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Efficiency of using CAT tools in comparison to using none
Thread poster: Richard Varga (X)
Baran Keki
Baran Keki  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Local time: 01:15
Member
English to Turkish
No doubt Aug 14, 2018

Tom in London wrote:

Yes. I have plenty of other clients/agencies who like my translations.


I have no doubt they like your translations, they probably would even if you used a CAT tool. I only wish that I had clients like yours that do not insist on the use of CAT tools and CAT discount grids. But not all of us are that lucky...


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:15
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Irish Aug 14, 2018

Baran Keki wrote:

Tom in London wrote:

Yes. I have plenty of other clients/agencies who like my translations.


I have no doubt they like your translations, they probably would even if you used a CAT tool. I only wish that I had clients like yours that do not insist on the use of CAT tools and CAT discount grids. But not all of us are that lucky...


Maybe it's because I'm Irish that I'm lucky

I've been translating for at least 20 years and not using a CAT tool has never been an impediment. I have no idea what a CAT discount grid is. And no thanks, I don't want to know.


 
DZiW (X)
DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
+ ...
separate the wheat from the chaff Aug 14, 2018

I don't think Tom is a lucky leprechaun for he is but a businessman, who goes his own way, dealing with worthy clients while leaving others overboard. Why, it's possible to use CATs--yet on your own terms, without unsubstantiated infamous 'discounts' and the rest stuff and nonsense.
Shortly, Tom is one of those few people who know and can say "No!"

However, nowadays CAT seem to be more useful for fairly large agencies (middlemen
... See more
I don't think Tom is a lucky leprechaun for he is but a businessman, who goes his own way, dealing with worthy clients while leaving others overboard. Why, it's possible to use CATs--yet on your own terms, without unsubstantiated infamous 'discounts' and the rest stuff and nonsense.
Shortly, Tom is one of those few people who know and can say "No!"

However, nowadays CAT seem to be more useful for fairly large agencies (middlemen), not freelancers.
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P.L.F. Persio
 
Jennifer Caisley
Jennifer Caisley  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:15
Member (2019)
German to English
+ ...
Depends on the CAT tool in question Aug 14, 2018

Richard Varga wrote:

CAT tool users, in terms of percentage, how much more efficient are you in your work thanks to CAT tools? Was adapting to a new system worth your while?



I'm afraid I can't provide you with anything as definite as a percentage, but I'd just flag up there are broad differences between the various CAT tools - with something like MemoQ, you can set up a really useful "predictive text" type function so typing a sentence takes very little time at all, whereas that's not an option with a more traditionally oriented tool like Across.

(Having used both, they have various pros and cons, but in terms of efficiency, I think it's important to consider more than just leveraging one's own TM!)

[Edited at 2018-08-14 20:41 GMT]


 
Milan Condak
Milan Condak  Identity Verified
Local time: 23:15
English to Czech
Experience and practice Aug 15, 2018

Richard Varga wrote:

CAT tool users, in terms of percentage, how much more efficient are you in your work thanks to CAT tools?



Dear Richard,

You can try yourself to localize English user interface of Wordfast Anywhere to Slovak language.

http://www.condak.cz/nove/2018-04/13/cs/00.html

Localization of Wordfast Anywhere (in Czech, 13.04.2018)

Three licenses Wordfast Studio for localisators per languige pair

http://www.condak.cz/nove/2018-05/18/cs/00.html

Localization into Czech and Slovak languages

By the localization of this on-line free CAT you will not use any CAT. You can see a translation into Czech.

After you make 1/3 of a task, you can ask for your reward = the licenses of WFC and WFP.

From my web you can download a file for translation in local CAT or for uploading to any on-line CAT.
If you translate the same text, you can send us your report of your own experience.

I wish you, as French write in their messages: Le courage!

Milan

Wordfast and MetaTexis Trainer,
user of OmegaT + DGT-OmegaT and a lot of free language tools.


