ProZ.com Translation Forums

Considering CATS, SDL, Wordfast, Fluency - Mac with Parralles | hmm

Michael Beijer — Sun, 21 Dec 2014 17:33:00 +0000

Forum: Smart shoppers
Topic: Considering CATS, SDL, Wordfast, Fluency - Mac with Parralles
Poster: Michael Beijer
Post title: hmm

I'd say that size might matter, in that it could be an indication of either:

(1) the amount of extra garbage a program contains, or
(2) bad coding.

That's just uneducated speculation though, as I can just about manage AutoHotkey (won't be coding anything in Java or C++ any time soon) ;)

Michael

Considering CATS, SDL, Wordfast, Fluency - Mac with Parralles | Which Mac?

Dominique Pivard — Sun, 21 Dec 2014 17:12:00 +0000

Forum: Smart shoppers
Topic: Considering CATS, SDL, Wordfast, Fluency - Mac with Parralles
Poster: Dominique Pivard
Post title: Which Mac?

[quote]2nl wrote:
I don't know which MBA version the OP owns.[/quote]
The OP (Jason) asked his question 2.5 years ago: chances are he has settled for some tool by now. The poster who asked for experience with Fluency (Norskpro) didn't say anything about his Mac: it could be a 11" MBA just like it could be an iMac with a giant display.

My own MBA (late 2010 model) has 4 GB of RAM and a 1440x900 display.

Considering CATS, SDL, Wordfast, Fluency - Mac with Parralles | Screen and disk size do matter

2nl (X) — Sun, 21 Dec 2014 09:47:00 +0000

Forum: Smart shoppers
Topic: Considering CATS, SDL, Wordfast, Fluency - Mac with Parralles
Poster: 2nl (X)
Post title: Screen and disk size do matter

I don't know which MBA version the OP owns. The first generation came with 80 GB HDD or 64 GB SSD. So, I would say: every byte of disk size counts here.

The MBA came with 2 GB of RAM. Since there is a relation between a program's footprint on disk and the amount of memory needed (the relation is not linear), the size of a CAT tool can be relevant here too.

Most important, however, will be the question: how well can the CAT tool be used on a tiny 11" or 13" screen? A WYSIWYG view of the source, a WYSIWYG view of the target and still enough space for TM, glossary, web resources, TL editor etc.? I think that this will be problematic.

[Edited at 2014-12-21 11:45 GMT]

Considering CATS, SDL, Wordfast, Fluency - Mac with Parralles | Size is hardly relevant

Dominique Pivard — Sun, 21 Dec 2014 08:50:00 +0000

Forum: Smart shoppers
Topic: Considering CATS, SDL, Wordfast, Fluency - Mac with Parralles
Poster: Dominique Pivard
Post title: Size is hardly relevant

[quote]2nl wrote:
The MBA comes with very limited disk space, so the size of the CAT tool matters:

[url removed] (174 MB)
[url removed] (5.9 MB)
[/quote]
The smallest size of a hard drive on the MBA is 128 GB. Whether your CAT tool consumes 50 MB or 400 MB of disk space (once installed) hardly matters at all.

Considering CATS, SDL, Wordfast, Fluency - Mac with Parralles | Size matters

2nl (X) — Sun, 21 Dec 2014 08:11:00 +0000

Forum: Smart shoppers
Topic: Considering CATS, SDL, Wordfast, Fluency - Mac with Parralles
Poster: 2nl (X)
Post title: Size matters

[quote]Michael Beijer wrote:

However, I'd recommend CafeTran over Fluency any day. But that's just me.

[/quote]

Me too. And I work with CafeTran for Mac every working day.

The MBA comes with very limited disk space, so the size of the CAT tool matters:

[url removed] (174 MB)
[url removed] (5.9 MB)

Note that the size of CafeTran doesn't include the spell checker, which has to be downloaded separately. Some examples:

de_DE.dic (German): 9.7 MB
fr_FR.dic (French): 1.07 MB

More important: CafeTran is not beta ware but has been developed and improved since 2005. The compatibility with SDL Studio and memoQ is splendid. As with some other CAT tools, a second license (e.g. for another computer or even OS) is included. Also included: one year of user friendly support.

