Off topic: Best CAT tool for a beginner? Thread poster: Firas Allouzi
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Firas Allouzi 
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:52
English to Arabic
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Hi All,
I am fairly new to all tools would you advice me please what is the best and easiest for a beginner, and at the same time do the job and preferable for clients.
Thank you
| | | | John Di Rico
France
Local time: 21:52
Member (2006)
French to English
| Wordfast Anywhere | Jan 3, 2012 |
Hello Firas,
I would recommend trying Wordfast Anyhwhere (www.freetm.com). It is free and there are a lot of online training videos and good user support from the development team (see user forums).
Good luck!
John Di Rico
www.apextra.net
| | | | JLLTranslation
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:52
French to English
+ ...
| probably SDL Studio | Jan 4, 2012 |
Hi,
if you're wanting to work for clients, your best bet is SDL Studio, giving you Trados and SDLX compatibility. If you want to work for SDL, this is what you'll need and it will probably enable you to reach the greatest range of other potential clients. But some clients e.g. Lionbridge, have their own tool. So it depends on your client base as well. You need to decide which clients you plan to target for work. If you're going to target smaller clients, ask which tool they would want you ... See more Hi,
if you're wanting to work for clients, your best bet is SDL Studio, giving you Trados and SDLX compatibility. If you want to work for SDL, this is what you'll need and it will probably enable you to reach the greatest range of other potential clients. But some clients e.g. Lionbridge, have their own tool. So it depends on your client base as well. You need to decide which clients you plan to target for work. If you're going to target smaller clients, ask which tool they would want you to have.
Hope this helps. ▲ Collapse
| | | | esperantisto
Local time: 22:52
Member (2006)
English to Russian
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER | Mutually exclusive | Jan 5, 2012 |
Firas Allouzi wrote:
best and easiest for a beginner, and at the same time do the job and preferable for clients.
Your requirements are mutually exclusive if your prospective clients are translation agencies because they use mainly such tools as SDL Trados Studio or DejaVu X, definitely not the easiest ones. Thus, if you’re going to work for such clients, learn their program, don’t waste time for any other.
I use OmegaT for most of my jobs and do recommend trying out. It is a really easy and robust program.
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wilhelm_zwo (X)
Netherlands
Local time: 21:52
German to Dutch
| My advice: CafeTran | Aug 15, 2013 |
Firas Allouzi wrote:
Hi All,
I am fairly new to all tools would you advice me please what is the best and easiest for a beginner, and at the same time do the job and preferable for clients.
Thank you
I'd advise CafeTran: easy to learn and not expensive. You can handle many formats.
| | | | DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
+ ...
| Yyves may be sad again | Aug 16, 2013 |
yet I can't help recommending rather old, but tiny and free WordFast 3.35x (MS Office add-on), which works like a charm and does mostly everything a decent translator may require, unless it's about MACOS or *nix platform. Being under 2 MB (!) it's quite easy and forward-going ever.
It works with so ancient MS Office'97 to quite modern Office'2003, however it may have some minor problems with newer 'stripped' versions.
Furthermore, having some extra money and choice, Gr... See more yet I can't help recommending rather old, but tiny and free WordFast 3.35x (MS Office add-on), which works like a charm and does mostly everything a decent translator may require, unless it's about MACOS or *nix platform. Being under 2 MB (!) it's quite easy and forward-going ever.
It works with so ancient MS Office'97 to quite modern Office'2003, however it may have some minor problems with newer 'stripped' versions.
Furthermore, having some extra money and choice, GroupBuy is a very nice option.
(Perhaps it really depends on your platform too.)
IMO ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tony M
France
Local time: 21:52
Member
French to English
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER | Wordfast Classic | Aug 18, 2013 |
Assuming you are working with MS Word, then I personally am a great fan of WFC.
When I first started looking at CAT tools (ages ago now!), I tried a few of the 'classic' ones, but they were so impenetrable and counter-intuitive, it felt like you needed to be a computer programmer to use them, and I soon gave them up as a waste of time; I was not prepared to invest the time taken to overcome the steep learning curve in addition to the already steep price. They in fact put me off the ... See more Assuming you are working with MS Word, then I personally am a great fan of WFC.
When I first started looking at CAT tools (ages ago now!), I tried a few of the 'classic' ones, but they were so impenetrable and counter-intuitive, it felt like you needed to be a computer programmer to use them, and I soon gave them up as a waste of time; I was not prepared to invest the time taken to overcome the steep learning curve in addition to the already steep price. They in fact put me off the idea of using CAT at all for a long, long time.
Then I came across Wordfast ('Classic' now, but the only one back then) — to start with, I liked the whole approach, the sales policy, and the very fair approach to the trial version.
I found it intuitive to use, it did not require me to totally rethink my workflow, and I was up and running (well, crawling) in a very short time; this is partly due to the very well-written manual, which being in .doc format is readily searchable. Also, Yves has taken the trouble to explain much of the jargon used — which I find is the biggest onstacle along the learning curve: if you don't know what something is called, you can't even start looking for help, and vice-versa, if you encounter something with an unfamiliar name, it's not always obvious what it's for (or indeed, whether I even need it or not).
No doubt the other CAT tools have evolved since those early days, but I have not felt the need to go back to them again, since Wordfast meets all my current CAT needs, in an intuitive way that is close to my normal workflow pattern. ▲ Collapse
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