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Poll: What percentage of your assignments do you translate using a CAT Tool? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 20:10
Spanish to English
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| The danger of CAT | Aug 4, 2006 |
I believe that over-reliance on CAT tools may lead to sub-standard translations in some cases. Programs such as trados may be great for technical, repetitive texts, but for other types, I prefer the old-fashioned way... fingers and brain
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Rebekka Groß (X) 
Local time: 19:10
English to German
| just out of interest | Aug 4, 2006 |
In this poll, what is the difference between "I don't use CAT tools" and "N/A"? Would "N/A" not be applicable if there was no "I don't use CAT tools" option? Or am I splitting hairs?
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Alicia Casal
Argentina
Local time: 15:10
English to Spanish
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I don t mean i like them.
Agencies require them.
With private clients, it depends on the job.
I prefer translating complete paragraphs rather than segments.
Of course i know cat tools for paragraph translation, but those are not the ones they require me.
Sometimes i think, that certain cat tools turn windows unstable on very large projects. But it s just a feeling.
They are two edged "tools". Useful and dangerous.
... See more I don t mean i like them.
Agencies require them.
With private clients, it depends on the job.
I prefer translating complete paragraphs rather than segments.
Of course i know cat tools for paragraph translation, but those are not the ones they require me.
Sometimes i think, that certain cat tools turn windows unstable on very large projects. But it s just a feeling.
They are two edged "tools". Useful and dangerous.
Alicia ▲ Collapse
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They help me to coordinate my work. Segmentation helps me not to miss anything - doesn't matter if I choose to segment text into paragraphs, or any other way.
I don't use CAT tool for jobs like a dozen of text strings or OSD strings in multilanguage tables in Excel/OO Math file. It's much easier to type translation under string(s), then open new program and use it.
And having mostly electrical appliances, players and such - a LOT of whole sentences are exactly the same.... See more They help me to coordinate my work. Segmentation helps me not to miss anything - doesn't matter if I choose to segment text into paragraphs, or any other way.
I don't use CAT tool for jobs like a dozen of text strings or OSD strings in multilanguage tables in Excel/OO Math file. It's much easier to type translation under string(s), then open new program and use it.
And having mostly electrical appliances, players and such - a LOT of whole sentences are exactly the same. Once translated, forever translated
Anni ▲ Collapse
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Rosa Maria Duenas Rios (X)
Local time: 14:10
| Don't ask me... ;-) | Aug 4, 2006 |
Rebekka Gross wrote: In this poll, what is the difference between "I don't use CAT tools" and "N/A"? Would "N/A" not be applicable if there was no "I don't use CAT tools" option? Or am I splitting hairs?
This is how the staff decided to "phrase" my idea for a poll. If I remember correctly (I submitted it a while ago), I had only four options (0-25, 26-50, 51-75, and 75-100%).
I asked because I bought a CAT tool recently, but I find I cannot use it much, mostly due to different formatting requirements from my clients. I wanted to know if there are others in similar situation.
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Stephen Rifkind
Israel
Local time: 21:10
Member (2004)
French to English
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| The joys of Hebrew PDF | Aug 4, 2006 |
I marked the under 50% category not because I don't like Trados, but most of my source documents are Hebrew PDF's, which are basically non-convertable to normal word documents.
I imagine some translators of non-latin based alphabets have the same problem.
Stephen Rifkind
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Reed James
Chile
Local time: 14:10
Member (2005)
Spanish to English
| I receive many scanned documents | Aug 4, 2006 |
I wouldn't mind using my CAT tool (SDLX) a little more often. However, most of the files I translate are scanned legal documents and certificates. Even if I can perform OCR on some of them, it is troublesome to feed them into SDLX.
CAT tool or no, I like to have both source and target documents in Word so that I can index them and search for terms later on.
Reed
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| Editing polls | Aug 4, 2006 |
Rosa Maria Duenas Rios wrote: Rebekka Gross wrote: In this poll, what is the difference between "I don't use CAT tools" and "N/A"? Would "N/A" not be applicable if there was no "I don't use CAT tools" option? Or am I splitting hairs? This is how the staff decided to "phrase" my idea for a poll. If I remember correctly (I submitted it a while ago), I had only four options (0-25, 26-50, 51-75, and 75-100%).
