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MemoQ vs. Trados
Thread poster: Elena Pavan
Elena Pavan
Elena Pavan  Identity Verified
Local time: 07:19
Member (2005)
French to Italian
+ ...
Oct 25, 2012

Hello everybody,
I have Trados Studio 2009 and I am considering buying MemoQ with the special offer of Proz.com
I have tried the trial version and I don't see a big difference between the two softwares, even if I only have a very basic knowledge of the two.
One of my best clients has just bought MemoQ and is planning to build a whole TM for a final customer with it. Sure, it would be easier if we use the same software, but there is absolutely no obligation of buying it. So, my
... See more
Hello everybody,
I have Trados Studio 2009 and I am considering buying MemoQ with the special offer of Proz.com
I have tried the trial version and I don't see a big difference between the two softwares, even if I only have a very basic knowledge of the two.
One of my best clients has just bought MemoQ and is planning to build a whole TM for a final customer with it. Sure, it would be easier if we use the same software, but there is absolutely no obligation of buying it. So, my question is:
Is there a real difference between MemoQ and Trados? Is it really worth buying it if I already have Trados, not only for this client, but also for my activity in general?
Thank you in adavance for your help!
Elena
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Juan Carlos Sánchez López
Juan Carlos Sánchez López
Local time: 07:19
English to Spanish
+ ...
Compatibility Oct 25, 2012

Dear Elena,

I'm sure there are better experts than me in this forum, but as far as I know (I'm a MQ user), they are not very compatible. I mean, you won't be anble to open a project (pack) prepared for Studio, they have their own special extension and are files specific for Trados Studio. I suppose the same thing happens the other way around.

In my opinion, buying one or another depends on the kind of files you use to receive. If they are simple Word files, you won't ha
... See more
Dear Elena,

I'm sure there are better experts than me in this forum, but as far as I know (I'm a MQ user), they are not very compatible. I mean, you won't be anble to open a project (pack) prepared for Studio, they have their own special extension and are files specific for Trados Studio. I suppose the same thing happens the other way around.

In my opinion, buying one or another depends on the kind of files you use to receive. If they are simple Word files, you won't have any problem with MQ and you will be able to export bilingual and target Word files just as you got them.

If anybody knows more...

Regards

JC
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Dariush Robertson
Dariush Robertson  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:19
Chinese to English
I find MemoQ easier to use. Oct 25, 2012

Hi,

I have Trados 2011 and the latest version of MemoQ (6.0). I bought Trados first, and found it quite difficult to use (possibly because of my language combination). I then bought MemoQ, after using a trial version of it when I worked with a new agency. I found MemoQ a lot easier to use. I find it more user friendly in terms of layout, and basic functions. MemoQ also seemed to work better with my language pair (Chinese into English). The only issue I've had with MemoQ is that is s
... See more
Hi,

I have Trados 2011 and the latest version of MemoQ (6.0). I bought Trados first, and found it quite difficult to use (possibly because of my language combination). I then bought MemoQ, after using a trial version of it when I worked with a new agency. I found MemoQ a lot easier to use. I find it more user friendly in terms of layout, and basic functions. MemoQ also seemed to work better with my language pair (Chinese into English). The only issue I've had with MemoQ is that is sometimes seems to freeze, but that is normally resolved by closing it and restarting. Since buying MemoQ I've never gone back to using Trados. 'Perhaps' Trados might have some special advanced functions that MemoQ doesn't, but I wouldn't know about that, as I'm just a translator, and deal with fairly straightforward cases. Perhaps people who are more tech savvy, or have IT degrees will be able to get more out of Trados than I have.
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Steven Segaert
Steven Segaert
Estonia
Local time: 08:19
Member (2012)
English to Dutch
+ ...
Follow your own personal choice and logic Oct 25, 2012

Hi Elena,

I'm a MemoQ user; I have tested Trados and others before I decided upon my tool of choice.

I don't think there is a big "versus" here. Trados and MemoQ both offer similar features, and both tools have some specific strengths and weaknesses. I chose MemoQ because I found it more user-friendly and transparent, because it just "clicked" (with Trados, it felt as if it was me who had to click a lot to get the simplest things done), and because it simply costs les
... See more
Hi Elena,

I'm a MemoQ user; I have tested Trados and others before I decided upon my tool of choice.

I don't think there is a big "versus" here. Trados and MemoQ both offer similar features, and both tools have some specific strengths and weaknesses. I chose MemoQ because I found it more user-friendly and transparent, because it just "clicked" (with Trados, it felt as if it was me who had to click a lot to get the simplest things done), and because it simply costs less. I readily admit that this is a story of personal experience - some people like pc's, other want a Mac - that sort of thing.

If you are happy with your Trados CAT tool, and if you know how to use it to increase your productivity, I would say stick to it. There is probably nothing in MemoQ that Trados doesn't have. On the other hand, if you are up for something new, there is also no reason not to try a different tool. I'm pretty sure there isn't anything in Trados that MemoQ doesn't have.

