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Weak points of Transit NXT?
Thread poster: Hans Lenting
Hans Lenting
Hans Lenting
Netherlands
Member (2006)
German to Dutch
Feb 2, 2012

Hi Antonin,

Glad we're home at last. In this very strange thread about Transit in the SDL forum

http://www.proz.com/forum/sdl_trados_support/217375-can_i_work_on_a_transit_nxt_project_with_sdl_trados_2011.html

you wrote:

Each program has its pros and cons and it is a matter of individual taste which we choose for doing actual work with. I liked Transit XV even more than NXT in many respects, but I switched over to NXT anyway because it helps me work effficently after all, despite its weak points (and I could tell you about quite a few of them).


I'd be very interested to read your view (and that of other Transit NXT users) about the weak points of Transit.

BR,

Hans


 
Gyula Erdesz
Gyula Erdesz
Hungary
Local time: 10:48
Member (2009)
English to Hungarian
+ ...
I can hardly name any strong points... Feb 2, 2012

My personal opinion about Transit NXT:

*Overcomplicated markup handling
*Overcomplicated terminology module (no simplified terminology handling for freelancers
*Overcrowded interface that wastes a lot of valuable screen space (e.g. totally unnecessary lower ribbon). Just compare the effective screen space of Trados 2011 and Transit NXT. (Before you ask, I certainly know know how to personalize the upper ribbon)
*Unfirendly pricing policy (overpriced basic software
... See more
My personal opinion about Transit NXT:

*Overcomplicated markup handling
*Overcomplicated terminology module (no simplified terminology handling for freelancers
*Overcrowded interface that wastes a lot of valuable screen space (e.g. totally unnecessary lower ribbon). Just compare the effective screen space of Trados 2011 and Transit NXT. (Before you ask, I certainly know know how to personalize the upper ribbon)
*Unfirendly pricing policy (overpriced basic software and HIGHLY overpriced filters)
*PR is really weak, comparing to other CAT tools. (no official presence or feedback on Proz)

Background:
I started my professional career with Transit XV. I loved that software more than Trados 2007. At that time Transit was a real competitor for Trados or Déja Vu.

In 2009 I switched to Transit NXT Freelance and used it for 1 year, but I neved loved it. When memoQ implemented its own Transit package handling module, I immediately sold my Transit license and since then I have been using memoQ for such Transit projects.

In my opinion, Transit lost its momentum in 2008 or 2009 and now they are simply not on a par with the leading CAT tool developers.


Regards,

Gyula
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Gyula Erdesz
Gyula Erdesz
Hungary
Local time: 10:48
Member (2009)
English to Hungarian
+ ...
It seems that I killed the conversation... Feb 2, 2012

...even before it had started. I am also really curious about the opinion of others regarding Transit NXT, so please share your thoughts.

Gyula


 
Hans Lenting
Hans Lenting
Netherlands
Member (2006)
German to Dutch
TOPIC STARTER
It takes some time to get familiar with Transit NXT ... Feb 2, 2012

Gyula Erdész wrote:

My personal opinion about Transit NXT:

*Overcomplicated markup handling


AMOF it is very simple and flexible.

*Overcomplicated terminology module (no simplified terminology handling for freelancers


I'm adding hundreds of terms on the fly every day. I find Termstar very good (except for the SQL part). What do you wanted for 'simplified term handling'? Please elaborate.

*Overcrowded interface that wastes a lot of valuable screen space (e.g. totally unnecessary lower ribbon).


You can collapse the Ribbon and remove all clutter from the screen, by defining your own View. Which is a little complicated, I admit.

But then, when you have succeeded, you actually have the most beautiful clean screen of all CAT tools.

*Unfirendly pricing policy


But they are very good. And they allow full WYSIWYG editing of Frame and InDesign files in tables etc.

*PR is really weak, comparing to other CAT tools. (no official presence or feedback on Proz)


I agree on that one. AMOF I've asked STAR to delegate a representative to this forum.

In my opinion, Transit lost its momentum in 2008 or 2009 and now they are simply not on a par with the leading CAT tool developers.


I beg to differ on that one. IMO Transit NXT still has the richest feature set, offering the most innovative concepts.

Hans


 
Gyula Erdesz
Gyula Erdesz
Hungary
Local time: 10:48
Member (2009)
English to Hungarian
+ ...
Re. Feb 2, 2012

Hans Lenting wrote:

I'm adding hundreds of terms on the fly every day. I find Termstar very good (except for the SQL part). What do you wanted for 'simplified term handling'? Please elaborate.



