Multitrans Prism Freelance
Thread poster: AllegroTrans
AllegroTrans
AllegroTrans  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:04
Member (2011)
French to English
+ ...
Mar 14, 2013

There is very little about this CAT tool on the ProZ forums. The freelance dition appranetl costs 799 USD and leverages content not only from the user's TMs but from selected online corpora.

I would be most interested to hear from anybody that is using it


Chris Farrall


 
Flor L
Flor L
Local time: 23:04
Multitrans Prism Mar 16, 2013

Hi,

I think leveraging content not only from user's TMs but from certain online sources is not an unique feature of Multitrans. As far as I can see, most of the current CAT tools are able to tap online source in one way or another.

What Multitrans makes different is the structure of the translation memory. They have corpus based translation memories, which means that documents are feeded as a whole in the memory, surviving there as full documents, not minced in segments
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Hi,

I think leveraging content not only from user's TMs but from certain online sources is not an unique feature of Multitrans. As far as I can see, most of the current CAT tools are able to tap online source in one way or another.

What Multitrans makes different is the structure of the translation memory. They have corpus based translation memories, which means that documents are feeded as a whole in the memory, surviving there as full documents, not minced in segments, but well aligned. This offers a number of advantages. For example, for every match the translator always has the full context of the document from where the match originates, the full source document from where the match is coming from can be identified and read. Or, because the document/translation is not destroyed by segmentation, higher level matches are possible. You will not only get the usual segment matches, sentence by sentence, but even paragraph matches are possible. Multitrans is also strong in giving subsegment matches and last but not least in terminology analysis and extraction.

AllegroTrans wrote:

There is very little about this CAT tool on the ProZ forums. The freelance dition appranetl costs 799 USD and leverages content not only from the user's TMs but from selected online corpora.

I would be most interested to hear from anybody that is using it


Chris Farrall
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AllegroTrans
AllegroTrans  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:04
Member (2011)
French to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks for that Mar 17, 2013

Is speed an issue when you have a large number of documents to leverage content from? And am I right in thinking that web-based corpora can be assessed in the same operation? How does one pre-select these?

 
Flor L
Flor L
Local time: 23:04
Multitrans Prism Mar 17, 2013

Speed is not a problem. The translation memories are fully indexed and the search engine is very fast (when you search the translation memories directly you even have a Google like function of "Did you mean...".)

I have no experience in using Multitrans for web corpuses, so I cannot say much about it. I have seen a pre-installed link to TAUS in Multitrans client but never tried it, I think one needs a subscription to get access. Do you have web corpuses in mind which are freely acce
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Speed is not a problem. The translation memories are fully indexed and the search engine is very fast (when you search the translation memories directly you even have a Google like function of "Did you mean...".)

I have no experience in using Multitrans for web corpuses, so I cannot say much about it. I have seen a pre-installed link to TAUS in Multitrans client but never tried it, I think one needs a subscription to get access. Do you have web corpuses in mind which are freely accessible? Perhaps I could give it a try then.
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AllegroTrans
AllegroTrans  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:04
Member (2011)
French to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Multitrans - one more question Mar 19, 2013

Could you perhaps summarise by saying how fast you find the translating facility to work? compared to another CAT tool you have used? Is there a limit to the amount of documentary data you can use for the TM? Can you divide this into directories, e.g. a directory for terms and conditions and another for advertiding brochures, and use them separately for different projects?

 
Flor L
Flor L
Local time: 23:04
Multitrans Mar 20, 2013

AllegroTrans wrote:

Could you perhaps summarise by saying how fast you find the translating facility to work? compared to another CAT tool you have used? Is there a limit to the amount of documentary data you can use for the TM? Can you divide this into directories, e.g. a directory for terms and conditions and another for advertiding brochures, and use them separately for different projects?


The only other CAT tool I am using regularly is SDL Trados. Multitrans is certainly comparable in speed. I would even say faster, at least in the environment I am working in (which is a company network). Some actions are definitely faster, for instance analyzing documents or creating the translated document from the editor in the last step. With some strong terminology features too. Very useful for example a terminology statistics which shows you how a certain term was translated in the past. You get then results like: in 70% of the cases it was translated as x, 20% as y, 10% as z. Great for working on uniformity.

As far as I know there is practically no limit in size. I know of users having millions and millions of segments in a TM with no apparent slow down of speed.

I am not sure what you mean with dividing in directories or so. You can of course create as many different textbases (their term for translation memory) and termbases as you want to use them for separate projects, topics, clients and so on. And while translating you can then use as many textbases as you want for getting matches in your work. An interesting feature is that you can also remove whole documents from the translation memory with one click (for instance an outdated version of a brochure). As I said, the documents remain intact in the textbase, you can easily find them back and delete them.


 
Jack Dunwell
Jack Dunwell  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 23:04
French to English
+ ...
Mr Allegro Mar 20, 2013

I too would be interested to know whether any professional full time translator uses Prism. I've searched, but unsuccessfully. I haven't seen a review from a full-time translator. Questions are
1) Does it actually work ? and 2) How fast is it compared with say Wordfast. One's provisional conclusion is that they actually have nothing of value to offer. Anything concrete come your way? Or would your $700 be better off on the 30-1 outsider at Wincanton?

Clearly they should ask so
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I too would be interested to know whether any professional full time translator uses Prism. I've searched, but unsuccessfully. I haven't seen a review from a full-time translator. Questions are
1) Does it actually work ? and 2) How fast is it compared with say Wordfast. One's provisional conclusion is that they actually have nothing of value to offer. Anything concrete come your way? Or would your $700 be better off on the 30-1 outsider at Wincanton?

