TRADOS - what is it and how does it help a translator? Thread poster: Elvira Stoianov
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I have heard about TRADOS very much since I visited the ProZ page, and I have also noticed that many clients require TRADOS. Could anyone give me a short explanation what it is and how it helps a translator?
Thank you very much for your time.
| | | | | It's a Translation Memory program | Jan 11, 2002 |
Hi Eli!
Trados is a so-called CAT (computer-assisted translation) or Translation Memory program. It basically allows you to \"recycle\" your translations.
Take the example
\"Der Hund stand vor der Tür\"
You translate it as
\"The dog stood in front of the door\"
Two days later the same sentence comes up again, and your \"memory\" remembers the way you translated it the last time and suggests that translation to you (a 100% ma... See more Hi Eli!
Trados is a so-called CAT (computer-assisted translation) or Translation Memory program. It basically allows you to \"recycle\" your translations.
Take the example
\"Der Hund stand vor der Tür\"
You translate it as
\"The dog stood in front of the door\"
Two days later the same sentence comes up again, and your \"memory\" remembers the way you translated it the last time and suggests that translation to you (a 100% match).
Imagine you then get the sentence
\"Die Katze stand vor der Tür\".
Trados would tell you that you had the sentence \"Der Hund stand vor der Tür\" a few days ago, and tell you how you translated it (a fuzzy match)... All you have to do is swap \"dog\" with \"cat\" and away you go!!
It\'s very worth while if you\'re dealing with repetitive texts, like financial statements, contracts, etc. If you\'re a literary translator it might not be so appropriate!!
Often, when agencies require you to use Trados they will supply you with the \"memory\" to use as well, which means that you get to recycle their existing translations. The downside is that they often want you to take a cut for 100% matches and sometimes even for fuzzies.
Many people criticize Trados greatly, saying the time they spend setting up projects, etc. costs them more time and effort than just doint the translation \"straight\", so what\'s the point? But I can\'t imagine working without it! It\'s boosted my output levels no end and helps to make my quality more consistent 
For more information, check out www.trados.com.
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| | | | | Oh yes, you'll need to take some kind of training course! | Jan 11, 2002 |
If you\'re new to the program (and to the concept), I can only recommend that you take some kind of training course to get you started...
| | | | Elvira Stoianov 
Luxembourg
Local time: 05:01
German to Romanian
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TOPIC STARTER | Thanks for the answer | Jan 11, 2002 |
Thank you very much for the reply. It was exactly what I was looking for. I checked the TRADOs website, but it would have taken me too long to get the answer, and since I have a dial-up connection it would have been too expensive and I might not even have got the right answer. So thanks again very much. You saved me a lot of time and a lot of money.
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| Trados is too expensive | Jan 11, 2002 |
My opinion is still that CATs mostly help customers and agencies to save money. It makes the job a bit easier, if you have highly repetetive texts (e.g. automotive service manuals), which means you can increase your throughput substantially. But CATs really ripped down the translation rates for such work, so the downsides, in my opinion, are heavier.
I have seen almost no agency offering full payment for 100% repetitions. If they are nice, they ususally pay in this case ... See more
My opinion is still that CATs mostly help customers and agencies to save money. It makes the job a bit easier, if you have highly repetetive texts (e.g. automotive service manuals), which means you can increase your throughput substantially. But CATs really ripped down the translation rates for such work, so the downsides, in my opinion, are heavier.
I have seen almost no agency offering full payment for 100% repetitions. If they are nice, they ususally pay in this case for checking (lets say 33% of the translation rate), if not, they filter out the matches totally.
For so called \"fuzzy\" matches (e.g. 2/3rd of the sentence are repetitive, the rest is new - e.g. \"tighten the bolt to the specified torque\" in the translation memory and \"tighten the NUT to the specified torque\" would be a fuzzy match) most agencies ask for a discount, e.g. 66% of the regular rate.Some agencies even split finer, like \"100% for matches, 75% for 70 to 99% fuzzy, 50% for ....etc.
I did not buy TRADOS, because it is very expensive, unhandy (you have to stick a piece of hardware, the \"dongle\", in your computer port to make the software work - it does not work without it) - beware if you loose it or it becomes defective and fails at the wrong moment (think about Murphy\'s law .... it allways happens at the wrong time!). Also as it is the case with most software, as a translator you really use only a fraction of the features.