Every time I used Transit NXT I always felt that this SW is for huge LSPs and not freelance translators. Same applies to Termstar. There are plenty of functions for terminologst when all you need is the source word and the target word in most cases. Again: my main problem is that the Freenace edition is not fine tuned to the needs of a freelancer.



You can collapse the Ribbon and remove all clutter from the screen, by defining your own View. Which is a little complicated, I admit.



Did I miss something? Is it possible to hide the lower button bar (User Roles - Interfaces - etc.). Do you really need a Star James Button fixed to your screen in every second of your work?



But they are very good. And they allow full WYSIWYG editing of Frame and InDesign files in tables etc.



For one thousand EUR? Each??



In my opinion, Transit lost its momentum in 2008 or 2009 and now they are simply not on a par with the leading CAT tool developers.


I beg to differ on that one. IMO Transit NXT still has the richest feature set, offering the most innovative concepts.

Hans


If you follow the marketing activities (ads in Proz.com banners, group buys) of the CAT tool developers and compare the the number of topics opened in technical forums of each CAT software, you can see a clear and indisputable tendency: Transit became marginal.

Regards,

Gyula


 
Antoní­n Otáhal
Antoní­n Otáhal
Local time: 10:48
Member (2005)
English to Czech
+ ...
NXT weak points Feb 2, 2012

Now I can give you a few off hand; I am much too lazy to write down annoyances when I encounter them, so the ones I list below now are those I am most concerned with:

- Commands which have no icon can be added to the Quick Access Toolbar and then you cannot say which command is which there (unless you remember them by position). It should be possible to customise icons there (and/or the tooltip balloon)

- The keyboard-shortcut customization was promised (even offered)
... See more
Now I can give you a few off hand; I am much too lazy to write down annoyances when I encounter them, so the ones I list below now are those I am most concerned with:

- Commands which have no icon can be added to the Quick Access Toolbar and then you cannot say which command is which there (unless you remember them by position). It should be possible to customise icons there (and/or the tooltip balloon)

- The keyboard-shortcut customization was promised (even offered) in the early versions, but then the topic silently disappeared. This feature can be emulated using AutoHotKeys and/or similar solutions, but in software with Transit's price tag it sounds silly.

- The automatic spellcheck (red wavy underline) is rather unreliable - sometimes it does not indicate wrong spelling; and very often (but not always) the underline remains active after a new word is added to the spellcheck dictionary.

- Virtually joining segments gets the program off balance - often you have to restart NXT to get back proper fuzzy searches (after joining a few segments it says no hits were found, after restarting it does find them).

- Not sure of it is a bug or an item for a wishlist: I would love to be able to join segments divided by a paragraph mark - if the source is a Word file obtained as an OCR-ed scan/pdf and the project manager does not know how to (or is too lazy to) correct them, it can be a nightmarish experience.

- If you delete the full text chunk which is tagged, its tag disappers even if you did not select it before deleting. So you have to first put in the translation next to it and only then delete the original. Foolish. It should delete exactly what you select.

- Seleting a word with doulbe slicking on it or by Shift+Ctr+Right always selects the space after it and there is no way of telling NXT to stop that practicwe, AFAIK. What I find strange in this context is that you can select exactly what you want using the SHift+Right keys os gou character-by-character with your mouse.

- If your cursor is put just before a word marked by the dictionay as "translatable" or inside such a word, Alt+T translates the word. But when the cursor is put just after the word, alt+T does not work.
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Hans Lenting
Hans Lenting
Netherlands
Member (2006)
German to Dutch
TOPIC STARTER
Transit can be very attractive for freelancers too -- despite of its price tag Feb 2, 2012

First of all let me state something obvious:

The quality of a CAT tool depends also on the language pair and direction you translate.

What is valid for DEU > NLD doesn't need to be valid for ENG > DEU ...

Gyula Erdész wrote:

Every time I used Transit NXT I always felt that this SW is for huge LSPs and not freelance translators.


IMO the quality of the editor is what is relevant to the translator. And the actual target segment editor is very good (e.g. smart selecting of multiple words, del2end, markup insertion, F&R markup, WYSIWYG if you want, markups if you don't like WYSIWYG, macros, filtering with reg ex, etc.

The price tag is not that important. Transit comes with free upgrades (not updates) for many years. Return on investment is not a problem at all for a pro translator.


Same applies to Termstar. There are plenty of functions for terminologst when all you need is the source word and the target word in most cases. Again: my main problem is that the Freenace edition is not fine tuned to the needs of a freelancer.



I only use the basic functions: add terms, edit terms, including 'alternative terms'. Very basic, pretty straight forward. Fast, elegant.



