ProZ.com Translation Forums

Any free CAT tools for beginners? | BasicCat

Milan Condak — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 20:41:00 +0000

Forum: CAT Tools Technical Help
Topic: Any free CAT tools for beginners?
Poster: Milan Condak
Post title: BasicCat

Inspired by OmegaT but from China and a slightly different approach

[url removed]

[url removed]

+ more tools

Milan, mostly OmegaT user

Any free CAT tools for beginners? | That's how we roll

Philippe Locquet — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 18:19:00 +0000

Forum: CAT Tools Technical Help
Topic: Any free CAT tools for beginners?
Poster: Philippe Locquet
Post title: That's how we roll

[quote]Hans Lenting wrote:

And there is the heavily promoted (😎) Plus Tools ...[/quote]

Love it! LOL

With free Chat GPT bundled I'd say Yves is burning money to keep warm this winter.

More seriously, I could see that as beginner-firendly approach (never used to teach yet, so, grain of salt). As you start a translation easily in no-hassle mode, you can start seeing benefit of TM, what happens with MT, Ai etc. and then once ready, open the settings and start adding a glossary, be master of your setup etc. Why not.

If someone starts learning CAT tools on +Tools, once they are familiar with it, please contact me I'd love to hear your feedback.

To get started, here's a video among others: [url removed]

Any free CAT tools for beginners? | PlusTools

CafeTran Trainer — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Forum: CAT Tools Technical Help
Topic: Any free CAT tools for beginners?
Poster: CafeTran Trainer
Post title: PlusTools

And there is the heavily promoted (😎) PlusTools: [url removed]

Currently for free (just like WordFast Classic was in the beginning). But eventually the developer will monetize it.

Any free CAT tools for beginners? | Questionable

Lieven Malaise — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 09:52:00 +0000

Forum: CAT Tools Technical Help
Topic: Any free CAT tools for beginners?
Poster: Lieven Malaise
Post title: Questionable

[quote]George Avila wrote:
I hope this post also helps future freelancers to get what they looking for and build their new path in this profession. [/quote]

I'm not sure that relying on free tools because of a complete lack of financial resources is the way to build a new path in this profession. If it is, the road will be extremely bumpy. You will have to earn a living (doesn't sound too difficult at first glance, but as a newbee it will be a challenge to avoid the predators that will be happy to let you work for a snack), but on top of that you will need to make extra money for investments that you basically should have done before you really start.

Good luck, anyway.

Any free CAT tools for beginners? | OmegaT or Wordfast or CafeTran

Epameinondas Soufleros — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 09:39:00 +0000

Forum: CAT Tools Technical Help
Topic: Any free CAT tools for beginners?
Poster: Epameinondas Soufleros
Post title: OmegaT or Wordfast or CafeTran

OmegaT has excellent documentation and is extremely fast and easy once you get the hang of it. It really is much more powerful and feature-rich than I ever though. (Combined with Okapi Framework's Rainbow to handle translation packages, it might be the only duo of tools you will ever need, and they are both free and open-source.)

Wordfast also has very good documentation and offers a rather generous free version.

CafeTran also has a free version that you can use for real work, but its documentation is seriously lacking.

Any free CAT tools for beginners? | Free vs for beginners

Samuel Murray — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 09:36:00 +0000

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]

Any free CAT tools for beginners? | WFA

CafeTran Trainer — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 09:28:00 +0000

Forum: CAT Tools Technical Help
Topic: Any free CAT tools for beginners?
Poster: CafeTran Trainer
Post title: WFA

Wordfast Anywhere seems to do the job.

[url removed]

Any free CAT tools for beginners?

George Avila — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 04:34:00 +0000

Forum: CAT Tools Technical Help
Topic: Any free CAT tools for beginners?
Poster: George Avila

I have one month of previous experience working as a freelancer, I worked for a AI testing company so I never was introduced or knew CAT tools were a thing until now

I am very naive in this topic and I noticed there's CAT tools required for certain jobs but they're under subscriptions, 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

I currently have Phrase and MemoQ.

I hope this post also helps future freelancers to get what they looking for and build their new path in this profession.