Forum: CAT Tools Technical Help
Topic: Help getting started with CafeTran.
Poster: Jean Dimitriadis
Post title: A few pointers
Hello Stephanie,
[quote]I’ve never used CAT software before but I’ve got a big project coming up and it will really come in handy. I’ve been trying out CafeTran and at the beginning it seemed great, but already in the first document I’ve been running into some problems. [/quote]
I wouldn’t recommend learning CafeTran while tackling a big project or with a deadline looming, so it is good that you take some time to figure out your way with CafeTran beforehand.
If you are a ProZ Plus member, you have free access to a past webinar called “How to Get Started with CafeTran Espresso - Tips and Tricks for Beginners” at [url removed] It could prove helpful to you, although I don’t necessarily recommend that you buy it if you aren’t a Plus member.
[quote]1. I keep getting an error message that reads “Transfer source tags to target. Type a tag number and press Esc key.” This is after clicking the “next” button precisely as I did in the first segments, then all of a sudden it stops working. Am I doing something wrong? Does anyone know what to do here? I can’t click on either the source or target text, nor the segment numbers along the side, it’s like the program has gone half dead.[/quote]
Do you know what “tags” are, in the context of a CAT tool? When a CAT tool such as CafeTran imports a Word document for example, it segments the document according to some segmentation rules, and it creates a bilingual table with the source segments and (usually) empty target segments. When some text is written in bold, in italics, etc., or is a link, and, in general when the formatting changes in the source document, the CAT tool often shows the formatting changes as tags. In CafeTran, you see these tags as red numbers, written in subscript, in the source segment.
The error message that you get wants to remind you the following: Don’t forget to “Transfer source tags to target. Type a tag number and press Esc key.”
Indeed, by default, CafeTran expects that you will add the source tags to your target text, and does not let you go to the next segment if you don’t.
There are many ways to insert tags in CafeTran. One simple way is indeed to put the cursor at the point where you want to insert a tag and do just that: type the corresponding number and press the Esc(ape) key on your keyboard. The number will be converted to the corresponding tag. You can also use the F3 shortcut, and select the tag to insert. I prefer another way, which is the “mouse tag placement” (Ctrl+F3 to toggle it), but just try these two methods for now.
If for some reason you want to skip the segment without getting the error, you can delete the text and go to the next one.
You can also tell CafeTran to stop asking you to insert missing tags, and insert missing tags automatically. You can find this in Action menu > Tags > Automatic transfer of remaining tags. If you use this, please note CafeTran will add all tags under a number 1 tag, which will be placed at the end of the segment. Which means no formatting will be applied to the translated (=target) document. Please don’t do this if you translate external projects, such as Trados files. You will also want to make sure there are not tag issues before exporting your document. Run QA > Tags check to make sure of that.
[quote]2. The instructions for these CAT tools are not exactly always intuitive. They include a lot of jargon that a beginner user doesn’t know, without explaining the terms, and I can’t find a good manual for it written in non-techy speak. I’m a good translator who’s not very techy and this is something I need and want to learn. I’m finding it quite frustrating.
Can anyone recommend a place to find good tips for the beginner about how to use the tool in the first place, in normal language? (I’ve read all the help sections on the program itself, and not finding good help for my specific issue.)[/quote]
I have written some reference documents for CafeTran, available at CafeTran’s Solutions section.
They explain the different Preferences, Menu and interface items, Translation Memory options, changes made in CafeTran and include a discussion on file formats.
These documents are not specifically targeted at beginners, but could be useful if you want to discover the software in depth, or quickly find out about something specific. Feedback is welcome.
Also, be sure to check the official forum: [url removed] were several active CafeTran users can answer to queries. You may also want to post questions there, as there is a dedicated section. I dislike the word, but this is what the section is called: CafeTran for Newbies.
I don’t know which jargon you wish to know about. Some jargon referring to CafeTran specific functions is explained in my reference documents, and I know the old unofficial CafeTran wiki had a jargon section. I have thought of creating one myself. Could you provide some examples?
[quote]3. The tool has also crashed several times, which may be an issue with my computer, but I don’t know why it’s happening. No other program crashes. Could it be the Java issue that they mentioned when I downloaded it? I downloaded the Java version they recommended though, so it should be ok. ??? [/quote]
Two Windows users have reported an issue with the latest Java version and CafeTran here: [url removed]
I suggest you post there, or open a ticket at [url removed] The developer (Igor) is quick to follow up.
Jean