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Your experience with MemoQ
Thread poster: Ken Fagan (X)
Ken Fagan (X)
Ken Fagan (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 02:23
French to English
Oct 24, 2007

Hello,

I'd be grateful if colleagues could comment on their experience (good/bad) using MemoQ specifically in Word docs.

Thank you


 
Wolfgang Jörissen
Wolfgang Jörissen  Identity Verified
Belize
Dutch to German
+ ...
Solid tool Oct 24, 2007

Hi Ken,

I tested MemoQ on a couple of Word documents some time ago and I did not experience any trouble. It was very self-explaining, import and export went flawlessly, but - being a DVX user - I find that it stills lacks some functionality in terms of terminology insertion and compatibility. But anyway, give it a go!

Wolfgang


 
Heike Behl, Ph.D.
Heike Behl, Ph.D.  Identity Verified
Ireland
Local time: 01:23
Member (2003)
English to German
+ ...
Not for me Oct 24, 2007

Hi Ken,

IMO MemoQ, in spite of its userfriendly appearance, lacks a couple of essential features in regard to tag handling.

If you exclusively deal with Word documents, it might be a reasonably useful tool.

For Word files, MemoQ offers WYSIWYG formatting for bold, italics and underline, a nice feature. However, if your text contains additional formatting such as font changes or different colored fonts that need to be re-positioned in a different order, you
... See more
Hi Ken,

IMO MemoQ, in spite of its userfriendly appearance, lacks a couple of essential features in regard to tag handling.

If you exclusively deal with Word documents, it might be a reasonably useful tool.

For Word files, MemoQ offers WYSIWYG formatting for bold, italics and underline, a nice feature. However, if your text contains additional formatting such as font changes or different colored fonts that need to be re-positioned in a different order, you'd have to do this manually afterwards in the exported translation in Word.

If you deal with any tagged texts such as html, xml, or similar, it's basically useless since you cannot manipulate the embedded tags at all. Every single tag (and there's no way to find out its function) needs to be placed in the target text in exactly the same order as in the source text, and you can't add any new tags.

You can find some of my complaints and some additional comments in this discussion:
http://www.proz.com/topic/83896

IMO, it's not yet an appropriate tool for a versatile professional translator who needs to be able to handle all sorts of file formats. Its limitations could also cause some major problems for translators with no experience in working with tags (even within Word) since they might not even be aware of the chaos they might create. I recently edited a translation, which made me wonder whether the translator had used MemoQ or something similar since there were a lot of problems caused by tags being inserted in exactly the same position as in the source. Not good...
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Rox-Edling
Rox-Edling
Germany
Local time: 02:23
Spanish to German
+ ...
A fine tool Oct 25, 2007

MemoQ is quite similar to DVX, but despite to what Heike says,
I made the following experience:

  • I never had serious problems, even not with heavily formatted docs.
  • MQ is able to handle presegmented TTX files - the only 3rd party tool besides DVX
  • An incredible responsive and extremely caring support (have you ever asked SDL or Atril/DVX for support?).
    ... See more
MemoQ is quite similar to DVX, but despite to what Heike says,
I made the following experience:

  • I never had serious problems, even not with heavily formatted docs.
  • MQ is able to handle presegmented TTX files - the only 3rd party tool besides DVX
  • An incredible responsive and extremely caring support (have you ever asked SDL or Atril/DVX for support?).
  • with Framemaker/MIF, it is really nice to work on it with MQ.
  • The WYSIWYG-Feature covers most problems that can arise with formatted texts and better than anything else available.
  • An incredible responsive and extremely caring support (have you ever asked SDL or Atril/DVX for support?).
  • this includes a very active development with the possibility to add wishes (this does not mean that they automatically get realized, but at least they are responded to and commented).
  • comparing the costs, MQ is at least worth a try (there is also a trial version, of course)


No tool is perfect, but to me it seems that compared to SDLX/Trados and DVX, MemoQ is more stable and seems to make less problems.

