wordcount in MemoQ
Thread poster: simon tanner
simon tanner
simon tanner  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 03:28
Italian to English
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Sep 14, 2010

Does anyone know why the wordcounts offered by MemoQ are so different to those in Word? The memoQ wordcount/character count for a given file can be up to 15% -20% less than in Word, and when you're dealing with a long file that can be a significant number of words, which in turn can cause problems when you try to estimate the amount of time you need to finish a job in progress. I receive most of my jobs in Word format, and translate 90% of them using MemoQ, so the this failure of the two applica... See more
Does anyone know why the wordcounts offered by MemoQ are so different to those in Word? The memoQ wordcount/character count for a given file can be up to 15% -20% less than in Word, and when you're dealing with a long file that can be a significant number of words, which in turn can cause problems when you try to estimate the amount of time you need to finish a job in progress. I receive most of my jobs in Word format, and translate 90% of them using MemoQ, so the this failure of the two applications to comunicate numerically is a bit annoying. Is there a solution?Collapse


 
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 03:28
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
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Is it because of the figures? Sep 14, 2010

Try with a self-made file with and without figures. I think you might find that CAT tools don't count figures as translatables, whereas Word counts everything as words.

 
simon tanner
simon tanner  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 03:28
Italian to English
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TOPIC STARTER
no figures Sep 14, 2010

no, I'm talking about straightforward text files, without figures, and usually without footnotes either. Usually without many numbers either, for that matter

 
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 03:28
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Dashes, bars, slashes? Sep 14, 2010

I wonder whether it could be because of dashes, bars, slashes between words, where Word could count two words and MemoQ only one? I mean things like "war-ridden", "Yes/No"...

 
Grzegorz Gryc
Grzegorz Gryc  Identity Verified
Local time: 03:28
French to Polish
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Word definition in MQ Sep 14, 2010

Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote:

I wonder whether it could be because of dashes, bars, slashes between words, where Word could count two words and MemoQ only one? I mean things like "war-ridden", "Yes/No"...

Yes.
And other.
It was widely discussed here:
http://www.proz.com/forum/memoq_support/145907-memoq_why_should_it_count_less_words_than_trados.html

Generally, the word in MQ is a string between spaces or ponctuation marks.
I think it's a bad definition, a standard like GMX-V should be adopted.
See e.g. http://www.lisa.org/Global-information-m.104.0.html

Cheers
GG


 
simon tanner
simon tanner  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 03:28
Italian to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Trados/MemoQ/Word Sep 14, 2010

thanks for putting me on to that thread, Grzegorz. Yes, I know there is a difference between MemoQ and Trados, but it's usually not more than a couple of percent. What shocked me was the much larger discrepancy between both of them and Word wordcounts. Seeing as my prices are quoted on Word documents, it's not an economic issue for me, but I do find it a touch disorienting

 
Thomas Rebotier
Thomas Rebotier  Identity Verified
Local time: 19:28
English to French
Same issue... May 31, 2014

I''d long thought that it was because MS Word counts MemoQ tags as words when isolated, but no, it's something else. I checked by eliminating all extraneous material in a memoQ table sent by my client. About 5% cut compared to MS Word. Keep in mind that Trados and WordFast word counts are themselves a bit different and overall higher than MS Word. I'm curious to know whether this is intentional and a sales argument from MemoQ to the agencies.

 
Madeleine Chevassus
Madeleine Chevassus  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 03:28
Member (2010)
English to French
SITE LOCALIZER
in MemoQ there are two word counts modes Jun 3, 2014

hi

when activating statistics in MemoQ (2013 and above), there are two options for word count:

MemoQ or Trados-like.

which one did you try?

Madeleine


 


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wordcount in MemoQ






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