Did I miss something? Is it possible to hide the lower button bar (User Roles - Interfaces - etc.). Do you really need a Star James Button fixed to your screen in every second of your work?



There you have a point. I'd have to investigate whether hacking the image files in BIN can remove this button bar. BTW: On a 27" screen the bar is not a problem.

Re: the price of the filters:



For one thousand EUR? Each??



I really don't see how this can be a problem. You have to make the investment once, you get filter updates many, many years. It all depends on how many words you translate. And on the quality of the filters and of the text representation in the editor (are text streams arranged in the editor like on the print-out? PDF preview available? export a complete book with one click? does the filter suppress rogue codes?)



If you follow the marketing activities (ads in Proz.com banners, group buys) of the CAT tool developers and compare the the number of topics opened in technical forums of each CAT software, you can see a clear and indisputable tendency: Transit became marginal.


Transit runs big ads in magazines you don't read.

It is very present in the perception of its target audience.

It is not marginal. It simply isn't making a lot of noise here at Proz and in other freelance news groups. This has no relevance to the quality of the software.

I'll put some screenshots of my clean Views online soon.


 
Hans Lenting
Hans Lenting
Netherlands
Member (2006)
German to Dutch
TOPIC STARTER
Improvement is possible Feb 2, 2012

Antonin,

I agree with all items on your list.

And for the last one:


- If your cursor is put just before a word marked by the dictionay as "translatable" or inside such a word, Alt+T translates the word. But when the cursor is put just after the word, alt+T does not work.



Doesn't my Ctrl+I macro solve this? (InsertAllTermsToSegment).

[Edited at 2012-02-02 16:34 GMT]


 
Gyula Erdesz
Gyula Erdesz
Hungary
Local time: 10:48
Member (2009)
English to Hungarian
+ ...
discrepancy Feb 2, 2012

Hans Lenting wrote:

Transit runs big ads in magazines you don't read.

It is very present in the perception of its target audience.

It is not marginal. It simply isn't making a lot of noise here at Proz and in other freelance news groups. This has no relevance to the quality of the software.

I'll put some screenshots of my clean Views online soon.



Dear Hans,

Would you please help me to determine the target audience of Transit NXT Freelance?

Kind regards,

Gyula


 
Hans Lenting
Hans Lenting
Netherlands
Member (2006)
German to Dutch
TOPIC STARTER
Freelance Feb 2, 2012

Gyula Erdész wrote:

Would you please help me to determine the target audience of Transit NXT Freelance?



Stubborn?

Not main stream?

Preferring quality of the target text editor instead of quality of project management only?

Want to concentrate on the translation, not on the overhead?

Don't want to be bothered by rogue codes or locked in by a proprietary format like TTX?


 
Hans Lenting
Hans Lenting
Netherlands
Member (2006)
German to Dutch
TOPIC STARTER
Talking about discrepancy ;) Feb 2, 2012

Please enlighten me, dear Gyula: how does smoking a pipe combine with running? ;P

 
Gyula Erdesz
Gyula Erdesz
Hungary
Local time: 10:48
Member (2009)
English to Hungarian
+ ...
You got me Feb 2, 2012

Hans Lenting wrote:

Please enlighten me, dear Gyula: how does smoking a pipe combine with running? ;P


Ah,

You have a really good eye for the details. The avatar was taken 10 years ago. Times change, people change. Sometimes (rarely) good habits substitute bad ones.

Greetings from Hungary,

Gyula


 
AlSqur (X)
AlSqur (X)
delegate Feb 2, 2012

I agree on that one. AMOF I've asked STAR to delegate a representative to this forum.


Hello,

From now on this should change a bit, because I will monitor voluntarily (this isn't official) this forum and I come directly from Star . I will try to help as much as I can.


 
Hans Lenting
Hans Lenting
Netherlands
Member (2006)
German to Dutch
TOPIC STARTER
Welcom STAR! Feb 2, 2012

Squires wrote:

Hello,

From now on this should change a bit, because I will monitor voluntarily (this isn't official) this forum and I come directly from Star . I will try to help as much as I can.


Welcome here!

Hope we can have a good exchange of thoughts!

Hans


 
William Tierney
William Tierney  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 05:48
Member (2002)
Arabic to English
Transit for Arabic? Mar 30, 2012

I am considering switching from SDL Trados 2009 to Transit. I translate from Arabic to English, and lead teams to translate from English to Arabic. I always thought SDL handled Arabic better than other tools, but I am extremely annoyed that they deleted the capability to edit the source text in 2009 and 2011. I have heard SDL's reasoning for this and it does not wash.

How it Transit for handling Arabic?

Bill Tierney


 
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