Forum: CAT Tools Technical Help
Topic: starting out as a freelancer advice on purchasing CAT tools
Poster: Samuel Murray
Post title: Some more comments
[quote]Katrin Braams wrote:
Trados should be your first choice, as among the jobs which prescribe the use of a certain CAT tool it is certainly the one most often called for. [/quote]
It is true that clients sometimes require a specific tool for a job, but in my experience clients are just as likely to require Trados as they are likely to require MemoQ. By the way, 10 or 15 years ago, a lot more clients thought that all CAT tools are called "Trados" (in the same way that some people think that all e-mail programs are called "Outlook" or all PDF editors are called "Adobe"), and so a request for "Trados" was simply a request for fuzzy match discounts. These days, in my experience, when a client asks for "Trados", he really means Trados. Still, even if a client requests a tool that I don't have, I simply tell him which tools I *do* have, because agency clients are usually aware of how to make files from one tool work well enough in another tool.
[quote]If clients do require other tools, such as Memsource, MemoQ or XTM, they usually provide free licenses. [/quote]
None of my clients who want me to use Memsource or XTM have ever required me to have my own Memsource or XTM license, in order to work on their jobs. With MemoQ, however, I only sometimes get a temporary license from the agency. So far, in the majority of cases where my clients absolutely required MemoQ, the agencies did not supply a temporary license. Some of them do, but in my experience most of them don't. Whether an agency is able to provide a temporary license for MemoQ also depends on the type of agreement that they themselves have with MemoQ.
[quote]If you succeed with Trados, you succeed everywhere! [/quote]
I used to think that, and thought that my inability to get to grips with MemoQ was due to my own stupidity, but I recently dug into MemoQ more deeply and I discovered that the reason I could not figure it out was because it is actually very different from Trados, and the best way to learn MemoQ is to forget everything you've learn of Trados.
[quote]Hans Lenting wrote:
[quote]Katrin Braams wrote:
I don’t remember ever having seen a job posted which made the use of CafeTran mandatory. [/quote]
That's because it uses open standards: a generic XLIFF that can be read by all other CAT tools. [/quote]
The file format may be generic, but the workflow isn't. I suspect the reason why clients may demand e.g. Trados or MemoQ has to do with the fact that both those programs have predictable workflows, e.g. a translator role, a reviewer role, etc., and it makes the PM's life easier if all service providers can provide services that fit into that workflow.
This is why it often doesn't matter if you're actually using Trados or MemoQ, as long as it seamlessly appears to the client (or his tool) that you do. I'm not suggesting lying about it, but I think that often an e.g. "We require Trados" project is simply a "We require that your deliveries fit into our Trados workflow" project, and some (many?) agencies are willing to help you, if you are otherwise a desirable translator.
[quote]Jean Dimitriadis wrote:
- Interoperability is a real thing. [/quote]
Yes, for the most basic tasks, there is often a way to make it work if you have e.g. Trados and the client has e.g. MemoQ. This does require computer skills on your part, and it requires a willingness on the client's part.
[quote]- Don't just think initial cost, but total cost of ownership. [/quote]
For both Trados and MemoQ, if you bought it 10 years ago (Trados 2009, MemoQ 4.2) and never upgraded your version, you can still accept most Trados and MemoQ jobs even today, because their file formats did not really change. So, if you're skint or niggardly, your total cost of ownership could be just the initial price.
Continuing to work with 2010's MemoQ may be more challenging, because MemoQ is not file-based but database driven, but the exported XLIFF files should still work just fine. A Trados 2009 user should be able to handle almost all of the critical elements of a job that is meant for Trados 2019.
That said, some bugs only get fixed in newer versions that you have to pay for, so you should expect to buy upgrades as time goes by. Price-wise, the upgrade paths for both Trados and MemoQ work out to about the same in the end. Even if you choose to skip certain upgrades, i.e. if you upgrade less frequently than geek colleagues, you end up paying similar amounts anyway.
If you use Memsource's $27/month system or XTM Cloud's $42/month system, you'll exceed the cost of an initial Trados or MemoQ purchase after about 2 years, so in that sense Memsource or XTM Cloud is more expensive in the long run, if we don't consider upgrades.
