Forum: CAT Tools Technical Help
Topic: Any free CAT tools for beginners?
Poster: Samuel Murray
Post title: Free vs for beginners
[quote]George Avila wrote:
I have one month of previous experience working as a freelancer... [/quote]
Welcome to the world of translation. You can start simple but eventually you'll have to learn how to deal with different file formats.
[quote]I currently don't have the revenue to purchase these subscriptions so I was wondering if there's any CAT tools or translating, editing tools to try out for free to help me start out in the Translating profession. [/quote]
All CAT tools have a learning curve, and whether they are easy to use or suitable for beginners depends on the person's technical skills.
- OmegaT is free. It's a bit of a geek tool but it has a loyal following, so I encourage you to give it a go.
- Wordfast Anywhere costs $10 per month. We can debate about what "full featured CAT tool" means but I think Wordfast Anywhere would come close to it. Wordfast Anywhere was designed to have the same or similar features as Wordfast Pro.
- MateCat is a free online CAT tool. Its features are a bit more limited, but do give it a try.
[quote]I currently have Phrase and MemoQ. [/quote]
Yes, some agency clients will give you access to a CAT tool temporarily for the duration of a project. MemoQ can also be purchased separately but it is horrendously expensive. Phrase is not really intended for freelancers -- you can only really use it as part of an agency's translation project.
Some CAT tools offer indefinite free trials or "demo" modes, with TM size restrictions. These include:
- Cafetran. Restrictions are 1000 TUs and 500 glossary terms. Keep in mind that you can create a new TM and new glossary for every new project, so this really restricts you to projects with fewer than 1000 sentences only. I believe there is also an MT restriction of 50 segments. I'm not sure if you can actually translate files of more than 1000 sentences, but I imagine you should be able to -- it simply won't add more sentences to the TM after 1000 (I'm guessing here).
- Wordfast Pro. The main restriction is 500 TUs. You can use it to translate projects with more than 500 sentences, but it won't add new sentences to the translation memory after 500.
OmegaT is an opensource tool that was developed by a number of developers over the years, mostly on a non-profit basis. CafeTran is developed by a single person, I believe, but he develops the tool actively and has a loyal following. Wordfast is the only tool in this list that is a truly commercial-grade tool that was and is being developed with commercial intent. It is also a tool that was developed with input from large translation agencies (notably TransPerfect, who currently owns it). I don't know the history of MateCat.
[Edited at 2024-12-20 09:57 GMT]
Topic: Any free CAT tools for beginners?
Poster: Samuel Murray
Post title: Free vs for beginners
[quote]George Avila wrote:
I have one month of previous experience working as a freelancer... [/quote]
Welcome to the world of translation. You can start simple but eventually you'll have to learn how to deal with different file formats.
[quote]I currently don't have the revenue to purchase these subscriptions so I was wondering if there's any CAT tools or translating, editing tools to try out for free to help me start out in the Translating profession. [/quote]
All CAT tools have a learning curve, and whether they are easy to use or suitable for beginners depends on the person's technical skills.
- OmegaT is free. It's a bit of a geek tool but it has a loyal following, so I encourage you to give it a go.
- Wordfast Anywhere costs $10 per month. We can debate about what "full featured CAT tool" means but I think Wordfast Anywhere would come close to it. Wordfast Anywhere was designed to have the same or similar features as Wordfast Pro.
- MateCat is a free online CAT tool. Its features are a bit more limited, but do give it a try.
[quote]I currently have Phrase and MemoQ. [/quote]
Yes, some agency clients will give you access to a CAT tool temporarily for the duration of a project. MemoQ can also be purchased separately but it is horrendously expensive. Phrase is not really intended for freelancers -- you can only really use it as part of an agency's translation project.
Some CAT tools offer indefinite free trials or "demo" modes, with TM size restrictions. These include:
- Cafetran. Restrictions are 1000 TUs and 500 glossary terms. Keep in mind that you can create a new TM and new glossary for every new project, so this really restricts you to projects with fewer than 1000 sentences only. I believe there is also an MT restriction of 50 segments. I'm not sure if you can actually translate files of more than 1000 sentences, but I imagine you should be able to -- it simply won't add more sentences to the TM after 1000 (I'm guessing here).
- Wordfast Pro. The main restriction is 500 TUs. You can use it to translate projects with more than 500 sentences, but it won't add new sentences to the translation memory after 500.
OmegaT is an opensource tool that was developed by a number of developers over the years, mostly on a non-profit basis. CafeTran is developed by a single person, I believe, but he develops the tool actively and has a loyal following. Wordfast is the only tool in this list that is a truly commercial-grade tool that was and is being developed with commercial intent. It is also a tool that was developed with input from large translation agencies (notably TransPerfect, who currently owns it). I don't know the history of MateCat.
[Edited at 2024-12-20 09:57 GMT]