TM with no CAT Tools
Thread poster: RaghdaTrott
RaghdaTrott
RaghdaTrott
United States
Local time: 07:59
Arabic to English
+ ...
Apr 25, 2017

Hi,

I am a bit stuck here, I don't like using CAT tools. An individual recruited me and asked me to translate a website, which is what I am in the process of doing. Now he wants me to send him a TM! The source files are in .html, the target files are in MS Word. What should I do now? Any solution? Knowing that I do not have any CAT tools currently installed on any of my devices.

I tried to use WordFast online but it is very limited in terms of the number of files.
... See more
Hi,

I am a bit stuck here, I don't like using CAT tools. An individual recruited me and asked me to translate a website, which is what I am in the process of doing. Now he wants me to send him a TM! The source files are in .html, the target files are in MS Word. What should I do now? Any solution? Knowing that I do not have any CAT tools currently installed on any of my devices.

I tried to use WordFast online but it is very limited in terms of the number of files.

HELP!

Thank you in advance.

Regards,
Raghda
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Sergei Leshchinsky
Sergei Leshchinsky  Identity Verified
Ukraine
Local time: 13:59
Member (2008)
English to Russian
+ ...
Align... Apr 26, 2017

using any on-line CAT-tool. Simply upload the files in both languages, and it will do the magic. Then, download the TM.

 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:59
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Tell Apr 26, 2017

JUst tell your client that you don't use CAT tools and that therefore no TM is available. I don't like (nor need) CAT tools either and I've had the same experience.

[Edited at 2017-04-26 09:24 GMT]


 
Mirko Mainardi
Mirko Mainardi  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 12:59
Member
English to Italian
Spreadhseet > CSV > TMX Apr 26, 2017

RaghdaTrott wrote:

An individual recruited me and asked me to translate a website, which is what I am in the process of doing. Now he wants me to send him a TM! The source files are in .html, the target files are in MS Word.


First off, you could (maybe even should...) simply tell him you don't have a TM because you didn't use a CAT tool (since this also happens to be the truth).

If you can't/don't want to do that, then I believe the simplest way to go about it would be using a spreadsheet to create a file with both source and target, making sure they are in the right cells, then export as CSV and create a TM (e.g. TMX) based on that (you could use the old Xbench 2.9 for this, for instance). I believe that directly aligning your source html with a word file could create a lot of misaligned segments plus a lot of rubbish due to tags.


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 12:59
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Tell him sorry Apr 26, 2017

RaghdaTrott wrote:
Now he wants me to send him a TM! The source files are in .html, the target files are in MS Word. What should I do now?


Unless you regularly align files (and you don't), you're going to end up spending an awful lot of time aligning the files to create a TM. The output from automatic alignment systems need to be checked by yourself, and I envisage hours of work.

It's unfortunate for the client, but he should have specified from the start that he would want a TM in addition to the translation. I'm not saying that he has no right to ask for the TM (even if he did not mention it at the start), but he has no right to expect of you to create the TM if your translation procedure does not automatically create a TM as a by-product.


 
Michael Beijer
Michael Beijer  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:59
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
LF Aligner Apr 26, 2017

https://sourceforge.net/projects/aligner/



 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 11:59
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
He certainly can't have it for free Apr 26, 2017

Tom in London wrote:
JUst tell your client that you don't use CAT tools and that therefore no TM is available.

You can't be expected to do anything else. If there was no mention of TM delivery at the outset then he has absolutely no right to demand one now, and certainly not for free. I doubt you could even use an alignment program in your case as you worked from the HTML files - but I really don't know about that. If it can be done, and you don't mind learning how to do it yourself, then tell him you'll charge for your time. But if you don't want the hassle, just give him the program link and suggest he does it himself.

That may sound harsh, and of course you'd want to be an awful lot more diplomatic in your message to your client, but he really can't expect you to do work beyond the translation you were contracted to do. Certainly not for free, and maybe not at all.


 
Mario Chavez (X)
Mario Chavez (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 07:59
English to Spanish
+ ...
You translate HTML files in Word? Bad move Apr 26, 2017

Whether you use CAT tools or not, using MS Word to translate HTML files is bad practice. There are many other (better) options to do that, starting with Notepad ++ (free). For HTML editors with preview, you need to do your own search and experiment.

 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 12:59
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
@Mario Apr 26, 2017

Mario Chavez wrote:
Using MS Word to translate HTML files is bad practice.


It's bad practice to open HTML files in MS Word and trying to translate them as HTML files, but I got the impression that Raghda's translation is in the MS Word format itself, which is not a bad thing. It's only bad if you expect the client to be able to generate an HTML file directly from your MS Word file.


 
DZiW (X)
DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
+ ...
@Raghda Apr 27, 2017

And what does your contract read and say about this?
*IF* there's no such a provision in the contract, then it's but a value-added service.


 


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