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investing in CAT Tool
Thread poster: Mona Aboeleyoun (X)
Mona Aboeleyoun (X)
Mona Aboeleyoun (X)
Germany
German to Arabic
+ ...
Nov 10, 2019

Hi,


I'm a translation student, in my last Semester and want to invest my time and money in a CAT Tool, what are the most important things to be aware of when I purchase a CAT tool, or just decide to invest my time learning a free CAT tool like OmegaT or wordfast anywhere ?

In other words, what are the most important criteria that lead me to purchase a certain CAT tool?

Thank you in advance!

Mona


 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 17:47
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Thoughts Nov 10, 2019

Mona Aboeleyoun wrote:
what are the most important things to be aware of when I purchase a CAT tool, or just decide to invest my time learning a free CAT tool like OmegaT or wordfast anywhere ?

Are they not teaching you how to use them as part of your studies? I know they've been slow to include them but CAT tools have been around a long while now.

I don't know what your plans are for the future. Consider investing in the PLUS membership package here. It includes a Pro licence for CafeTran as well as several other perks that might interest you.


Jorge Payan
 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 18:47
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
@Mona Nov 10, 2019

Mona Aboeleyoun wrote:
What are the most important criteria to purchase a CAT tool?


Price, user features and agency features.

Price:
MemoQ: 10 years with upgrades: €1800, 10 years without upgrades: €620
Trados: 10 years with upgrades: €1750, no 10 years without upgrades: €750
Wordfast: 10 years with upgrades: €1100, 10 years without upgrades: €1100
DejaVu: 10 years with upgrades: €900, 10 years without upgrades: €450
CafeTran: 10 years with upgrades: €750, 10 years without upgrades: €200
OmegaT: 10 years with upgrades: €0, 10 years without upgrades: €0

User features:
MemoQ currently has the most, Trados and DejaVu come in second, CafeTran and Wordfast come in third, and OmegaT comes in last. However, unless you put in a lot of effort, it is unlikely that you are ever going to use all of those features, or even learn about them. Many translators only ever learn the most basic features of their chosen CAT tool.

Agency features:
Some agencies require MemoQ or want you to be able to use MemoQ files. Some agencies require Trados or want you to be able to use Trados files. Some agencies require Wordfast or want you to be able to use Wordfast files. However, most of the MemoQ, Trados or Wordfast files can also be handled by some or all of the other CAT tools.

Whichever CAT tool you choose, you are likely to keep using it, and not switch to another CAT tool. However, you may eventually decide to buy a second CAT tool for one or two extra features, even though you mostly use the first CAT tool.



[Edited at 2019-11-10 11:57 GMT]


Hedwig Spitzer (X)
Cuong Nguyen Manh
philgoddard
Mona Aboeleyoun (X)
Alice Crisan
 
Hans Lenting
Hans Lenting
Netherlands
Member (2006)
German to Dutch
Please explain Nov 10, 2019

Samuel Murray wrote:

User features:
MemoQ currently has the most, Trados and DejaVu come in second, CafeTran and Wordfast come in third


How do you define and compare these user features?

Can you give a list?


 
Paolo Sebastiani
Paolo Sebastiani  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 18:47
Member
English to Italian
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Which CAT TOOL to choose Nov 10, 2019

Dear Mona,

I'd like to give you some information by considering each CAT TOOL from different points of view:

If you consider its approachability and easiness to use
I would rank them this way:

1) Wordfast-Pro5 (it runs also on MAC)
2) Kilgrey MemoQ 9.0
3) Atril Dejavu
4) Cafetran
5) SDL Trados

If you consider its price
I would rank them this way:

1) Cafetran
2) Wordfast-Pro5
3) Atr
... See more
Dear Mona,

I'd like to give you some information by considering each CAT TOOL from different points of view:

If you consider its approachability and easiness to use
I would rank them this way:

1) Wordfast-Pro5 (it runs also on MAC)
2) Kilgrey MemoQ 9.0
3) Atril Dejavu
4) Cafetran
5) SDL Trados

