Overview of Wordfast
Wordfast is a comprehensive suite of Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tools designed to enhance the efficiency, consistency, and quality of translation projects. Here’s an overview of what the product does and its key features:
What Wordfast Does
Wordfast is tailored for translators, translation agencies, and corporations to manage and streamline the translation process. It provides a complete translation environment that stores translated content for reuse, maximizing efficiency, increasing consistency, and reducing translation costs.
Key Features and Functionality
Translation Memory (TM)
Wordfast utilizes an open, straightforward, and versatile TM format that can be read, maintained, shared, and stored easily. This format is compatible with both plain text (ANSI) and Unicode (UTF-16) and is highly compact, making it three to four times less memory-intensive than competitors’ formats. Each TM can hold up to 1,000,000 Translation Units (TUs), and users can create and maintain multiple TMs in various languages.
Supported Languages and Document Formats
Wordfast supports translation in any language supported by Microsoft Word, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, right-to-left languages (Arabic, Hebrew), Cyrillic, European languages, Central European languages, Greek, and various forms of Hindi. It can handle a wide range of document formats, such as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, HTML, XML, SDL Trados Xliff, Adobe InDesign, FrameMaker, and PDF files without the need for additional filters or tagging devices.
Quality Control (QC)
Wordfast offers robust QC features, including real-time quality control checks that verify terminology, consistency, placeable and tag symmetry, spelling, and grammar. Users can run QC checks after translation and generate corresponding reports to minimize post-translation time.
Glossaries
Wordfast supports extensive glossaries that are fully integrated into Microsoft Word. Glossaries can be virtually unlimited, though they are voluntarily limited to 250,000 entries. The software also features fuzzy terminology recognition, allowing it to identify exact or fuzzy matches and various inflections of terms or expressions.
Integration and Collaboration
Wordfast tools are designed for collaborative environments. Wordfast Pro (WFP) can interact with a TM server, allowing real-time sharing of translation memory assets among users. Wordfast Server (WFS) can host and serve large TMs and glossaries over the internet, making it ideal for centralizing and sharing linguistic resources.
Cross-Platform Compatibility
Wordfast offers cross-platform compatibility, with tools that can run natively on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Wordfast Anywhere (WFA) is a full-feature online CAT tool that provides a seamless experience for users familiar with Wordfast Pro or Wordfast Classic.
Additional Features
- Segment Filtering: Filters segments based on terms, regular expressions, match scores, notes, and other attributes.
- Export and Import: Allows configuration and export of translation packages for fast, seamless translation management.
- Target-Only Live Preview: Provides a preview to proofread a target-only version with layout and formatting after translation.
- Third-Party Integration: Supports third-party dictionaries, machine translation, and advanced search features like Context and Concordance searches.
- Customization: Advanced users can add Microsoft Word macros to cater to the most demanding translation projects.
Tools and Variants
Wordfast offers several tools tailored to different needs:
- Wordfast Classic (WFC): A lightweight Microsoft Word add-on designed for individual translators and workgroups.
- Wordfast Pro (WFP): A standalone TM tool for corporations, agencies, and translators, offering advanced features and project management tools.
- Wordfast Anywhere (WFA): An online CAT tool with full features.
- Wordfast Server (WFS): For hosting and serving large TMs and glossaries.
- Wordfast Aligner (WFL): A free aligner for the entire translation community, offering linguistic-grade alignment for 36 languages.