MemoQ or Trados? For WMPL XLIFF Files - Arabic and French
Thread poster: Jody Parente
Jody Parente
Jody Parente
Israel
Local time: 14:56
Nov 16, 2014

I hope to be managing a project for translation of WPML XLIFF files into French and Arabic (from English). Is MemoQ or Trados better? And why?

[Edited at 2014-11-16 12:32 GMT]


 
Dominique Pivard
Dominique Pivard  Identity Verified
Local time: 14:56
Finnish to French
Both will do the job (and many more too) Nov 16, 2014

What is your "managing" going to consist of, and why do you restrict your choice to these two tools?

Most CAT tools these days can do a word count, count repetitions etc. Most also support the XLIFF format. The three languages you are dealing with probably don't matter too much either.

Regarding memoQ and Trados, are you considering the Project Manager edition (memoQ) / Professional edition (Trados), which would let you handle projects with multiple target languages, or
... See more
What is your "managing" going to consist of, and why do you restrict your choice to these two tools?

Most CAT tools these days can do a word count, count repetitions etc. Most also support the XLIFF format. The three languages you are dealing with probably don't matter too much either.

Regarding memoQ and Trados, are you considering the Project Manager edition (memoQ) / Professional edition (Trados), which would let you handle projects with multiple target languages, or the less expensive freelance versions?
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Jody Parente
Jody Parente
Israel
Local time: 14:56
TOPIC STARTER
Re: WPML Plugin with Trados/MemoQ Nov 16, 2014

Thanks, Dominique.

A few things:
1) I wanted a tool that didn't just handle XLIFF files, but ones generated from WPML (I see the typo in my subject, oops). I wanted to be sure the correct tags were open and translatable, and irrelevant ones were locked for translation.

2) I want to build a TM. This is potentially a large project.

3) I'd probably go with the less expensive freelance ones at this time.

4) It would be great if all the tra
... See more
Thanks, Dominique.

A few things:
1) I wanted a tool that didn't just handle XLIFF files, but ones generated from WPML (I see the typo in my subject, oops). I wanted to be sure the correct tags were open and translatable, and irrelevant ones were locked for translation.

2) I want to build a TM. This is potentially a large project.

3) I'd probably go with the less expensive freelance ones at this time.

4) It would be great if all the translators on this project were using the same tools, as too many tools can make it messy.

Do you have any suggestions for something better?
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Dominique Pivard
Dominique Pivard  Identity Verified
Local time: 14:56
Finnish to French
Many flavours of XLIFF out there Nov 16, 2014

Jody Parente wrote:
1) I wanted a tool that didn't just handle XLIFF files, but ones generated from WPML (I see the typo in my subject, oops). I wanted to be sure the correct tags were open and translatable, and irrelevant ones were locked for translation.

Hundreds of tools can produce XLIFF files, and WPML (whatever that is, I'm not familiar with it) is just one of them. I don't think any CAT tool specifically supports the particular XLIFF produced by WPML. However, different CAT tools offer different levels of configuration when importing XLIFF, so you may want to check how memoQ, Trados and others fare with WPML XLIFF, and whether further tweaking is necessary when importing these files.

Here are for example some of the options available in memoQ when importing XLIFF files:



I'm sure Trados has something similar.
Jody Parente wrote:
2) I want to build a TM. This is potentially a large project.

All CAT tools will let you build a TM.
Jody Parente wrote:
3) I'd probably go with the less expensive freelance ones at this time.

You can download trial versions of memoQ, Trados and many other tools. I think you should do this before making your mind. Note that these are rather complex tools and chances are you can only scratch the surface during the limited trial period (memoQ: 45 days, Trados: 30 days).
Jody Parente wrote:
4) It would be great if all the translators on this project were using the same tools, as too many tools can make it messy.

OTOH, many translators dislike being "forced" to use one particular tool by their client. XLIFF was designed with interoperability in mind.


 
Dominique Pivard
Dominique Pivard  Identity Verified
Local time: 14:56
Finnish to French
WPML = WordPress multilingual plugin Nov 25, 2014

Dominique Pivard wrote:
Jody Parente wrote:
1) I wanted a tool that didn't just handle XLIFF files, but ones generated from WPML (I see the typo in my subject, oops). I wanted to be sure the correct tags were open and translatable, and irrelevant ones were locked for translation.

Hundreds of tools can produce XLIFF files, and WPML (whatever that is, I'm not familiar with it) is just one of them. I don't think any CAT tool specifically supports the particular XLIFF produced by WPML. However, different CAT tools offer different levels of configuration when importing XLIFF, so you may want to check how memoQ, Trados and others fare with WPML XLIFF, and whether further tweaking is necessary when importing these files.

