Cat tool for book translation Thread poster: Ana Zeta
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Dear colleagues,
I would like to ask your opinion here. I am currently translating a book of social science articles, and I would like to know if you recommend using any CAT tool to make the translation of books easier. I’m sure the same question must have been asked before in this forum, but I haven’t been able to locate it, so I apologize if this has all already been covered!
Thank you!
Ana
| | | | Marjolein Snippe 
Netherlands
Local time: 23:02
Member (2012)
English to Dutch
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| what do you want it to do? | Sep 27, 2023 |
Hi Ana,
I have only worked with a few standard CAT tools and they mostly do the same things. They all make it easy to work with glossaries and with segments or terms that occur repeatedly within a project or across different projects.
They can also be useful or even indispensable if clients want you to use a particular translation memory to ensure consistency with previous translations.
What is it that you want from a CAT tool? In other words, how do you want it to make... See more Hi Ana,
I have only worked with a few standard CAT tools and they mostly do the same things. They all make it easy to work with glossaries and with segments or terms that occur repeatedly within a project or across different projects.
They can also be useful or even indispensable if clients want you to use a particular translation memory to ensure consistency with previous translations.
What is it that you want from a CAT tool? In other words, how do you want it to make your work easier? ▲ Collapse
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 23:02
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Ana Zeta wrote:
I would like to ask your opinion here. I am currently translating a book of social science articles, and I would like to know if you recommend using any CAT tool to make the translation of books easier.
Any CAT tool will work fine, but you're more likely to get benefits from the glossary feature than from the translation memory feature, so when you choose a CAT tool, make sure you learn the glossary feature.
In what format is your source files? How computer literate are you? You could try e.g. Wordfast Anywhere (relatively cheap) or OmegaT, though both of them have a bit of a learning curve.
https://www.wordfast.com/anywhere (online tool)
https://sourceforge.net/projects/omegat/files/OmegaT%20-%20Standard/OmegaT%206.0.0/ (unfortunately it seems that good old 5.7.1 is no longer available for download)
| | | | Ana Zeta
German to Spanish
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TOPIC STARTER
Hello, thank you very much for your responses!
I'm very used to working with CAT tools for technical translations (Across, Memoq, Matecat, Sdl Trados, etc.), but in this case, I was wondering if they are useful for better organizing myself when dealing with such a lengthy document like a book. Currently, I'm working with the side by side feature in MS Word, with "synchronous scrolling" activated. That's why I was asking if there might be a better method.
Thank you for your help... See more Hello, thank you very much for your responses!
I'm very used to working with CAT tools for technical translations (Across, Memoq, Matecat, Sdl Trados, etc.), but in this case, I was wondering if they are useful for better organizing myself when dealing with such a lengthy document like a book. Currently, I'm working with the side by side feature in MS Word, with "synchronous scrolling" activated. That's why I was asking if there might be a better method.
Thank you for your help ▲ Collapse
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| Terminology management | Sep 28, 2023 |
For any sort of academic translation, you're going to want to keep your terminology straight. You'll probably be needing to research many of the terms, and you'll want to use them consistently across all the articles/chapters. Most CAT tools will do that for you, so just pick your favorite one.
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I used it to translate 3 books this year. It's free and as indicated by the colleagues above, all cats are grey that is all CAT tools basically offer the same kind of support, and the preferences are often based more on personal likes and dislikes, customer's choice, etc. than on actual advantages of one over another.
| | | | David Kane
Brazil
Local time: 18:02
Member (2022)
Portuguese to English
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As others have said, most CAT tools are basically the same thing, so it's a matter of which you are familiar with and find easiest to use. Matecat is good possibility because it automatically accesses a vast number of TMs and glossaries, which may be helpful for your case.
https://site.matecat.com/benefits
| | | | Oliver Simões
United States
Local time: 14:02
English to Portuguese
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Much against my will and principles, I never thought I would be making this statement: Artificial intelligence rules.
Lately, I've seen a better output from machine translators than from a good number of human translators. At least in my language pair, which is English - Portuguese.
Time and time again, I see creative human translations that interject words and concepts that are not in the source text, and most translators don't seem to have a sense of linguistic regi... See more Much against my will and principles, I never thought I would be making this statement: Artificial intelligence rules.
Lately, I've seen a better output from machine translators than from a good number of human translators. At least in my language pair, which is English - Portuguese.
Time and time again, I see creative human translations that interject words and concepts that are not in the source text, and most translators don't seem to have a sense of linguistic register. The result is nothing but catastrophic, and most likely it would not pass a qualifying exam, such as ATA and Abrates.
[Edited at 2023-10-02 13:09 GMT]
[Edited at 2023-10-02 13:10 GMT]
[Edited at 2023-10-02 13:10 GMT]
[Edited at 2023-10-02 13:12 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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| yet another option | Oct 2, 2023 |
Ana Zeta wrote: Currently, I'm working with the side by side feature in MS Word, with "synchronous scrolling" activated. That's why I was asking if there might be a better method. Thank you for your help
You could try Wordfast Classic. There is a Demo mode, you can download it here https://www.wordfast.net/?go=classic
I mention it because you're working directly in MS Word and Wordfast Classic is an add-on to MS Word. It has all the standard CAT features (TM, gloss, QA, MT etc.).
For a Book as it's been said by the colleagues, the TM won't be a lot of help as there's not a lot of repeated segments. All that can help you with typing (glossary, spell-checking etc.) will help. I would advise against the use of MT for such tasks as it would make you deviate from your own writing skills in terms of style and choice of words.
Enjoy this job, translating a book is many translators' dream
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 23:02
Spanish to English
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| WF Classic for me | Oct 2, 2023 |
[quote]Philippe Locquet wrote:
You could try Wordfast Classic. There is a Demo mode, you can download it here https://www.wordfast.net/?go=classic
-> I rarely translate books or similar texts, but on the odd occasion I have found WF Classic helpful to ensure consistency.
| | | | Steven Capsuto
United States
Local time: 17:02
Member (2004)
Spanish to English
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| Vital CAT feature | Oct 3, 2023 |
Yes, use a CAT tool for all the reasons mentioned above, but also for the feature that has always struck me as the crowning glory of CAT tools: concordance searching for words or phrases in the source or target segments of the active and reference TMs.
[Edited at 2023-10-03 14:48 GMT]
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