I edited Rosa Maria's suggestion. In general we edit all poll to
a) make the options as short as possible, and
b) Create a complete set of options
In this case "I translate w/o CAT tools" represents a translator who does his/her work without using a CAT tool, while "N/A" would for instance represent an interpreter, for whom a CAT tool is of little or no use.
Regards,
Enrique
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Rebekka Groß (X)
Local time: 19:10
English to German
| Makes sense now! | Aug 4, 2006 |
Enrique wrote: Rosa Maria Duenas Rios wrote: Rebekka Gross wrote: In this poll, what is the difference between "I don't use CAT tools" and "N/A"? Would "N/A" not be applicable if there was no "I don't use CAT tools" option? Or am I splitting hairs? This is how the staff decided to "phrase" my idea for a poll. If I remember correctly (I submitted it a while ago), I had only four options (0-25, 26-50, 51-75, and 75-100%). I edited Rosa Maria's suggestion. In general we edit all poll to a) make the options as short as possible, and b) Create a complete set of options In this case "I translate w/o CAT tools" represents a translator who does his/her work without using a CAT tool, while "N/A" would for instance represent an interpreter, for whom a CAT tool is of little or no use. Regards, Enrique
Thanks for explaining this, Enrique. It makes sense now. I do agree with adding an option for people who don't use CAT tools rather than just percentages of work done with CAT tools but hadn't thought about interpreters to whom N/A applies, of course.
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Tadej Kokalj
Slovenia
Local time: 20:10
English to Slovenian
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| Is it a danger? | Aug 4, 2006 |
neilmac wrote: I believe that over-reliance on CAT tools may lead to sub-standard translations in some cases. Programs such as trados may be great for technical, repetitive texts, but for other types, I prefer the old-fashioned way... fingers and brain
Fingers and brain. That is the point.
Using CAT doesn't mean one can switch-off brain, however it saves fingers.
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Henry Hinds
United States
Local time: 12:10
English to Spanish
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In memoriam
I can watch cats from my window, they're entertaining to have around.
But for translating, fingers and brain do the trick better than anything technology can or will ever devise.
Got the memory right there where the hat goes, and for revisions of documents the prior version is on the hard drive, just go in and change it. Why make life more complicated?
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| How many have people who said "no" have actually USED a CAT tool? | Aug 5, 2006 |
neilmac wrote: I believe that over-reliance on CAT tools may lead to sub-standard translations in some cases. Programs such as trados may be great for technical, repetitive texts, but for other types, I prefer the old-fashioned way... fingers and brain
It would be interesting to know how many of the people who said no have actually even tried one.
I disagree that it inherently creates substandard work. The TM is empty until YOU create it. So if it's substandard, it's because you put it there.
Most of my work is non-repetitive: books, magazine articles, exhibition catalogues and that sort of thing. I even used it to translate a play last month.
So why do I use a CAT tool? I've found that it helps when I reread because I have both texts there together. I reread with my source open to check target against source, in case I misunderstood something, but my final read-through is with the source invisible. (I use WordFast because I like working in a Word environment.)
The CAT tool also allows you to expand the segment as much as you like, so you don't have to working just a sentence at a time if you don't want to. I often expand my segments to ensure better flow.
The tool also allows you to search the memory. Sometimes that odd word you spent so much time researching three months ago just won't come to mind... so the TM helps you!
I avoided using it for "creative" texts for ages, but have been a convert for several years now.
So don't knock it if you haven't tried it!
Catherine
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I use a CAT tool (Wordfast) primarily for segmentation purposes to reduce eye strain. I don't translate technical stuff so it's not really useful to me in other ways.
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myloum
Switzerland
Local time: 20:10
Member (2006)
English to French
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I use a CAT tool when my clients require it. In this case, they ususally send me a TM. It is really necessary because I wouldn't be able to find most of the vocabulary myself, as it is specific to each company.
But when the client doesn't ask me to translate using TRADOS, I don't. For example books or subtitling...
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