Should I buy Wordfast pro? Thread poster: Anna Sarah Krämer
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I have been using SDL Trados 2011 for some years now, and it is the software that most of my clients want for their projects and which I have become accustomed to use with good efficiency.
Now I have a new client, that knew from the beginning that I don't have Wordfast, but added me to his database anyway. He sends job offers almost every day, but most of them are Wordfast projects with TMs that work over the online TM system. Yesterday I downloaded the demo version of Wordfast and... See more I have been using SDL Trados 2011 for some years now, and it is the software that most of my clients want for their projects and which I have become accustomed to use with good efficiency.
Now I have a new client, that knew from the beginning that I don't have Wordfast, but added me to his database anyway. He sends job offers almost every day, but most of them are Wordfast projects with TMs that work over the online TM system. Yesterday I downloaded the demo version of Wordfast and found that I can translate normally with it, but that it won't open the online TMs, so it won't help me with getting started and decide later.
I am thinking whether it makes sense to buy the full version - I won't starve if I don't take the jobs from this client, but I could afford to buy Wordfast without problems now and it might be a useful investment anyway.
Some questions: How many of your clients are asking you to use Wordfast? Is it likely that I will encounter more than that one client that would ever ask me to work with Wordfast? Is there anything that Wordfast can do which Trados Studio can't? Are there any good offers around to get the software for a reduced price? How about shifting TMs from SDL Studio to Wordfast and vice versa - is it a straightforward process?
I did manage to define a Trados Studio file type and open a TMLX, but it looked rather ugly, with tags all over the place, and of course this wouldn't help me with the online TMs ... so using Trados for the TMLX files is out of the question.
Thank you for your time!
Best regards,
Anna Sarah ▲ Collapse
| | | | | | Dan Ilioiu 
Romania
Local time: 18:52
English to Romanian
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| [joke] [off-topic] | Sep 11, 2013 |
Avoid the unnecessary hassle and put me in contact with the client
| | | | Andriy Yasharov
Ukraine
Local time: 18:52
Member (2008)
English to Russian
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| Wordfast Pro Limitations | Sep 11, 2013 |
Wordfast Pro proprietary file format is txml that other CAT tools can process adequately. Then, there are some limitations of the trial version of Wordfast Pro. For instance, you cannot exceed 500 TM entries, which means you cannot save more than 500 entries in your Wordfast Pro TM. Then, you cannot connect to a remote TM. But, otherwise, Wordfast Pro trial version does not have a time limit, which means you can use it to edit/proofread txml files of any size as long as you want. You will just h... See more Wordfast Pro proprietary file format is txml that other CAT tools can process adequately. Then, there are some limitations of the trial version of Wordfast Pro. For instance, you cannot exceed 500 TM entries, which means you cannot save more than 500 entries in your Wordfast Pro TM. Then, you cannot connect to a remote TM. But, otherwise, Wordfast Pro trial version does not have a time limit, which means you can use it to edit/proofread txml files of any size as long as you want. You will just have to save your work without committing segments to your TM since you cannot exceed the limit of 500 entries. ▲ Collapse
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Anna Sarah Krämer
Germany
Local time: 17:52
Member (2011)
English to German
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TOPIC STARTER | Thank you! Anywhere is working fine! | Sep 11, 2013 |
Dear Yasmin,
Thank you very much! I tried yesterday and just couldn't find where to enter the TM URL - now I looked again and managed to set everything up. Great!
Dan, looks like you'll have to find your own client..)
Best regards,
Anna Sarah
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 17:52
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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Anna Sarah Krämer Fazendeiro wrote:
Yesterday I downloaded the demo version of Wordfast and found that I can translate normally with it, but that it won't open the online TMs...
That's odd. I think we should ask the Wordfast product team why that is so. The demo is "fully functional" except that the size of the local TM is limited. It would be surprising if the size of the server TM would also cause Wordfast to refuse to use the TM. After all, the user often has no control over the size of the server TM.
How many of your clients are asking you to use Wordfast? Is it likely that I will encounter more than that one client that would ever ask me to work with Wordfast?
Two or three clients, no more. And those are clients who have settled on using Wordfast for most of their projects anyway. So, no, I don't think buying WFP will open doors for you by itself.
Is there anything that Wordfast can do which Trados Studio can't?
It's a much simpler program but can open most of the file types that Studio can. But I'm sure Studio must have many, many more features (that is my impression -- I own both programs but I use neither of them extensively).
How about shifting TMs from SDL Studio to Wordfast and vice versa - is it a straightforward process?
From Studio to WFP: export the TM to TMX, then create a new TM in WFP, and import the TMX file.
From WFP to Studio: export the TM to TMX, then create a new TM in Studio, and import the TMX file.
The problem is not sharing TMs but sharing TMs in such a way that you get high fuzzy matches for the same file in both programs. The programs tag differently, so their TMs will contain different tags, which means that you won't get all 100% matches even if it is the exact same source text file.
Samuel
[Edited at 2013-09-11 09:53 GMT]
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 17:52
Spanish to English
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Although I don't work with other people's TMs and only use the Classic version, I think Wordfast is easier, cheaper and less buggy than Trados, which also has too many bells and whistles, at least for my work. Not to mention their company ethos, which I find offputting.
I hope you grow to like WF as much as I do (and I still haven't used many of its functions).
| | | | | Another Classic user | Sep 12, 2013 |
I've been using Wordfast Classic for 10+ years now. My pros are the same as neilmac's: WF is simply cheaper and easier to use. You can "look under the hood" in Classic & merge/edit/fix TMs easily. Creating and adding terms to glossaries is a snap - all it takes to add a term is highlighting the source, clicking a shortcut combo, highlighting the target, clicking a shortcut combo (I still haven't figured out Multiterm). It's perfectly serviceable for straightforward Word docs and similar without ... See more I've been using Wordfast Classic for 10+ years now. My pros are the same as neilmac's: WF is simply cheaper and easier to use. You can "look under the hood" in Classic & merge/edit/fix TMs easily. Creating and adding terms to glossaries is a snap - all it takes to add a term is highlighting the source, clicking a shortcut combo, highlighting the target, clicking a shortcut combo (I still haven't figured out Multiterm). It's perfectly serviceable for straightforward Word docs and similar without tons of formatting or tags. Also, some of my Trados clients still use older versions and are perfectly happy to receive segmented WFC files to clean into their TMs. That seems to work really smoothly.
I think at this point if you work in a specialty that extensively uses CAT tools, like I do, it's useful to have more than one, so in that sense it would be good. Although I normally work in WFC, I have one client who uses MemoQ and provides me a license for that and a few others who use Studio 2011, which I own.
[Edited at 2013-09-12 02:33 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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