 
RobinB
RobinB  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 17:15
German to English
CAT/TM worthwhile for me Aug 15, 2018

Richard,

I know some translators who rarely use a CAT/TM tool because most of the documents they translate are scans that cannot be easily converted into an editable format. However, I couldn't work effectively and productively without the CAT/TM tool I use (which happens to be Trados Studio, which I really like, but I have also used other tools such as memoQ and Wordfast). I translate mainly highly complex financial and legal texts, predominantly for direct clients, and I use my CA
... See more
Richard,

I know some translators who rarely use a CAT/TM tool because most of the documents they translate are scans that cannot be easily converted into an editable format. However, I couldn't work effectively and productively without the CAT/TM tool I use (which happens to be Trados Studio, which I really like, but I have also used other tools such as memoQ and Wordfast). I translate mainly highly complex financial and legal texts, predominantly for direct clients, and I use my CAT tool for almost every document I translate. Using TM allows me to leverage a vast repository of bilingual information (not only my own translations, but also publicly available documents I have aligned or sourced from e.g. the EC), without which I just wouldn't be able to work quickly and accurately.

I can't give you any percentages for how much more efficiently I work because I don't have a benchmark for comparison purposes - I've been using CAT tools for amost 20 years now. What I can tell you is that if I didn't have a really good CAT tool like Trados Studio, I simply wouldn't be able to work any longer as a premium professional translator, as I know that my productivity - and hence my income - would be slashed to the point where it wouldn't be worthwhile doing this job any more. The translation memory massively augments my human memory. It's also faster at retrieving relevant information, and using it often stops me from going completely crazy. The cost (annual subscription) of the licence is a tiny fraction of the income I generate using it.
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Kevin Fulton
Dan Lucas
Besnik Bici
 
Miss EMC Marshland
Miss EMC Marshland
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:15
Member (2005)
German to English
Losing work Aug 17, 2018

One agency which was a source of regular work now uses Across. I find this easier to use than Trados but for some reason it will not create a preview file but instead freezes. The agency insists on a preview file. Across suggests I need to subscribe rather than use the free basic version. I now have lost a regular source of work. Another agency insists on translation using its online platform. It is not user-friendly and is very slow. At one point I got work because other people refused to use i... See more
One agency which was a source of regular work now uses Across. I find this easier to use than Trados but for some reason it will not create a preview file but instead freezes. The agency insists on a preview file. Across suggests I need to subscribe rather than use the free basic version. I now have lost a regular source of work. Another agency insists on translation using its online platform. It is not user-friendly and is very slow. At one point I got work because other people refused to use it. I then saw the light and also refused. I now get no work from that agency. A third regular agency insists on Trados but I have some kind of glitch that I could not overcome so now no longer receive work from that agency. I am now trying to find other new agency clients and looking into Trados 2019. My clients have no problems with the quality of my translations - and being legal documents there is usually no need to align them with a client's glossary - the vocabulary is not special to the client's business. But the quality of my work does not count - only that I fall in line with whatever arbitrary requirement someone in an agency imposes. Also of course it is the freelancer who invests in these CAT tools. whereas agencies seek to reduce the fee for repetition and thus capitalise on the freelancer's investment. And to the response that a CAT tool speeds up the job, that is not my experience and I too find working in segments very slow and restrictive. So - you pay your money and you take your choice. Perhaps trying to use a free tool and seeing whether the whole concept suits you is worth a try - we are, after all, all different.Collapse


Jean Lachaud
 
Matheus Chaud
Matheus Chaud  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 19:15
Member
English to Portuguese
+ ...

MODERATOR
More productive Aug 19, 2018

I have been working mainly with one big client over the last 3 years. My CAT tool allowed me to build a fairly decent translation memory and a wonderful termbase. The result? My output is 25% higher than in the beginning of the project. Most of it thanks to the termbase, but the translation memory is helpful too.

Also, every now and then, I receive a project with lots of fuzzy matches or repetitions. Sometimes this allows me to translate 800 words/h or even more, depending on the pr
... See more
I have been working mainly with one big client over the last 3 years. My CAT tool allowed me to build a fairly decent translation memory and a wonderful termbase. The result? My output is 25% higher than in the beginning of the project. Most of it thanks to the termbase, but the translation memory is helpful too.

