mercredi 8 juin 2011

Some tools never die

In a notice from a translation agency looking for a DE-EN translator today, I found the following requirement for translation of a Powerpoint presentation: Trados version 6.5 or above (excluding version 2009) & TagEditor.

Excluding SDL Trados Studio 2009? As if Studio 2009 or Kilgray's MemoQ didn't handle translation of TTX files brilliantly ... much better than TagEditor in fact. All you have to do is create the TTX in TagEditor, and in the case of MemoQ, pre-segment it in Workbench. With either tool, your output file will be a TTX, and the agency won't be able to tell which tool you used.

Let's not forget either that Trados 6.5 is no longer supported and is 8 years old: it was released in 2003. Has translation technology made no progress in 8 years?

Even if you consider using the still supported SDL Trados Suite 2007, you're still stuck in a time warp of 4 years.

How retrograde and technophobic can translation agencies get?

2 commentaires:

  1. You forgot "ignorant", Doug. Lots of that at certain agencies. I've had PMs at two ask that I translate scanned files (one containing handwritten bits) using Trados. Each time I smiled to myself and responded, "Most certainly, but I'll need you to share with me how to do this". Strangely, the requirement was waived shortly afterward.

    There are some wonderful, golden kernels out there... buried in a lot of chaff.

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