OK, WPML appears to be the WordPress multilingual plugin. Because WordPress is a very popular content management system (CMS), I guess we'll see more and more XLIFF originating from said plugin (assuming the plugin is popular, or gains popularity, for making multilingual websites). So just out of interest: did you open your WPML XLIFF in memoQ and Trados, and how did those fare?


 
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 13:56
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
Ask your translators - and there is an app... Nov 25, 2014

I use Trados for a number of reasons, but I have looked into MemoQ and can understand why others like it. I still prefer Studio myself, and tend to work with agencies who use Studio, but I know of some who have opted for MemoQ and work chiefly with translators who use MemoQ...

I have just heard that there is an app in the SDL Open Exchange that facilitates some transfers from MemoQ to Studio 2014 (the latest and IMHO best version of the SDL Trados product).

It is not di
... See more
I use Trados for a number of reasons, but I have looked into MemoQ and can understand why others like it. I still prefer Studio myself, and tend to work with agencies who use Studio, but I know of some who have opted for MemoQ and work chiefly with translators who use MemoQ...

I have just heard that there is an app in the SDL Open Exchange that facilitates some transfers from MemoQ to Studio 2014 (the latest and IMHO best version of the SDL Trados product).

It is not difficult to transfer from one to the other, but if you are going to work with colleagues who already use the tools, find out which the majority use and why.

Think about terminology management and 'side features'
The core features in most CATs will be similar and it will not make much difference which you choose. But the other features like the glossaries might make a difference.

I like the SDL Multiterm function, and I am not familiar with the glossary function in MemoQ. However, I have heard that it is good for people who find Multiterm too complicated. If you are making a straight bilingual or trilingual glossary, as simple as possible, that may be an advantage.

The greater versatility is why I stayed with Mulltiterm and learned to use some of the features for notes, synonyms and so on. I use it to save typing and not exclusively as a glossary - you can invent flexible ways of using it.

The latest version (2014 with SP2) is independent of Java. I have not tried it out much yet - it was only released last week.... but that should eliminate one source of glitches.
Again, there is an app in the Open Exchange that does a lot of the work automatically in seconds.

Look into other features - how fonts and different alphabets are handled, and Arabic in particular. Again, ask people who work with the tools in your particular languages.

How well does OCR work?
You need to play with details like that when you try out the free demos.

Best of luck!
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Jody Parente
Jody Parente
Israel
Local time: 14:56
TOPIC STARTER
Thank You! And... "Locking" Untranslatable Text Nov 26, 2014

Thanks, everyone, for your responses. They are very helpful. I plan to do some comparisons in the next couple of days.

One of the reasons I asked specifically about the WPML XLIFF files, is I wanted to be sure that all untranslatable text is marked "Not for Translation". Yes, any XLIFF file can be used with almost any translation tool, but how much extra content will there be that is counted in the Word Count that is not for translation? I was wondering if MemoQ or Trados already ha
... See more
Thanks, everyone, for your responses. They are very helpful. I plan to do some comparisons in the next couple of days.

One of the reasons I asked specifically about the WPML XLIFF files, is I wanted to be sure that all untranslatable text is marked "Not for Translation". Yes, any XLIFF file can be used with almost any translation tool, but how much extra content will there be that is counted in the Word Count that is not for translation? I was wondering if MemoQ or Trados already had an appropriate parser for those or if a customized one needs to be made.

I need to review it again, but it seems the FR translators I'd like to use have MemoQ and the Arabic ones have Trados. It would be easiest for me for them all to be using the same one (I'm not just a PM, but also a Localization Engineer).

Fortunately, on the WPML site, there are directions for translating their XLIFF files in Trados or MemoQ; so I will go through those as well.
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Rusalia
Rusalia
Spain
Memsource supports WordPress XLIFF Feb 26, 2015

Since January 2015, Memsource supports WPML XLIFF files.

Also, you can have a look at this recent article that explains how to localize WordPress using CAT tools and CSV or XLIFF files.

I hope you find it useful.


 
Jody Parente
Jody Parente
Israel
Local time: 14:56
TOPIC STARTER
MemoQ Ruled! Feb 26, 2015

Dominique and everyone else,

We ended up using MemoQ. One proofreader used Trados Studio 2014 and it added some tags and reordered others, so partway through the project he switched to MemoQ. MemoQ kept it clean. It required a custom parser to make it translator friendly.

And support at MemoQ is amazing. Trados Studio crashed a few times.

Thanks again


 


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MemoQ or Trados? For WMPL XLIFF Files - Arabic and French







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