If you consider its price
I would rank them this way:

1) Cafetran
2) Wordfast-Pro5
3) Atril Dejavu
4) Kilgrey MemoQ 9.0
5) SDL Trados Studio

If you consider its popularity in Europe
I would rank them this way:

1) SDL Trados Studio
2) Kilgrey MemoQ 9.0
3) Wordfast-Pro5
4) Atril Dejavu
5) Cafetran

If you consider its popularity in the USA
I would rank them this way:

1) Wordfast-Pro5
2) Cafetran
3) Kilgrey MemoQ 9.0
4) Atril Dejavu
5) SDL Trados Studio

Just to consider the top-five softwares
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Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 18:47
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
@Hans Nov 10, 2019

Hans Lenting wrote:
Samuel Murray wrote:
User features: MemoQ currently has the most, Trados and DejaVu come in second, CafeTran and Wordfast come in third

How do you define and compare these user features? Can you give a list?


No, it's just a general impression, based on what I know about each of these tools.


 
Hans Lenting
Hans Lenting
Netherlands
Member (2006)
German to Dutch
Nothing wrong with subjective ratings ... Nov 11, 2019

Samuel Murray wrote:

Hans Lenting wrote:
Samuel Murray wrote:
User features: MemoQ currently has the most, Trados and DejaVu come in second, CafeTran and Wordfast come in third

How do you define and compare these user features? Can you give a list?


No, it's just a general impression, based on what I know about each of these tools.


@Samuel:
That's what I was 'afraid' of. Of course, there's nothing wrong with subjectivity in personal ratings. However, it really is a pity that you're not very familiair with CafeTran Espresso 10, a CAT tool that has been designed with the translator in mind. Why not give it a try in the nexts weeks? I'm glad to answer any questions that you might have. I even invite you to my Tilburg office, for a free training.

I'm quite sure that once you've gotten familiair with CafeTran, you'll give it a very high rating for user friendliness and user features.


 
Morano El-Kholy
Morano El-Kholy  Identity Verified
Egypt
Local time: 19:47
Member (2011)
English to Arabic
+ ...
Please, explain :) Nov 12, 2019

Samuel Murray wrote:

OmegaT: 10 years with upgrades: €0, 10 years without upgrades: €0


I do not understand. Do you mean that OmegaT is completely Free?

Please, explain in detail

Thanks in advance.

[Edited at 2019-11-12 10:45 GMT]


 
Robert Rietvelt
Robert Rietvelt  Identity Verified
Local time: 18:47
Member (2006)
Spanish to Dutch
+ ...
Yes, it is free Nov 12, 2019

Morano El-Kholy wrote:

Samuel Murray wrote:

OmegaT: 10 years with upgrades: €0, 10 years without upgrades: €0


I do not understand. Do you mean that OmegaT is completely Free?

Please, explain in detail

Thanks in advance.

[Edited at 2019-11-12 10:45 GMT]


See: https://omegat.org/


Morano El-Kholy
 
Milan Condak
Milan Condak  Identity Verified
Local time: 18:47
English to Czech
OmegaT is Open Source Nov 12, 2019

Morano El-Kholy wrote:

Samuel Murray wrote:

OmegaT: 10 years with upgrades: €0, 10 years without upgrades: €0


I do not understand. Do you mean that OmegaT is completely Free?



There are two sectors: market with commercial software (not only CATs) and the very big community of developers a user all sort of software. Source code of the program is open and every can use it or compile for different OS. Very often is SW inspired by commercial SW. MS Office: Open Office, Libre Office. Wordfast Classic: Anaphraseus.
OmegaT has original idea and uses TMX as its translation memory. OmegaT is not on the market. Nobody sell it.

You can invest your money to the web-MT services or to lisense of Slate Desktop (statistical MT running on you PC in MS Windows without a connection to internet).

http://www.condak.cz/nove/2019-11/08/cs/01.html

OmegaT, and 3 commercial CATs, have the connector (standalone or build in Slate Desktop).