Also, every now and then, I receive a project with lots of fuzzy matches or repetitions. Sometimes this allows me to translate 800 words/h or even more, depending on the project. CAT tools make a HUGE difference in projects like this. One good project like this may be enough to recover every cent you invested in the CAT tool.

I don't know anyone who used a CAT tool for more than 1 year (that is, someone who really learned how to use it) and then decided they were better off without the CAT tool.

We become more productive, we have access to more clients, and our translations are more consistent when we learn how to use a CAT tool. Go for it.
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Dan Lucas
Besnik Bici
Alistair Gainey
 
DZiW (X)
DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
+ ...
lecanomancy statistics Aug 19, 2018

Does some 25% of 75%-100% fuzzy matches really imply about 25% faster, I wonder?
How one could compare the speed, leveraging the TM, when there's no 'average' speed per segment, let alone a control group?
Shouldn't one consider re-reading, revising, editing, and proving too?
How intense is the measurand?

It's like saying: "Now I'm walking 2.543% slower than yesterday, yet 6733.789% faster than initially!"

[Edi
... See more
Does some 25% of 75%-100% fuzzy matches really imply about 25% faster, I wonder?
How one could compare the speed, leveraging the TM, when there's no 'average' speed per segment, let alone a control group?
Shouldn't one consider re-reading, revising, editing, and proving too?
How intense is the measurand?

It's like saying: "Now I'm walking 2.543% slower than yesterday, yet 6733.789% faster than initially!"

[Edited at 2018-08-19 07:55 GMT]
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neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 23:15
Spanish to English
+ ...
One drawback Aug 19, 2018

As I see it, one of the pitfalls of using a CAT tool could be that you might end up endlessly tinkering with its features, and so waste a lot of time which would be better dedicated to actually translating. Depending on how complicated/complex the tool is to use, the learning curve may become too onerous.
I use WordFast Classic, one of the most basic (and affordable) that I'm aware of, and even so, I don't leverage all of its features, for example the glossary function. I tend to be rathe
... See more
As I see it, one of the pitfalls of using a CAT tool could be that you might end up endlessly tinkering with its features, and so waste a lot of time which would be better dedicated to actually translating. Depending on how complicated/complex the tool is to use, the learning curve may become too onerous.
I use WordFast Classic, one of the most basic (and affordable) that I'm aware of, and even so, I don't leverage all of its features, for example the glossary function. I tend to be rather disorganised in the way I go about things in general, and the segmentation of WFC helps me to work in a more orderly fashion, but other than that, I haven't explored some of the other things that can be done with it.
All you need to do is look at the help forums for CAT tools to see the complexity and technical issues users often have to deal with, which I find really offputting. A lot of the time I don't understand the jargon and abbreviations in these forums, which is also a deterrent. Many of the users seem to spend a lot of time tweaking and fine tuning their tools, and I'm usually too busy actually working to be doing stuff like that.

[Edited at 2018-08-19 08:53 GMT]
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José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 19:15
English to Portuguese
+ ...
In memoriam
Different reasons Aug 19, 2018

I began computing in the mid-80s, hence with an Apple II. Later I moved to a PC-XT, and so on. One of the results of being so long on the e-road is that I've used maybe two dozen different word processors. Microsoft Word was always - by far - the #1 worst among them, since its inception to the present days. However deep-pocketed marketing over the years made it the one-and-only market standard.

Anyone who ever formatted text using Page Maker or InDesign will know what I'm talking ab
... See more
I began computing in the mid-80s, hence with an Apple II. Later I moved to a PC-XT, and so on. One of the results of being so long on the e-road is that I've used maybe two dozen different word processors. Microsoft Word was always - by far - the #1 worst among them, since its inception to the present days. However deep-pocketed marketing over the years made it the one-and-only market standard.

Anyone who ever formatted text using Page Maker or InDesign will know what I'm talking about. Word's insanely-devised text formatting "tool crib" is a heavy burden on the user.