Important: If you want to try CafeTran, you are advised to evaluate this software first. Fluency requires Java 8 and CafeTran currently runs with Java 6 only. It's quite difficult to remove Java 8 and install Java 6.

(Support for Java 8 is expected for 2015.)

[Edited at 2014-12-21 08:13 GMT]

Considering CATS, SDL, Wordfast, Fluency - Mac with Parralles | @Norskpro:

Michael Beijer — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 17:53:00 +0000

Forum: Smart shoppers
Topic: Considering CATS, SDL, Wordfast, Fluency - Mac with Parralles
Poster: Michael Beijer
Post title: @Norskpro:

Fluency just released a beta that runs on Linux and one for Macs.

However, I'd recommend CafeTran over Fluency any day. But that's just me.

Michael

[url removed] (better marketing)
[url removed] (better program)

Considering CATS, SDL, Wordfast, Fluency - Mac with Parralles | Fluency

Norskpro — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 15:52:00 +0000

Forum: Smart shoppers
Topic: Considering CATS, SDL, Wordfast, Fluency - Mac with Parralles
Poster: Norskpro
Post title: Fluency

Wulf-Dieter, what is your experience with Fluency now after some time has passed?
Is it a CAT tool that you would recommend?

I have a Mac and I have not found information that Fluency is mac-compatible, but I have Windows parallels in case it is not.

Jason, what did you decide to buy and why?

Considering CATS, SDL, Wordfast, Fluency - Mac with Parralles | Beware of Trados

Wulf-Dieter Krüger — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 04:16:00 +0000

Forum: Smart shoppers
Topic: Considering CATS, SDL, Wordfast, Fluency - Mac with Parralles
Poster: Wulf-Dieter Krüger
Post title: Beware of Trados

It is overpriced looking at its performance.

It never works properly and very often does what it wants giving a hoot on what you want.

I have been using that software since version 2006, via 2007 to Studio 2009 (test version only) and now Studio 2011.

Spell checker - same junk as since Ver. 2006

Snobby service attitude by a market leader.

Good and more reasonable alternatives are from my point of view:

MemoQ - runs problem free, is faster than Trados, spell checker works properly and exports to Trados, if required. Service is swift and friendly, maintenance agreement is reasonable. I have been using it since Ver. 4.2 via 4.5, now 5.0 and I am looking vorward to their Ver. 6.
Whether they have a Mac Version, I do not know.

MetaTexis Ver. 3 - runs as a Macro under Microsoft Office Word, is very reasonable, service is swift and friendly. Very good for texts with few images, PowerPoint and Exel and other formats like Indesign (portable format) may be processed as well. Whether they have a Mac version I do not know - just ask them and you will get answer quicker than you might imagine.

Fluency seems to be a better alternative to Trados and if it exports to Trados format it might be the better choice (I am testing it at the moment)

Regards

Wulf-Dieter Krüger

Considering CATS, SDL, Wordfast, Fluency - Mac with Parralles

Jason Holt (X) — Tue, 15 May 2012 18:18:00 +0000

Forum: Smart shoppers
Topic: Considering CATS, SDL, Wordfast, Fluency - Mac with Parralles
Poster: Jason Holt (X)

So I am trying to break into the translation freelance industry. I have one contract for a local company and have been bidding on a few contracts here. I have a MacBook Air as my primary machine and have been looking into purchasing a CAT for this contract and other others. I have primarily been using XTM Cloud because the university program I was in got that tool on the LSP level for free. However, that ends in a couple of weeks. I have played with Wordfast and like the fact it has a native Mac client. However, I am not convinced it is the best or fastest workflow. I have looked at fluency, watched a video, and played with it briefly and I really like it. But as has been posted elsewhere, certain outsources require Trados. So I was thinking of getting into a group buy for that. What do you guys recommend for someone entering the field and starting out in translation? Trades is also confusing with all of its extra packages that cost 300 dollars each, like Multiterm. Would I need those kinds of extras in order to do my job effiecenty?