again... I don't have any special attachment to any CAT tool in particular. In essence, they all do the same thing: aid in the translation process. They all have a grid look to them where the source text is on the left and there are blank segments and fuzzy matches on the right side. All you have to do is fill the segments on the right with the translation and update the fuzzy match segments to match the source meaning. Easy enough.
However, not all CAT tools are as good as the rest. The much touted Wordfast Pro lacks accelerator keys, meaning you can't hit alt + a if you want to replace all in a find and replace dialog. I consider this function to be a basic entry level functionality that just about all software programs flaunt. I have read and I concur with this: Wordfast was not developed for translators, and on top of that, the developers are resting on their laurels.
But I digress... The other day, I tried to import a converted PDF document, where dead (scanned, non-editable text) was converted. Let's hold a funeral for the dead text and bury it! Anyway, Wordfast was finicky about importing it and managed to take about half of it into its fold. (Always compare imported text with the original to make sure it's all there and there are no mistakes.
My second choice was Trados. I must explain that I am not a Coke or Pepsi kind of person in that I confide in the most popular brands. I go for less marketed programs. In other words, I drink Sorbete Letelier. When I imported the text, Trados sucked it all in like a vacuum cleaner and it was off to the races!
Some months earlier, I experienced a fiasco involving Wordfast Pro and an Excel file. Unfortunately, I was not as nimble to flip out my much vaunted copy of Trados. I slogged through a jumble of words, and when I exported the spreadsheet, it was a royal mess. Initially, I thought I could patch things up with Trados, which did not fail me, but it was too much work copying and pasting the jumbled text into the perfectly ordered rows of Trados. Since I was running out of time, I had to burn the midnight oil and translate directly into the Excel spreadsheet without the benefit of any CAT. Live and learn.
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