Alignment summary...
Mar. 7th, 2014 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpI ran through the alignment software offered by MemoQ, Trados (2007 version), and both Wordfast Pro and Wordfast PlusTools—in pretty much that order—and just as one finds what is lost in the last place one looks for it, it was the PlusTools that enabled me to align two files that weighed in at about 75,000 words each.
Besides its clunky interface, the MemoQ aligner did not do a good job of segmenting the files, and while the Trados aligner exhibited superior segmentation, it ran slowly on my old Windows 7 machine and exhibited some of the same interface issues as MemoQ (i.e., an inability to delete stuff).
The Wordfast Pro aligner is not very intuitive, and does not appear to have the ability to join or split segments, so I gave that up as an alternative pretty quickly.
The PlusTools aligner did a very good job of segmenting the files, and even has a feature that helps undo some of the damage done by abbreviations (such as "г." and "гг." in Russian, which are used whenever a year or year range is stated, or in front of any city name).
A good indicator of how well PlusTools addressed my needs is the fact that I was able to make good progress rather quickly.
In an ideal world, one would review both source and translation as one aligns, but this is not an ideal world, so one uses all sorts of speed-reading tricks to check the alignment and move through the file. Numbers, names, dates, and the beginnings and ends of sentences are useful checkpoints. Sometimes, I would risk skipping a few paragraphs if they were preceded and followed by what looked like a "good" alignment pair
Yet despite all the tricks, I was not able to progress much faster than about 12,000 words per hour.
In the end, I managed to create a translation memory file with just short of 3,000 pairs (called "translation units). Given the number of abbreviations and names (both of persons and settlements) in the first part of what is on my plate, I think creating this TM will be worth the time invested.
Oh? Is it Friday night?
It completely slipped my mind. :^)
Cheers...
Besides its clunky interface, the MemoQ aligner did not do a good job of segmenting the files, and while the Trados aligner exhibited superior segmentation, it ran slowly on my old Windows 7 machine and exhibited some of the same interface issues as MemoQ (i.e., an inability to delete stuff).
The Wordfast Pro aligner is not very intuitive, and does not appear to have the ability to join or split segments, so I gave that up as an alternative pretty quickly.
The PlusTools aligner did a very good job of segmenting the files, and even has a feature that helps undo some of the damage done by abbreviations (such as "г." and "гг." in Russian, which are used whenever a year or year range is stated, or in front of any city name).
A good indicator of how well PlusTools addressed my needs is the fact that I was able to make good progress rather quickly.
In an ideal world, one would review both source and translation as one aligns, but this is not an ideal world, so one uses all sorts of speed-reading tricks to check the alignment and move through the file. Numbers, names, dates, and the beginnings and ends of sentences are useful checkpoints. Sometimes, I would risk skipping a few paragraphs if they were preceded and followed by what looked like a "good" alignment pair
Yet despite all the tricks, I was not able to progress much faster than about 12,000 words per hour.
In the end, I managed to create a translation memory file with just short of 3,000 pairs (called "translation units). Given the number of abbreviations and names (both of persons and settlements) in the first part of what is on my plate, I think creating this TM will be worth the time invested.
Oh? Is it Friday night?
It completely slipped my mind. :^)
Cheers...
