| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Trados vs OmegaT Thread poster: Eyob Fitwi
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Eyob Fitwi 
Ethiopia
Local time: 23:00
English to Amharic
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I have tought of starting to get acquainted with CAT, and I frequently see Trados as a requirement from translation seekers. However I wanted to use OmegaT. Are the translation memories of Trados and OmegaT interchangeable; I mean, can I install OmegaT and accept translation memories from Trados requiring clients?
| | | | Adam Łobatiuk
Poland
Local time: 22:00
Member (2009)
English to Polish
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| What you return counts | Sep 6, 2010 |
I haven't used OmegaT myself, so I can't say if you can use Trados TM exports in that application. However, your clients who require Trados will require bilingual files processed in Trados - both in Word and Tag Editor, depending on the project. I don't think OmegaT can offer that.
| | | | | TMs interchangeable through the TMX format | Sep 6, 2010 |
Eyob Fitwi wrote:
I have tought of starting to get acquainted with CAT, and I frequently see Trados as a requirement from translation seekers. However I wanted to use OmegaT. Are the translation memories of Trados and OmegaT interchangeable; I mean, can I install OmegaT and accept translation memories from Trados requiring clients?
Trados can export/import the TMX format and OmegaT recognizes the TMX format, so from this point of view the tools are compatible.
Regards,
Piotr
| | | | Jerzy Czopik
Germany
Local time: 22:00
Member (2003)
Polish to German
+ ...
| Illusory compatibility | Sep 6, 2010 |
between tools. Please do not always believe, that what is stated to be compatible will deliver the same result as the product for which it is the "compatible" replacement.
Piotr is fully right, TMX will be read by nearly all if not all CAT tools on the market.
So you can "pretend" to be compatible in delivering translated monolingual files and a TMX export of your translation memory. However, when the customer then imports that in his system and makes an analysis it is really very li... See more between tools. Please do not always believe, that what is stated to be compatible will deliver the same result as the product for which it is the "compatible" replacement.
Piotr is fully right, TMX will be read by nearly all if not all CAT tools on the market.
So you can "pretend" to be compatible in delivering translated monolingual files and a TMX export of your translation memory. However, when the customer then imports that in his system and makes an analysis it is really very likely, that he will not get all 100% matches - it may even happen he will not get any 100% matches at all! This will certainly depend on the source format. But the segmentation differs between the tools greatly. Also tag handling differs. So if you wish to stay "fully" compatible you need both the original tool for preprocessing and postprocessing and the compatible tool for translating.
This is of course possible, but you need experience in CAT technology. I would strongly advise against doing so, if you are a beginner! ▲ Collapse
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| Pros and cons | Sep 6, 2010 |
Jerzy Czopik wrote:
between tools. Please do not always believe, that what is stated to be compatible will deliver the same result as the product for which it is the "compatible" replacement.
Piotr is fully right, TMX will be read by nearly all if not all CAT tools on the market.
So you can "pretend" to be compatible in delivering translated monolingual files and a TMX export of your translation memory. However, when the customer then imports that in his system and makes an analysis it is really very likely, that he will not get all 100% matches - it may even happen he will not get any 100% matches at all! This will certainly depend on the source format. But the segmentation differs between the tools greatly. Also tag handling differs. So if you wish to stay "fully" compatible you need both the original tool for preprocessing and postprocessing and the compatible tool for translating.
This is of course possible, but you need experience in CAT technology. I would strongly advise against doing so, if you are a beginner!
Jerzy is right about possible differences in leverage (the quality of matches you get from your TM) between various CAT tools.
But I can understand why the topic poster wants to try OmegaT. It is free and even a discounted Trados price can be prohibitive for a beginner. I started with a free CAT too, namely Wordfast, which was free at that time.
If your client provides and expects TagEditor TTX files, then there are (free) tools which will convert them to OmegaT format (XLF) and back. If your client provides you with Word files and expects Word files with workbench segments then you will have to use Wordfast without a license, which supports a TM of up to 500 units, well unless you buy a different CAT tool which supports both of these formats and there is more than one such CAT tool on the market.
Regards,
Piotr
| | | | Didier Briel
France
Local time: 22:00
English to French
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| OmegaT compatibility howto | Sep 6, 2010 |
Eyob Fitwi wrote:
Are the translation memories of Trados and OmegaT interchangeable; I mean, can I install OmegaT and accept translation memories from Trados requiring clients?
In addition to the replies above, you can read the OmegaT compatibility howto
Didier
| | | | Jerzy Czopik
Germany
Local time: 22:00
Member (2003)
Polish to German
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| Pros and cons, revisited | Sep 6, 2010 |
What I mean is not discouraging anyone or saying tools do not deliver what they promise.
But I just want to make all colleagues aware of possible drawbacks of such compatible solutions.
If you know what you are doing the possibility it ends in a disaster is not that big. However if someone is new to CAT and will get "your favourite tool is fully compatible with the tool your customer requiers" in answer, he will end in a complete disaster. That's all.
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Jerzy Czopik wrote:
What I mean is not discouraging anyone or saying tools do not deliver what they promise.
But I just want to make all colleagues aware of possible drawbacks of such compatible solutions.
If you know what you are doing the possibility it ends in a disaster is not that big. However if someone is new to CAT and will get "your favourite tool is fully compatible with the tool your customer requiers" in answer, he will end in a complete disaster. That's all.
I did not say there is full compatibility between OmegaT and Trados. I said there is compatibility through the TMX format at least.