Just my 2 cents...
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Ken Fagan (X)
Ken Fagan (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 02:23
French to English
TOPIC STARTER
is "context TM" so important? Oct 25, 2007

When I contacted MemoQ to ask about the differences (in Word) between Wordfast & MemoQ, this is one of the 2 differences cited:

- Wordfast does not have a so-called context TM feature. As a basic rule, in a translation memory you store source sentences and their translations. However, one sentence - especially the short phrases - can often be translated in different ways. So if you get a 100% match - i.e.
the sentence that you are translating now is identical to a sentence y
... See more
When I contacted MemoQ to ask about the differences (in Word) between Wordfast & MemoQ, this is one of the 2 differences cited:

- Wordfast does not have a so-called context TM feature. As a basic rule, in a translation memory you store source sentences and their translations. However, one sentence - especially the short phrases - can often be translated in different ways. So if you get a 100% match - i.e.
the sentence that you are translating now is identical to a sentence you translated before - you can't be perfectly sure it's the right translation. MemoQ also stores the context, the sentence (segment) preceding and following the actual sentence you are translating and can distinguish between a 101% match and a 100% match. In a 101% match, not only the sentence you are translating is identical to the one stored in the TM but also the sentences before and after. Therefore you can usually be sure that a 101% match is always perfect and you don't have to check that part. If you ever happen to translate contracts for a client, and those contracts are created from previous contract by amending a few clauses, 101% matching is a very powerful tool. Usually companies use this to translate later versions of existing documents.
Besides MemoQ, this tool is available in Trados, Idiom Worldserver and Deja Vu, but all of them charge at least 3000 USD for this. We decided to leave it in the basic package to convert more users to MemoQ.


In my case it just so happens that I woud use the program for contracts with lots of exact reps.
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Rodolfo Raya
Rodolfo Raya  Identity Verified
Local time: 22:23
English to Spanish
More tools do TTX Oct 25, 2007

Torsten Rox wrote:
  • MQ is able to handle presegmented TTX files - the only 3rd party tool besides DVX


  • Hi,

    Heartsome's XLIFF Editor supports TTX too. And the best thing is that it does not need to be pre-segmented in Trados. The XLIFF Editor is able to segment the TTX file and it lets you select the segmentation rules at will.

    Regards,
    Rodolfo


     
    David Turner
    David Turner  Identity Verified
    Local time: 02:23
    French to English
    + ...
    Make life easier for translators Oct 26, 2007

    Heike Behl, Ph.D. wrote:
    IMO, it's not yet an appropriate tool for a versatile professional translator who needs to be able to handle all sorts of file formats. Its limitations could also cause some major problems for translators with no experience in working with tags (even within Word) since they might not even be aware of the chaos they might create.


    You really do sound like a DTP localization manager (perhaps you are?:-)) rather than a translator.
    What most translators want is a simple-to-use tool that will increase THEIR productivity and consistency and make life easier for THEM.
    MemoQ does just that as Torsten confirmed.
    They don't want to be forced to use a clumsy tool like TagEditor which offers zero productivity features and is designed exclusively to make life easier for the layout department.
    BR,
    David


     
    Heike Behl, Ph.D.
    Heike Behl, Ph.D.  Identity Verified
    Ireland
    Local time: 01:23
    Member (2003)
    English to German
    + ...
    It definitely doesn't make my life easier... Oct 26, 2007

    David Turner wrote:

    You really do sound like a DTP localization manager (perhaps you are?:-)) rather than a translator.
    What most translators want is a simple-to-use tool that will increase THEIR productivity and consistency and make life easier for THEM.
    MemoQ does just that as Torsten confirmed.
    They don't want to be forced to use a clumsy tool like TagEditor which offers zero productivity features and is designed exclusively to make life easier for the layout department.
    BR,
    David


    ...and I am a translator and not a DTP person. But my clients all expect a finished project and I have no problems with that as there are tools around that allow me to do just that without bending over backwards.

    I'm not saying that MemoQ is useless, on the contrary, it has some really promising features. But it's definitely not my personal top choice for the reasons I stated. And for these very reasons, I can not wholeheartedly recommend it - yet. I do hope they keep refining this tool and implementing additional features.

    Ken did ask for personal experience and feedback after all...