On the other hand, you cannot get around using a CAT anymore, if you want to do serious translation business.But there are many other very nice CATs, some even free.For the translator they do the same job.
I use SDLX, which is fully TRADOS compatible at a fraction of the costs (about $120). It works absolutely perfect and is accepted as TRADOS equivalent by most agencies. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | | Werner George Patels, M.A., C.Tran.(ATIO) (X)
Local time: 23:01
German to English
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| Agree with Hans-Henning | Jan 11, 2002 |
Trados should be avoided - Déjà Vu and SDLX are both easier to use and cheaper. In addition, DV and SDLX are compatible with Trados files, but Trados is \"hostile\".
Above all, when working with CAT software, you should always guard against being taken advantage of by some agencies who will try to push your rates down on account of CAT. CAT should primarily serve you (ie, working faster and more efficiently).
| | | | Elvira Stoianov
Luxembourg
Local time: 05:01
German to Romanian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | thanks again | Jan 12, 2002 |
Thanks for the useful information. I will check out those links.
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Karin Adamczyk (X)
Canada
Local time: 23:01
French to English
| Beginner's on-line help system available for Trados | Jan 13, 2002 |
The subject says it all. Trados freelance users are working on an on-line help system to help others get started with Trados.
Have a look at the start at http://www.macroconsulting.com/Trados/index.html
Also, Yves has provided a prototype version of Wordfast that can extract text from PDF files so the text can be translated in Word.
More i... See more The subject says it all. Trados freelance users are working on an on-line help system to help others get started with Trados.
Have a look at the start at http://www.macroconsulting.com/Trados/index.html
Also, Yves has provided a prototype version of Wordfast that can extract text from PDF files so the text can be translated in Word.
More info at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wordfast/
Karin Adamczyk ▲ Collapse
| | | | | | | Good information source | Jan 13, 2002 |
Quote:
On 2002-01-11 23:31, JE-Access wrote:
Just to give you one good information source:
http://www.sslmit.unibo.it/zanettin/cattools.htm
Hewre you can find almost anything about CATs.
By the way, a good free tool is WORDF
... See more Quote:
On 2002-01-11 23:31, JE-Access wrote:
Just to give you one good information source:
http://www.sslmit.unibo.it/zanettin/cattools.htm
Hewre you can find almost anything about CATs.
By the way, a good free tool is WORDFAST.
http://members.aol.com/ychampo/cat.htm
It integrates into Word and is very small (just a couple of K), which might be advantageous with your slow dial-up connection
Thank you for your information about sites. However, I tried to download Wordfast but the site was not found. The strange thing is that the manual and the tools can be downloaded but not the program. Do you know about any other way to download it? ▲ Collapse
| | | | | 400k - that is ALL | Jan 14, 2002 |
Mary,
I was surprised as you were. In a couple of seconds the whole program was downloaded. If you are accustomed to the 10+MB \"bloat ware\" of others, this is like a miracle.
The whole thing is just over 400k! Read the instruction and it installs like a charm.
I am quite curious how good you find it.
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Suzanne Blangsted (X)
Local time: 20:01
Danish to English
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| Wordfast not downloading | Jan 24, 2002 |
Eli. I hope this will help you, if you can\'t get Wordfast for use with PDF files. You can extract PDF text yourself and insert it into the Word program. When downloading a PDF File you can convert on your own to a doc file or txt file and then with the PDF writer return the document in the PDF format. To extract the text from the PDF so you can work with it, click on the page you want to work on, click edit, click select all, click copy, and then open your Word program. Click new, click paste... See more Eli. I hope this will help you, if you can\'t get Wordfast for use with PDF files. You can extract PDF text yourself and insert it into the Word program. When downloading a PDF File you can convert on your own to a doc file or txt file and then with the PDF writer return the document in the PDF format. To extract the text from the PDF so you can work with it, click on the page you want to work on, click edit, click select all, click copy, and then open your Word program. Click new, click paste, and you have the text on that page copied from the PDF file. It can be a bit tricky but does work. You will need to get the PDF writer 5 which is a tremendous program and will convert any text to PDF file, when you want to return the text to your client in a PDF format. I am taking it for granted that you have the PDF reader (which is a free download). The text is then ready for translation with any CAT tool on the market. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Wordfast URL | Jan 24, 2002 |
Wordfast is located at champollion.net (note there is no \"www\" in the address).
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