CafeTran

Hi everyone,

I see there are lots of discussions about Studio and CafeTran. My question is quite simple. When agencies say they only work with Studio, can we accept projects from them with CafeTran? And the same goes with MemoQ? Also, do I need to be a CafeTran wizard or is it not too complicated?

Thank you,

Claire

It seems all quite straightforward although the test doc was small and simple. But I have to say I like to see the doc in Word format. I actually find I edit it a lot when I see it in Word form. When I see it altogether, I can see what needs tweaking much easier. Not sure if I'm the only one.

Thank you again. You've helped me learn a lot.

Claire

I agree this is a major drawback. In native CT projects and files, you can preview the file at any time, split and merge, export to bilingual with an option to easily reimport changes and of course export the target document. It is not just a matter of editing the text as a whole, but also of taking care of final formatting and presentation.

If you have the source uni-lingual document, you can still have a pretty good idea of the end document (and can track where you are in the document exporting Word file as HTML and using it for preview). And imagination helps too. But still.

Note this is mostly true for Word files (Excel files are not a issue really).

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I haven't tested the following specifically, but just here's a thought.

You could use Virtualbox to install Windows on your Mac or PC (with shared folders between host and guest computer), then install the 30-days free trial version of Trados, so that you can prepare / export the files but still do the rest through CafeTran.

Virtualbox also has a nifty feature: snapshots. Take a snapshot of the virtual machine just after installing the software trial. Restore the snapshot when trial ends: effectively extend the trial.

Even without that, knowing how Trados presents itself and works and making some tests on your own will also help.

I'm glad to have been of help :-)

Jean

It's true that you can't preview a translation produced from a Studio package as a Word file, but that's true when working with Studio too. (I believe that it's theoretically possible for clients to set projects up so that this is possible, but I've never known one to actually do it. A lot of the files I'm asked to translate for clients who send me Studio packages are non-Word files anyway - PDFs, InDesign, etc.)

On your VirtualBox suggestion idim,
1. Why would you want to prepare the files in Studio? If you've been sent e.g. Word files, you can translate them directly in CT.
2. What you describe is prety much my setup. I run a couple of Windows VMs using VirtualBox for various Windows only functions (including checking and tidying up more complex Studio files in Studio after translating them in CafeTran). Whilst you can take and restore from a snapshot, the date and time are taken from the system, so that's not going to help with licensing of the demo version. (Perhaps there's a way around that, but by default if you change the system date or time it just gets changed straight back.)

I recently had a big project with over 100 word data sheets.

The agency works with Trados, and requested to receive sdlxliff files, I had to create the project in Trados prior to working on CafeTran. It would have been awkward not to prepare the project myself, as I also had to fix formatting issues on the exported files before the final delivery.

Also had instances of clients asking for a file exported in the original format, not only the sdlxliff (ok, mostly for convenience).

Another reason can be: because the proofreader will be expected to review the files in Trados...

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Yes, you must be right for the trial suggestion. If the trial clock starts at first launch/installation... then save a snapshot before installing the trial! Restore snapshot, install it again.

Jeremy, you also said you have Antidote, so we really must have similar setups :-)

Jean (Ioannis)