Topic: starting out as a freelancer advice on purchasing CAT tools
Poster: Samuel Murray
Post title: Some more comments
[quote]Katrin Braams wrote:
Trados should be your first choice, as among the jobs which prescribe the use of a certain CAT tool it is certainly the one most often called for. [/quote]
It is true that clients sometimes require a specific tool for a job, but in my experience clients are just as likely to require Trados as they are likely to require MemoQ. By the way, 10 or 15 years ago, a lot more clients thought that all CAT tools are called "Trados" (in the same way that some people think that all e-mail programs are called "Outlook" or all PDF editors are called "Adobe"), and so a request for "Trados" was simply a request for fuzzy match discounts. These days, in my experience, when a client asks for "Trados", he really means Trados. Still, even if a client requests a tool that I don't have, I simply tell him which tools I *do* have, because agency clients are usually aware of how to make files from one tool work well enough in another tool.
[quote]If clients do require other tools, such as Memsource, MemoQ or XTM, they usually provide free licenses. [/quote]
None of my clients who want me to use Memsource or XTM have ever required me to have my own Memsource or XTM license, in order to work on their jobs. With MemoQ, however, I only sometimes get a temporary license from the agency. So far, in the majority of cases where my clients absolutely required MemoQ, the agencies did not supply a temporary license. Some of them do, but in my experience most of them don't. Whether an agency is able to provide a temporary license for MemoQ also depends on the type of agreement that they themselves have with MemoQ.
[quote]If you succeed with Trados, you succeed everywhere! [/quote]
I used to think that, and thought that my inability to get to grips with MemoQ was due to my own stupidity, but I recently dug into MemoQ more deeply and I discovered that the reason I could not figure it out was because it is actually very different from Trados, and the best way to learn MemoQ is to forget everything you've learn of Trados.
[quote]Hans Lenting wrote:
[quote]Katrin Braams wrote:
I don’t remember ever having seen a job posted which made the use of CafeTran mandatory. [/quote]
That's because it uses open standards: a generic XLIFF that can be read by all other CAT tools. [/quote]
The file format may be generic, but the workflow isn't. I suspect the reason why clients may demand e.g. Trados or MemoQ has to do with the fact that both those programs have predictable workflows, e.g. a translator role, a reviewer role, etc., and it makes the PM's life easier if all service providers can provide services that fit into that workflow.
This is why it often doesn't matter if you're actually using Trados or MemoQ, as long as it seamlessly appears to the client (or his tool) that you do. I'm not suggesting lying about it, but I think that often an e.g. "We require Trados" project is simply a "We require that your deliveries fit into our Trados workflow" project, and some (many?) agencies are willing to help you, if you are otherwise a desirable translator.
[quote]Jean Dimitriadis wrote:
- Interoperability is a real thing. [/quote]
Yes, for the most basic tasks, there is often a way to make it work if you have e.g. Trados and the client has e.g. MemoQ. This does require computer skills on your part, and it requires a willingness on the client's part.
[quote]- Don't just think initial cost, but total cost of ownership. [/quote]
For both Trados and MemoQ, if you bought it 10 years ago (Trados 2009, MemoQ 4.2) and never upgraded your version, you can still accept most Trados and MemoQ jobs even today, because their file formats did not really change. So, if you're skint or niggardly, your total cost of ownership could be just the initial price.
Continuing to work with 2010's MemoQ may be more challenging, because MemoQ is not file-based but database driven, but the exported XLIFF files should still work just fine. A Trados 2009 user should be able to handle almost all of the critical elements of a job that is meant for Trados 2019.
That said, some bugs only get fixed in newer versions that you have to pay for, so you should expect to buy upgrades as time goes by. Price-wise, the upgrade paths for both Trados and MemoQ work out to about the same in the end. Even if you choose to skip certain upgrades, i.e. if you upgrade less frequently than geek colleagues, you end up paying similar amounts anyway.
If you use Memsource's $27/month system or XTM Cloud's $42/month system, you'll exceed the cost of an initial Trados or MemoQ purchase after about 2 years, so in that sense Memsource or XTM Cloud is more expensive in the long run, if we don't consider upgrades.