     
    David Turner
    David Turner  Identity Verified
    Local time: 02:23
    French to English
    + ...
    Examples Oct 26, 2007

    Heike Behl, Ph.D. wrote:
    I'm not saying that MemoQ is useless, on the contrary, it has some really promising features. But it's definitely not my personal top choice for the reasons I stated. And for these very reasons, I can not wholeheartedly recommend it - yet. I do hope they keep refining this tool and implementing additional features.
    Ken did ask for personal experience and feedback after all...


    Of course, but I found your "basically useless" a wee bit harsh.
    Perhaps you could send Kilgray a couple of short real-life examples of font colour or size changes causing potential problems and see what they make of it? They're very responsive.
    Have a good weekend,
    David Turner


     
    Gergely Vandor
    Gergely Vandor
    Hungary
    Local time: 02:23
    English to Hungarian
    improved inline tag handling and Office document support Oct 31, 2008

    Dear All,

    Some remarks from a member of the MemoQ development team about recent developments in the issues raised in this thread.


    IMO MemoQ, in spite of its userfriendly appearance, lacks a couple of essential features in regard to tag handling.

    If you exclusively deal with Word documents, it might be a reasonably useful tool.

    For Word files, MemoQ offers WYSIWYG formatting for bold, italics and underline, a nice feature. However, if your text contains additional formatting such as font changes or different colored fonts that need to be re-positioned in a different order, you'd have to do this manually afterwards in the exported translation in Word.


    Yes, this is true, and can indeed be inconvenient if there is heavy and complex formatting inside a single segment. (If the segment has only one or two formatting changes in it, which is more likely, it should not pose a problem.) However, I would like to point out that this was a conscious design decision. The numbered formatting tags allow you to translate Word documents with complex formatting and layout even if you do not have an in-depth understanding of Word. It is also very stable and reliable: if the formatting tags are properly inserted, usually only very little post-processing is required.

    MemoQ also has a "real-time" preview feature for Office formats, which allows you to take a look at your document in a format that is very similar to the original. The preivew pane resides in the translation window. The segment you are translating is highlighted and updated in the preview immediatelly when it is confirmed.


    If you deal with any tagged texts such as html, xml, or similar, it's basically useless since you cannot manipulate the embedded tags at all. Every single tag (and there's no way to find out its function) needs to be placed in the target text in exactly the same order as in the source text, and you can't add any new tags.


    This is no longer true, the situation has improved significantly. MemoQ now provides inline tags (like the ones TagEditor uses) for XML, TTX, INX, MIF and XLIFF. Inline tag support for HTML is coming soon. Inline tags can be reordered or even edited if needed.


    IMO, it's not yet an appropriate tool for a versatile professional translator who needs to be able to handle all sorts of file formats. Its limitations could also cause some major



    There can indeed be cases when the format to be translated is not supported directly by MemoQ. A possble solution is to import and presegment the document in Trados. After this, the Trados TTX document can be translated in MemoQ. MemoQ can also be used to translate documents in the XLIFF format, which is a standard format for translation document exchange between tools. If you (or the agencies you work for) have another tool that supports the format you need to translate, and also has true XLIFF support, it can be an option.


    problems for translators with no experience in working with tags (even within Word) since they might not even be aware of the chaos they might create.


    I agree, but I don't think you can completely avoid tags in a translation tool, especially for formats that are inherently tagged (HTML, XML, etc.)

    In the case of the Word format, a tool without tags (like Trados Workbench paired with Word) can cause even worse chaos in complex documents if the translator does not have in-depth knowledge of how Word works. And even so, there are the segmentation codes that the translator can still damage if she is not careful or experienced enough.

    Best Regards,
    Gergely Vandor

    [Edited at 2008-10-31 10:11]


     
    Stanislav Pokorny
    Stanislav Pokorny  Identity Verified
    Czech Republic
    Local time: 02:23
    English to Czech
    + ...
    Not moving tags by design? Mar 3, 2009

    Yes, this is true, and can indeed be inconvenient if there is heavy and complex formatting inside a single segment. (If the segment has only one or two formatting changes in it, which is more likely, it should not pose a problem.) However, I would like to point out that this was a conscious design decision. The numbered formatting tags allow you to translate Word documents with complex formatting and layout even if you do not have an in-depth understanding of Word. It is also very stable and reliable: if the formatting tags are properly inserted, usually only very little post-processing is required.


