active translation pane. I also find it slow and unreliable (especially if you have to work via a client server) and the shortcuts are not as intuit... See more I use Across. Trados, MemoQ and Memsource regularly and I would say that although there is nothing wrong with Across as such, it lags behind all of these other systems. It is the interface that I struggle with most; the way the text appears on screen forces you to work one sentence at a time, because it's all you can fit on screen without losing the active translation pane. I also find it slow and unreliable (especially if you have to work via a client server) and the shortcuts are not as intuitive as in Trados or MemoQ either.
It may be that I am just not familiar enough with the intricacies of software and I am quite happy to use it when my clients ask me to, because it does get the job done - it just does it less well than any other CAT tool I have used. ▲ Collapse
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Daniel Williams wrote:
the shortcuts are not as intuitive as in Trados or MemoQ either.
What I've found nice in the recent version is at least a customizable shortcuts layout.
| | | | | "What's wrong with Across?"... | Mar 14, 2020 |
... a lot!
It does have a few nice features like the search box and quickly accessed filters, but if you are translating large files, it is simply too slow. Too much switching between mouse and keyboard costs a lot of time. The separate editing box for the segments is a bad idea. This tool is very inefficient.
Adrien:
"Across is a very special product for Germany and the German-speaking world."
If that is the case, why can the term recognition not dea... See more ... a lot!
It does have a few nice features like the search box and quickly accessed filters, but if you are translating large files, it is simply too slow. Too much switching between mouse and keyboard costs a lot of time. The separate editing box for the segments is a bad idea. This tool is very inefficient.
Adrien:
"Across is a very special product for Germany and the German-speaking world."
If that is the case, why can the term recognition not deal with German compound nouns?
I had one very big customer who invested in Across but after a few months returned to Trados because Across simply could not cope with the volume of work and slowed productivity down to unacceptable levels. Seemingly Across is good at convincing managers with no actual experience of translating to buy their system, but no one asks the people who actually use the tools.
As a Mac user with Parallels, having to get the support to reactivate my account every time I update is a real pain too. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Platary (X)
Local time: 04:11
German to French
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| A terminology management question? | Mar 14, 2020 |
TransWolf wrote:
If that is the case, why can the term recognition not deal with German compound nouns?
I don't have a clue, but I guess it comes from the way crossTerm and crossTank are managed? I don't have that problem for myself.
Please note that I don't defend Across at all costs and I don't try to compare it to other tools, each one having good reasons to say that theirs is the best and has the best features and is faster than its shadow.
All of this is very subjective and is based only on one's own work habits, although everyone recognizes that he or she is criticizing without really taking the time to use the tool properly.
All I can say is that it is very useful to know how to use Across when working with a German or similar customer who knows how to use it himself (this also applies, however, to other tools that are poorly used by some customers)
I don't know what it's like to work with Parallels on a Mac, but some difficulties can come from there.
Finally, just a word on keyboard shortcuts that some people obviously appreciate a lot: I hardly ever use them, even with products as basic as a word processor...
Viele Grüße
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| | Platary (X)
Local time: 04:11
German to French
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Hans Lenting said: "Biggest disadvantage for the translator" on the basis of another asker's assertion.
Somewhat simplistic argument based on a discussion where neither the question nor the answer is able to say what the situation is and whether other tools would be able to satisfy it.
It is regrettable not to ask oneself a few questions before making such a categorical judgment.
| | | | | Spellchecker setup | Mar 19, 2020 |
Moreover, it is just possible to be setup with the Across if you are brave enough to communicate with the person who has assigned the task.
But complaining on forums is what people like more.
| | | | | Just an illustration of a known disadvantage | Mar 19, 2020 |
Adrien Esparron wrote:
Hans Lenting said: "Biggest disadvantage for the translator" on the basis of another asker's assertion.
Somewhat simplistic argument based on a discussion where neither the question nor the answer is able to say what the situation is and whether other tools would be able to satisfy it.
It is regrettable not to ask oneself a few questions before making such a categorical judgment.
You're absolutely right. I wasn't clear enough. My posting was meant as yet another illustration of a known disadvantage of Across: the admin can limit the translator severely in his productivity, by disabling certain resources.
I'm sure that you know this ...
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 04:11
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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Heinrich Pesch wrote:
People often complain about Across. Is it so bad? What are the problems?
You'd have to ask the people who complain about it, but I think part of it is that agencies who use Across sometimes require their translators to use Across, and forcing translators to use another CAT tool is never going to be a popular thing. I'm not sure what the current business model is, but in past times you could use Across for free as long as you were working on jobs for clients who use Across, but if you wanted to use Across for other word, you needed to pay a premium, so one had to ask oneself if it was worth the effort to learn the tool beyond the basics at all.
I just visited the Across site again, and to be honest, I have difficulty in figuring out what are the demo version's limits. The demo version is free, but the premium version is $300 per year. If you want to try out the premium features, there is a trial available for $75. So the hurdles are high.
I tried to figure out what those features are by looking them up in the user manual, but I'm as confused as always. In earlier versions (and, as far as I can tell, in the current version), you can only have one TM and one glossary ever. Multiple "TMs" are contained in that single large TM and distinguished from each other by using attributes. This means that you need to know how to design your TM (with which attributes) correctly from the start. It also makes it more difficult to switch between Across and other CAT tools [regularly/frequently]. I was unable to figure out the steps for translating a file.
| | | | Platary (X)
Local time: 04:11
German to French
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| I said it at the beginning... | Mar 19, 2020 |
Hans Lenting wrote:
My posting was meant as yet another illustration of a known disadvantage of Across: the admin can limit the translator severely in his productivity, by disabling certain resources.
I'm sure that you know this ...
For sure I do. Just read what I was answering at first... :
...with a client that uses Across itself and can prepare the files with the necessary rights...
So it is not an Across disadvantage, but an admin problem and a lack of communication between the admin and the translator. Nothing to add.
| | | | | Me using Across | Apr 8, 2020 |
55 minutes of pressing F5
4 minutes of praying to God
1 minute of actual translation
[Edited at 2020-04-08 09:04 GMT]
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