Milan

[Edited at 2019-11-12 12:59 GMT]


Morano El-Kholy
Mona Aboeleyoun (X)
 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 18:47
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
OmegaT is completely free Nov 12, 2019

Morano El-Kholy wrote:
Samuel Murray wrote:
OmegaT: 10 years with upgrades: €0, 10 years without upgrades: €0

Do you mean that OmegaT is completely free?


Yes, OmegaT is completely free for all uses (personal, professional, freelance, agency, academic, commercial, legal, illegal, etc.) on as many computers as you like and for as many documents, languages, TMs, glossaries, etc. as you like.

It is quite likely that OmegaT will always remain completely free, and there is currently sufficient interest (by both users and developers) in OmegaT that I'm convinced that OmegaT will continue to be developed and updated for many years to come. Even if people who distribute OmegaT start charging money for it, there will quite likely always be a fully featured free version as well. "Always" is a big word, but I mean for the foreseeable decade or two.


Morano El-Kholy
Mona Aboeleyoun (X)
 
Daniel Williams
Daniel Williams  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:47
Member (2018)
German to English
+ ...
Don't be afraid to use more than one - provided you can justify the cost Nov 12, 2019

I started freelancing just over two years ago and currently run MemoQ, Trados, MemSource, Across and OmegaT. The reason I have all of these is that, as Samuel said, certain clients will only give you work if you can run their preferred CAT tool. Paying for all this software looks like a huge expense on paper, but if having them means getting regular business from an agency then they will pay for themselves fairly quickly, so it can make financial sense to have more than one. Personally I tend to... See more
I started freelancing just over two years ago and currently run MemoQ, Trados, MemSource, Across and OmegaT. The reason I have all of these is that, as Samuel said, certain clients will only give you work if you can run their preferred CAT tool. Paying for all this software looks like a huge expense on paper, but if having them means getting regular business from an agency then they will pay for themselves fairly quickly, so it can make financial sense to have more than one. Personally I tend to use Trados more than the others, partly because a lot of my clients in the UK seem to use it and partly because all the basic functions were covered in my Masters course, but MemoQ seems to be more popular with agencies in continental Europe and tends to be more reliable in my experience.

Incidentally, If I remember rightly Trados used to offer a discount to students on translation courses, so if you are still studying you might be able to get hold of a cheaper student licence.
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Morano El-Kholy
Mona Aboeleyoun (X)
 
Mona Aboeleyoun (X)
Mona Aboeleyoun (X)
Germany
Thanks Dec 7, 2019

I'd like to thank all of you for the detailed information you provided

 
Mona Aboeleyoun (X)
Mona Aboeleyoun (X)
Germany
are's the most well known CAT Tools compatible with other translation programs? Dec 7, 2019

Daniel Williams wrote:

I started freelancing just over two years ago and currently run MemoQ, Trados, MemSource, Across and OmegaT. The reason I have all of these is that, as Samuel said, certain clients will only give you work if you can run their preferred CAT tool. Paying for all this software looks like a huge expense on paper, but if having them means getting regular business from an agency then they will pay for themselves fairly quickly, so it can make financial sense to have more than one. Personally I tend to use Trados more than the others, partly because a lot of my clients in the UK seem to use it and partly because all the basic functions were covered in my Masters course, but MemoQ seems to be more popular with agencies in continental Europe and tends to be more reliable in my experience.

Incidentally, If I remember rightly Trados used to offer a discount to students on translation courses, so if you are still studying you might be able to get hold of a cheaper student licence.


Thank you, Daniel, for your reply and advice

I did't try it before but I read it several times that OmegaT, or Trados compatible with other translation programs, but it seems not 100% true, would you tell me more about your experience in converting file format between different CAT tools, you have already used.

Thanks ,
Mona


 
DIANNE BEREST
DIANNE BEREST  Identity Verified
Montenegro
Local time: 18:47
Spanish to English
+ ...
Thanks for all the info! Dec 11, 2019

Looking into this same question and just wanted to thank everyone for the very detailed information!!

 
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