Regards,
Piotr
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Jerzy Czopik
Germany
Local time: 22:00
Member (2003)
Polish to German
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| It was a general remark | Sep 6, 2010 |
not related to any particular answer in this topic. I simply wanted to explain why I do complain about the missing compatibility.
| | | | Jaroslaw Michalak
Poland
Local time: 22:00
Member (2004)
English to Polish
SITE LOCALIZER
I agree with the above - possible, but not without hazards.
It goes without saying that the client should know that you are going to use another tool - then they might be able to help you out. Pretending that you have (and are familiar with) a specific tool might not end too well, especially if you are just beginning.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 22:00
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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Eyob Fitwi wrote:
I mean, can I install OmegaT and accept translation memories from Trados requiring clients?
If your clients export the Trados translation memory (TM) to TMX format, then you can use that TM in OmegaT, yes.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 22:00
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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| Depends on what you have to deliver | Sep 6, 2010 |
Jerzy Czopik wrote:
So you can "pretend" to be compatible in delivering translated monolingual files and a TMX export of your translation memory. However, when the customer then imports that in his system and makes an analysis it is really very likely, that he will not get all 100% matches - it may even happen he will not get any 100% matches at all!
True. If your client wants you to deliver a translated file, then you can use OmegaT safely. If the client wants you to deliver a TM that he can use to re-translate the source file himself, then you can't use OmegaT safely. If the client has a Trados TM that he wants to use to negotiate discounts with you, but he only cares about the end-product (not about getting an updated TM from you), then you can use OmegaT safely.
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John Fossey
Canada
Local time: 16:00
Member (2008)
French to English
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| OmegaT and supporting tools | Sep 6, 2010 |
OmegaT can do a pretty good job for quite a variety of applications.
You're going to run into problems if the client wants a bilingual file, which OmegaT can't do on its own. If you really need to deliver a bilingual file you can use the free version of Wordfast to create a bilingual file.
In addition, you will find some formatting problems. OmegaT won't open .doc files directly (last time I checked) so you have to convert to .odt using OpenOffice, which sometimes c... See more OmegaT can do a pretty good job for quite a variety of applications.
You're going to run into problems if the client wants a bilingual file, which OmegaT can't do on its own. If you really need to deliver a bilingual file you can use the free version of Wordfast to create a bilingual file.
In addition, you will find some formatting problems. OmegaT won't open .doc files directly (last time I checked) so you have to convert to .odt using OpenOffice, which sometimes creates formatting problems. You can work on .docx files directly, but its rather a tag jungle.
That said, if you can work around these problems and get clients to agree to deliver and accept TMX memories, for a no cost start up you can go along way with OmegaT.
[Edited at 2010-09-06 19:01 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Ulf Samuelsson
Mexico
Local time: 14:00
Member (2007)
English to Swedish
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I've never used OmegaT myself for any translation job (I've only tested it briefly), but as far as I understand, it can translate Trados ttx-files, after some conversion.
The conversion procedure is described elsewhere, but didn't seem too complicated.
The point is, that you could use a demo version of Trados 2006 or 2007 and an empty memory to create a populated ttx file (a file with the source segment copied to the target segment). Simply run Translate with the option Segment unkno... See more I've never used OmegaT myself for any translation job (I've only tested it briefly), but as far as I understand, it can translate Trados ttx-files, after some conversion.
The conversion procedure is described elsewhere, but didn't seem too complicated.
The point is, that you could use a demo version of Trados 2006 or 2007 and an empty memory to create a populated ttx file (a file with the source segment copied to the target segment). Simply run Translate with the option Segment unknown sentences selected. That will ensure compatibility with Trados as the segmentation is as Trados will segment the text.
You can also use the same workaround for Word files, for translation in OmegaT. Open the Word file with your demo version of TagEditor, save the ttx file, run the Translate function with the empty memory and do the conversion for translation in OmegaT. After you've competed the translation, you convert back to ttx, open the file in TagEditor and select Save Target As from the File menu.
There's almost always a way to get complete compatibility, but never without some juggling. And it is best to test the procedure on a small file before you do a real job. ▲ Collapse
| | | | TvNellen (X)
United States
Local time: 15:00
English to Dutch
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| Other tools are worth considering | Sep 6, 2010 |
I haven't used OmegaT a lot, because most of my files come in ttx or Trados rtf format, and neither of these is directly supported by OmegaT (please correct me if I'm wrong). It's important to determine what your requirements are before you invest time and money in a CAT tool. Unfortunately I largely depend on Trados. I say unfortunately because in my opinion Trados does not offer value for money. There are better tools out there.
If your clients need clean translated files back, yo... See more I haven't used OmegaT a lot, because most of my files come in ttx or Trados rtf format, and neither of these is directly supported by OmegaT (please correct me if I'm wrong). It's important to determine what your requirements are before you invest time and money in a CAT tool. Unfortunately I largely depend on Trados. I say unfortunately because in my opinion Trados does not offer value for money. There are better tools out there.
If your clients need clean translated files back, you can use pretty much anything. I am very happy with MetaTexis, a relatively unknown but very nice CAT tool that is much more user-friendly than my version of Trados (2007; I don't have any experience with Studio). Many translators are very happy with MemoQ.
However, if your customers want Trados and nothing else, it's probably best to buy Trados, even if it's not the best tool on the market. Compatibility issues can usually be solved, but this often requires complicated workarounds, and solutions may not work in all cases. ▲ Collapse
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