Besides, TM's can be exchanged through the tmx format. The only thing you will need to keep in mind is that Trados uses different segmentation rules than MemoQ does. As Trados doesn't publish its rules (or so I understand it), MemoQ can't segment in exactly the same way. In other words, TM created in MemoQ based on documents segmented by MemoQ will not yield the right matches in a new document that gets segmented with Trados. Depending on what you and your client plan on doing, it is a good idea to work out a simply work-flow there.
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Steven Segaert
Steven Segaert
Estonia
Local time: 08:19
Member (2012)
English to Dutch
+ ...
Compatibility Oct 25, 2012

Juancar wrote:

Dear Elena,

I'm sure there are better experts than me in this forum, but as far as I know (I'm a MQ user), they are not very compatible. I mean, you won't be anble to open a project (pack) prepared for Studio, they have their own special extension and are files specific for Trados Studio. I suppose the same thing happens the other way around.

In my opinion, buying one or another depends on the kind of files you use to receive. If they are simple Word files, you won't have any problem with MQ and you will be able to export bilingual and target Word files just as you got them.

If anybody knows more...

Regards

JC


Hi Juancar,

Naturally, a lot of MemoQ users wonder about compatibility. Which means that a lot of us test these things out rather extensively.

Interoperability of MemoQ with the old Trados 2007 is just about perfect. All files can be read, and one can easily deliver files in the proper formats. The only thing that needs to be done with Trados is the segmentation. To that end, I ask clients who work in Trados 2007 to send me the segmented ("pre-translated"in Workbench) file to work with. No problems.

Studio packages are different, but are actually just zip files containing files in the sdlxliff format, and possibly a TM and a TB. The sdlxliff format is a flavour of the xliff standard format and can be used without much problem in MemoQ6. Getting the TM to be of any use requires a little workaround, but it can be done. If your client agrees, you can just ask for the sdlxliff file and a tmx file. Problems start to arise only in complex workflows (with multiple comments and versions and things like that).


 
Enote
Enote  Identity Verified
Local time: 09:19
English to Russian
I vote for Memo Q Oct 25, 2012

I have both Memo Q 5 and Trados Studio 2009. They have similar functions, but to me working in Memo Q is much easy. So Memo Q is my working horse now, I use Studio only when I received job in Studio's packages.

[Редактировалось 2012-10-25 18:57 GMT]


 
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 07:19
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Just one note about compatibility Oct 25, 2012

Juancar wrote:
I'm sure there are better experts than me in this forum, but as far as I know (I'm a MQ user), they are not very compatible. I mean, you won't be anble to open a project (pack) prepared for Studio, they have their own special extension and are files specific for Trados Studio. I suppose the same thing happens the other way around.

Indeed SDL Studio has its file extension for packages, but if you look closely, you will see that renaming a Studio package as ZIP allows you to grab the SDLXLIFF files directly into memoQ. We do that all the time and it works beautifully.

However, for the memory the customer will have to send you a TMX file, unless they insist that you use Studio and only send you the memory contained in the package. In such a situation, there is no escape from owning a license of Studio, but I hope memoQ will have better interoperability with Studio files in the middle run.

As for my recommendation about memoQ vs. Studio, the decision is clear in favour of memoQ for three main reasons: far better usability and intuitiveness, interoperability with many formats, and speed. Add an excellent support and a growing base of interesting, reasonable medium-sized agencies switching to it, and you get a tool that has a very good long-term projection.


 
Steven Segaert
Steven Segaert
Estonia
Local time: 08:19
Member (2012)
English to Dutch
+ ...
TM compatibility Oct 25, 2012

Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote:

However, for the memory the customer will have to send you a TMX file, unless they insist that you use Studio and only send you the memory contained in the package. In such a situation, there is no escape from owning a license of Studio, but I hope memoQ will have better interoperability with Studio files in the middle run.


Actually, the "sdltm" used in the packages relies on the SQLite database engine and can be accessed and used that way. For more information, search for "sdltm" in the Yahoo user group (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/memoQ).

But I admit, it is far from ideal...


