I've struggled long and hard with Trados, trying to convince myself that I do actually understand toggles, tags, filter settings...but I know I'm deluding myself. My brain just isn't that way inclined. What I need is a translation tool that remembers my terminology, can apply it to my document, display options and automatically translate bits I've done previously, without having to worry about toggly things that strike of CAT tool innards and organs that I don't have the surgical experience to deal with.

Oh, the joys of the new, improved no-surgery-required Similis! No tags, no toggles, does just what you want it to...a nice clear display, and you don't have to have a CAT tool PhD to be able to use it; it's beautifully simple. Not only that, but the Similis people are actually HELPFUL; now that's a refreshing change!

Trados better watch out - they have a serious competitor...

Lucy-Jane

Hi Lucy-Jane,

It's high time for that: I'm fed up with Trados and its promotional aggressiveness. I fully share your opinion on Trados and things but my CAT tool of choice is Deja Vu...

On the second day of learning the program I could work with it. Now I don't translate anything without Deja Vu even when I actually don't need any TM. I prefer to work in Deja Vu GUI environment because it's more pleasant and convenient for translations than that of MS Word. It's a pure joy while working with Trados is just pain in the ass...

NK

I certainly echo your sentiments about Trados...although my own CAT tool of choice is MetaTexis. I was never comfortable with tools that requried the use of their own environment, as I once got stuck when using one and had to copy and paste every sentence of the job to get it "out". Maybe Chinese complicates things.

Terry,

I've never experienced anything like that.

As for Deja Vu own interface, in my view it's a big plus. In most cases WordFast and Trados are just ad-ons to corresponding programs, in order to handle projects in Word, Excel, PageMaker, QuarkXPress, InDesign, etc. you should know all those programs. When you work with Deja Vu you don't need even to be familiar with all those applications because every task within Deja Vu is performed from and within the same user interface. Deja Vu  is not only a translation tool, but a highly customisable translation environment. It is designed to simplify the whole translation and translation management process. In my view it is very important.

For translators, this means that there's no training required to be proficient on a number of word processing, desktop publishing, software, and web development tools. And for project managers, it takes away any worries that the coding of their files may be corrupted.

NK