Clearly they should ask someone like you to review it. Why don't they?
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Flor L
Flor L
Local time: 23:04
Multitrans Mar 20, 2013

Hi fourth,

There was an extended review of Prism by Angelika Zerfass in Multilingual (last year, if I remember right). I do not have the journal here right now but I could look it up tomorrow.

I know of a number of institutions and companies myself using Prism. I guess it is not appopriate to list them here, perhaps the people of Multicorpora would be willing to give you some references. In Multilingual News it was reported only recently that two Belgian companies (KBC
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Hi fourth,

There was an extended review of Prism by Angelika Zerfass in Multilingual (last year, if I remember right). I do not have the journal here right now but I could look it up tomorrow.

I know of a number of institutions and companies myself using Prism. I guess it is not appopriate to list them here, perhaps the people of Multicorpora would be willing to give you some references. In Multilingual News it was reported only recently that two Belgian companies (KBC, a bank, and Belgacom, a telephone company) have chosen Prism as a CAT tool.

Last but not least, I am a professional full time translator using Prism, so you have at least one living specimen.
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Flor L
Flor L
Local time: 23:04
Multitrans review Mar 22, 2013

I have looked it up. Multilingual April/May 2011 contained a four page review of Multitrans 4.4 by Angelika Zerfass. (The current version of Multitrans is 5.5)

Perhaps interesting what she says on who is using Multitrans: "...many of MultiCorpora’s customers are large-scale, semi-secret and public-sector institutions with internal translation departments such as government and United Nations agencies."
And
"It is worth mentioning that MultiCorpora supports one of the l
... See more
I have looked it up. Multilingual April/May 2011 contained a four page review of Multitrans 4.4 by Angelika Zerfass. (The current version of Multitrans is 5.5)

Perhaps interesting what she says on who is using Multitrans: "...many of MultiCorpora’s customers are large-scale, semi-secret and public-sector institutions with internal translation departments such as government and United Nations agencies."
And
"It is worth mentioning that MultiCorpora supports one of the largest self-contained translation
entities in the world. The deployment at the Translation Bureau, a branch of the Canadian government, entails over 700 translators who simultaneously access TM through MultiTrans. This is not to imply that MultiTrans is only suitable for enterprise-scale operations; my tests were made using a client license running on a conventional PC. Thus, a MultiTrans solution
can range from a single user application through a small-scale, server-based application
with four or five workstations, all the way up to very large deployments."
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AllegroTrans
AllegroTrans  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:04
Member (2011)
French to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Multitrans Review Mar 22, 2013

Thanks for that. I looked it up too, but that review is only available to subsribers to Multilingual. As for Multicorpora's reference (on their own site) to a review by "Commonsense Advisory" (which rather sounds like a Consumer Organisation) I checked that out and it turns out to be a corporate charging $9,700 for a subscription to allow you to see its reports!!!
It does seem that Multicorpora are really not very interested in Freelancers. A great pity.
If anyone out there has any g
... See more
Thanks for that. I looked it up too, but that review is only available to subsribers to Multilingual. As for Multicorpora's reference (on their own site) to a review by "Commonsense Advisory" (which rather sounds like a Consumer Organisation) I checked that out and it turns out to be a corporate charging $9,700 for a subscription to allow you to see its reports!!!
It does seem that Multicorpora are really not very interested in Freelancers. A great pity.
If anyone out there has any good, third party review/experience I would be glad to hear of it.
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Flor L
Flor L
Local time: 23:04
Multitrans for freelancers Mar 22, 2013

Yes, they apparently spend no big effort to approach freelancers and small LSP's, that's puzzling me too. It could explain why there is so little about this CAT tool here and in similar forums.

I have the impression, though, that this is changing. The first time I heard about them was during an ASLIB conference presentation some years ago. Then I visited a Multicorpora roadshow which already seemed to be directed partly to smaller LSP and even freelancers. They also are present now
... See more
Yes, they apparently spend no big effort to approach freelancers and small LSP's, that's puzzling me too. It could explain why there is so little about this CAT tool here and in similar forums.

I have the impression, though, that this is changing. The first time I heard about them was during an ASLIB conference presentation some years ago. Then I visited a Multicorpora roadshow which already seemed to be directed partly to smaller LSP and even freelancers. They also are present now at big language technology fairs like Tekom. But it is true, they certainly have anything but an aggressive marketing behavior. Their website is to a great extend a no-nonsense event, only recently pepped up a little bit at the start page.

Why not contacting them, perhaps you can get a test license?
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Michael Beijer
Michael Beijer  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:04
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
Screenshots of MultiTrans??? May 19, 2017

Could someone who uses this tool perhaps post a few screenshots of it? It is impossible to find any, anywhere, and I don't have time to go through the trouble of arranging a trial, which can't be downloaded, but apparently has to be done online.

I'm curious about it, as a client of mine sends me files processed in MultiTrans, but it is pretty much the only CAT tool I haven't tested yet.

Also, is the translation editor grid-based (like Déjà Vu X3, memoQ, SDL Studio), o
... See more
Could someone who uses this tool perhaps post a few screenshots of it? It is impossible to find any, anywhere, and I don't have time to go through the trouble of arranging a trial, which can't be downloaded, but apparently has to be done online.

I'm curious about it, as a client of mine sends me files processed in MultiTrans, but it is pretty much the only CAT tool I haven't tested yet.

Also, is the translation editor grid-based (like Déjà Vu X3, memoQ, SDL Studio), or Word-based (like Wordfast Classic, MetaTexis, Felix, etc.)?

Michael

[Edited at 2017-05-19 16:23 GMT]
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