Forum: CAT Tools Technical Help
Topic: Efficiency of using CAT tools in comparison to using none
Poster: Miss EMC Marshland
Post title: Losing work
One agency which was a source of regular work now uses Across. I find this easier to use than Trados but for some reason it will not create a preview file but instead freezes. The agency insists on a preview file. Across suggests I need to subscribe rather than use the free basic version. I now have lost a regular source of work. Another agency insists on translation using its online platform. It is not user-friendly and is very slow. At one point I got work because other people refused to use it. I then saw the light and also refused. I now get no work from that agency. A third regular agency insists on Trados but I have some kind of glitch that I could not overcome so now no longer receive work from that agency. I am now trying to find other new agency clients and looking into Trados 2019. My clients have no problems with the quality of my translations - and being legal documents there is usually no need to align them with a client's glossary - the vocabulary is not special to the client's business. But the quality of my work does not count - only that I fall in line with whatever arbitrary requirement someone in an agency imposes. Also of course it is the freelancer who invests in these CAT tools. whereas agencies seek to reduce the fee for repetition and thus capitalise on the freelancer's investment. And to the response that a CAT tool speeds up the job, that is not my experience and I too find working in segments very slow and restrictive. So - you pay your money and you take your choice. Perhaps trying to use a free tool and seeing whether the whole concept suits you is worth a try - we are, after all, all different.
Topic: Efficiency of using CAT tools in comparison to using none
Poster: Miss EMC Marshland
Post title: Losing work
One agency which was a source of regular work now uses Across. I find this easier to use than Trados but for some reason it will not create a preview file but instead freezes. The agency insists on a preview file. Across suggests I need to subscribe rather than use the free basic version. I now have lost a regular source of work. Another agency insists on translation using its online platform. It is not user-friendly and is very slow. At one point I got work because other people refused to use it. I then saw the light and also refused. I now get no work from that agency. A third regular agency insists on Trados but I have some kind of glitch that I could not overcome so now no longer receive work from that agency. I am now trying to find other new agency clients and looking into Trados 2019. My clients have no problems with the quality of my translations - and being legal documents there is usually no need to align them with a client's glossary - the vocabulary is not special to the client's business. But the quality of my work does not count - only that I fall in line with whatever arbitrary requirement someone in an agency imposes. Also of course it is the freelancer who invests in these CAT tools. whereas agencies seek to reduce the fee for repetition and thus capitalise on the freelancer's investment. And to the response that a CAT tool speeds up the job, that is not my experience and I too find working in segments very slow and restrictive. So - you pay your money and you take your choice. Perhaps trying to use a free tool and seeing whether the whole concept suits you is worth a try - we are, after all, all different.