One day I was told about WordFast Classic, when it was still free. What I enjoyed most was that it did two things:
a) It segmented the text, so I wouldn't waste any time keeping track of where I was in the text; almost impossible to skip anything; and
b) it preserved Word's formatting, so I'd have to grapple with all the unpleasant text reflow surprises once, and after cleanup.

On account of other things, irrelevant here, on larger projects I give repetitions for free. I never give discounts on fuzzy matches. Hence these are not major issues for me using CAT tools.

Other CAT tools? Yes. Some clients want me to use other CAT tools for reasons of their own. No problem, as long as they provide me with a portable license for the duration of their project. I've done it with MemoQ, Memsource, and Passolo.

Back to the OP, as a matter of fact I tried WordFast Pro for some 2 years, and discarded it on account of its low efficiency, sluggishness. Maybe it has improved ever since, however it slowed me down considerably. I guess it expected me to have a computer 3-4 generations ahead of what was state-of-the-art then.
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Milan Condak
Milan Condak  Identity Verified
Local time: 23:15
English to Czech
Post-editing of machine translation Aug 19, 2018

Richard Varga wrote:

... in terms of percentage, how much more efficient are you in your work thanks to CAT tools?

!


I found an article "Imagining a World without Language Barriers", May 10, 2017

“A typical human translator can process approximately 300 to 400 words per hour without Unbabel,” Vasco says.

“Working in Unbabel, that same human translator can process approximately 1,200 to 1,400 words per hour — a significant increase in speed.

Source: https://unbabel.com/blog/world-without-language-barriers/
--
My comment:
1,200 : 300 = 400%
1,400 : 400 = 350%
==
Post-editing of neural machine translation. There are no translators, there are THE editors. There is no word counting. No CATs.

Simmilar articles on mainstream technology:

http://kv-emptypages.blogspot.com/2018/08/post-editing-and-nmt-embracing-new-age.html

https://www.sdl.com/software-and-services/translation-software/machine-translation/enterprise-translation-server.html
-
I use MT (local desktop rule-base or generic web MT) with API for CAT more than ten years. The effectiveness varies depending on subject, sentence length, and formatting.

Milan


 
Matheus Chaud
Matheus Chaud  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 19:15
Member
English to Portuguese
+ ...

MODERATOR
Comparing speed Aug 20, 2018

DZiW wrote:
How one could compare the speed, leveraging the TM, when there's no 'average' speed per segment, let alone a...


In the beginning of the project, I had no TM and no glossary. I translated an average of 2,000 words per day (6h/day). That was my average speed. My pace gradually increased and today I translate an average of 2,500 words per day. Same domain, same type of text, same client.

Having key terminology at our fingertips saves us some precious time.
Very often, I don't even remember that I had already translated a specific term that is challenging and had already saved it in the termbase. However, in those situations, the CAT tool highlights the term in the source text and shows its translation. That's one of the main benefits of a CAT tool. We avoid searching for the same term again.

I'm not implying anyone would experience a 25% increase in productivity in 3 years. This is one person, one experience. It's not representative at all.
However, I'm sure that, if well used, a CAT tool can be helpful to nearly every translator. But I understand that this requires effort, and not everyone is willing to make that effort. That should be respected, of course.


Thomas Pfann
 
Maxi Schwarz
Maxi Schwarz  Identity Verified
Local time: 17:15
German to English
+ ...
The question sort of goes one way Aug 20, 2018

This: "Would you say that translators who don't use any such tools are missing out on something?"
For comparisons, the disadvantage might be on either side. For the kinds of translation that I do, CAT tools would slow me down.


Tom in London
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:15
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Not only that Aug 20, 2018

Maxi Schwarz wrote:

This: "Would you say that translators who don't use any such tools are missing out on something?"
For comparisons, the disadvantage might be on either side. For the kinds of translation that I do, CAT tools would slow me down.


Not only that: by providing their customers with TMs, which enable agencies to pay less and less, translators are killing their own livelihoods.


Peter Close
 
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Efficiency of using CAT tools in comparison to using none







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