    You aren't serious about that, are you? Just imagine a help sentence like this:

    To move to the <span class="important">next tag</span>, press the <span class="gui">Next Placeable</span> button.

    If you are translating this sentence into Czech, you can start with the second clause sentence for better understandability. If you can't move the tags around, you simply HAVE TO interchange the "important" and "gui" classes, so the target HTML will look different than the source. And this is definitely not what I call heavy formatting. Have you ever thought about that?

    [Upraveno: 2009-03-03 19:42 GMT]


     
    Gergely Vandor
    Gergely Vandor
    Hungary
    Local time: 02:23
    English to Hungarian
    Yes, we did think about that :) Mar 4, 2009

    Stanislav Pokorny wrote:

    If you are translating this sentence into Czech, you can start with the second clause sentence for better understandability. If you can't move the tags around, you simply HAVE TO interchange the "important" and "gui" classes, so the target HTML will look different than the source. And this is definitely not what I call heavy formatting. Have you ever thought about that?

    [Upraveno: 2009-03-03 19:42 GMT]


    HTML can already be imported with reorderable inline tags. Office documents currently can't, but that function will be added very soon.

    So where you are likely to face this problem is DOC files: those are imported with MemoQ {1} formatting tags that can't be reordered. Still, I beleive it's relatively rare to have several formatting tags in a segment. I just took a look at a file I'm working on, and in about 200 segments there are two segments that contain tags, and only of them contains two tags. Don't forget that bold, italic and underline are handled through direct visible formatting by MemoQ, and MemoQ does everything it can to reduce the number of tags, and does it well. That's one of the things many users appreciate the most in it.

    Best regards,
    Gergely Vandor, Kilgray


     
    Stanislav Pokorny
    Stanislav Pokorny  Identity Verified
    Czech Republic
    Local time: 02:23
    English to Czech
    + ...
    Perfect then Mar 7, 2009

    I believe this will increase MemoQ's usability greatly. Good luck then!

     
    Mikhail Popov
    Mikhail Popov
    Montenegro
    Local time: 02:23
    English to Russian
    + ...
    Nice tool Apr 21, 2009

    It's much more convenient than Wordfast 5.53, especially when I'm working with big Word docs and Excel or PowerPoint files. I don't work with HTML and other tagged documents, so never faced with above-mentioned problems.

    Filters are very nice. Usually, when I start translation, I translate all terms quite quick, but later I can discover that it is better to change translation of some terms, because I understood document much deeper. And I just put this terms in the filter and can ea
    ... See more
    It's much more convenient than Wordfast 5.53, especially when I'm working with big Word docs and Excel or PowerPoint files. I don't work with HTML and other tagged documents, so never faced with above-mentioned problems.

    Filters are very nice. Usually, when I start translation, I translate all terms quite quick, but later I can discover that it is better to change translation of some terms, because I understood document much deeper. And I just put this terms in the filter and can easily correct all segments with this term.

    Pre-translate with all these settings is a thing! My friends with Trados are very envious when I'm showing them this option, especially with translation of a little bit updated document.

    I had some issues with numbers, but I managed to deal with it. But in any case, Wordfast works with numbers much better.
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    Rod Walters
    Rod Walters  Identity Verified
    Japan
    Local time: 10:23
    Japanese to English
    Bodes ill for J > E Powerpoint May 9, 2009

    Gergely Vandor wrote:

    So where you are likely to face this problem is DOC files: those are imported with MemoQ {1} formatting tags that can't be reordered. Still, I beleive it's relatively rare to have several formatting tags in a segment.


    I'm checking out MemoQ now for Japanese, and here, people go hogwild with their colours and bold in Powerpoint. Japanese has a completely different sentence structure from English, so that would pose a problem for me.

    Do any Proz users have any experience with MemoQ and Japanese? Or know of any forum where this is discussed?


     
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