 
Radian Yazynin
Radian Yazynin  Identity Verified
Local time: 09:19
Member (2004)
English to Russian
+ ...
I vote for MemoQ too Oct 25, 2012

In short, the difference between them is like that between a (I would say) basic email client and such a great thing as The Bat!
Lots of useful settings and support of other CATs is really an advantage. Funny it is, I don't understand why there is a 'Save' button there because all operations run in the background without the annoying questions, and your work is saved 'automatically'. Once modified, any change is immediately made/available in other 'plugged-in' resources you use for transl
... See more
In short, the difference between them is like that between a (I would say) basic email client and such a great thing as The Bat!
Lots of useful settings and support of other CATs is really an advantage. Funny it is, I don't understand why there is a 'Save' button there because all operations run in the background without the annoying questions, and your work is saved 'automatically'. Once modified, any change is immediately made/available in other 'plugged-in' resources you use for translation.
In Trados you can enable an Auto-suggest function but it requires sufficient resources (a ready TM, for instance with a minimum number of words, don't remember, some 20K or the like) and have to prepare it for use, while in MemoQ a similar function already works wisely collecting prompts for your text on the fly -- you can just enable or disable it.
The auto-assemble feature (it tries to compose a sentence based on previous parts of segments analyzing context) is another useful thing, and many many more...
I have Trados too and just use it to check if all is OK after I save back files processed in MemoQ to its native format.
The last but not least is the processing speed which is much better.

[Edited at 2012-10-25 20:24 GMT]

[Edited at 2012-10-26 14:13 GMT]
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Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 07:19
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Scripts to convert SDLTM to TMX Oct 25, 2012

Steven Segaert wrote:
Actually, the "sdltm" used in the packages relies on the SQLite database engine and can be accessed and used that way. For more information, search for "sdltm" in the Yahoo user group (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/memoQ).

I think you probably refer to this page in the end:
http://vannellen.site11.com/scripts/scripts.php

I have tried it with an SDLTM memory I had from a recent project and indeed it seems to do the conversion alright, although I have not checked the actual contents of the TMX and how it differs from a TMX exported from the same memory using SDL Studio 2011.


 
Mohamed Kamel
Mohamed Kamel  Identity Verified
Egypt
Local time: 08:19
English to Arabic
Another vote for memoQ Oct 25, 2012

I decided to use memoQ after a long struggle with Trados. I'm an old Trados user, but, after these years I decided to go to memoQ because it suits me better for the reasons mentioned above.

MK


 
Siegfried Armbruster
Siegfried Armbruster  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 07:19
English to German
+ ...
In memoriam
I did stick with Trados Oct 25, 2012

Elena Pavan wrote:
I have Trados Studio 2009 and I am considering buying MemoQ with the special offer of Proz.com


I considered changing to MemoQ too, but to be honest I tried MemoQ and I just don't find the user interface intuitive at all. But I was already using Trados 2009 and therefore switching to Trados 2011 was just painless. I like the user interface, I like its features and I am really impressed by the OpenExchange tools that are available for Trados. They allow me to do things that I don't believe are easily achieved with MemoQ.

Depending on what your customer sends you, there might be no reason to switch to a different production platform. Get the MemoQ demo version and test it for yourself.


 
FarkasAndras
FarkasAndras  Identity Verified
Local time: 07:19
English to Hungarian
+ ...
Studio for me Oct 25, 2012

I tried MQ and I tried to like it (I happen to vaguely know one of the developers, and it sounded good on paper), but I just can't. There are too many things that are too badly broken about it.
As we all know, Studio is far from perfect, too... The worst thing about it is the horribly unintuitive interface. But once you learn the UI kinks of Studio, the actual functionality is impressive. It's head and shoulders above MQ in my opinion. I'm hooked on AutoSuggest, for instance.

... See more
I tried MQ and I tried to like it (I happen to vaguely know one of the developers, and it sounded good on paper), but I just can't. There are too many things that are too badly broken about it.
As we all know, Studio is far from perfect, too... The worst thing about it is the horribly unintuitive interface. But once you learn the UI kinks of Studio, the actual functionality is impressive. It's head and shoulders above MQ in my opinion. I'm hooked on AutoSuggest, for instance.


So, overall, MQ is probably more user-friendly, but Studio wins in every other regard in my book.
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Michael Beijer
Michael Beijer  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:19
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
one more reason to choose memoQ above Studio Oct 25, 2012

You would be surprised at how many translators buy Studio only to then wonder why they can't figure out how to add words to the glossary or do anything even remotely complicated in terms of glossary management. One very real reason to get memoQ instead of Studio is ... MultiTerm.

In memoQ, your term base is built right into your CAT tool – where it belongs.

Michael


 
Michael Beijer
Michael Beijer  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:19
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
@Siegfried: Oct 25, 2012

Siegfried Armbruster wrote:

Elena Pavan wrote:
I have Trados Studio 2009 and I am considering buying MemoQ with the special offer of Proz.com


I considered changing to MemoQ too, but to be honest I tried MemoQ and I just don't find the user interface intuitive at all. But I was already using Trados 2009 and therefore switching to Trados 2011 was just painless. I like the user interface, I like its features and I am really impressed by the OpenExchange tools that are available for Trados. They allow me to do things that I don't believe are easily achieved with MemoQ.

Depending on what your customer sends you, there might be no reason to switch to a different production platform. Get the MemoQ demo version and test it for yourself.


Just out of curiosity, can you name one of those things?

Michael


 
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