Can you use MemoQ for a company working with Wordfast?
Thread poster: Enora Lessinger
Enora Lessinger
Enora Lessinger  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
English to French
+ ...
Feb 18, 2020

I work for Transperfect, which works exclusively with a version of Wordfast. I do not have Wordfast and work with their online version of it, which works fine but feels like a waste as I am not creating my own TM as a result. I depend entirely on theirs.

I already own MemoQ and like it a lot, so I'd rather not invest in Wordfast. My question is whether I can download their source files and TMs, convert them to MemoQ and then convert them back once translated? Would it make any diffe
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I work for Transperfect, which works exclusively with a version of Wordfast. I do not have Wordfast and work with their online version of it, which works fine but feels like a waste as I am not creating my own TM as a result. I depend entirely on theirs.

I already own MemoQ and like it a lot, so I'd rather not invest in Wordfast. My question is whether I can download their source files and TMs, convert them to MemoQ and then convert them back once translated? Would it make any difference for the company, i.e. would they even notice, and if so would they care?

Thanks in advance!
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Yaotl Altan
 
Katia Lopes
Katia Lopes
Brazil
Local time: 07:45
English to Portuguese
+ ...
I have the same doubt Aug 5, 2020

Hi Enora,

I see that, unfortunately, no one answered your question, so I want to know what have you done. I am going through the same (about to start working for TransPerfect, but I get along really well with MemoQ and do not want to buy another CAT tool right now...). Are you working for TransPerfect using MemoQ anyways or did you get a Wordfast license?


 
Enora Lessinger
Enora Lessinger  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
English to French
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
I bought a Wordfast licence Aug 5, 2020

Hi Kátia,

As you noted, no one replied and so in doubt I did buy a Wordfast licence. However, now that I know a little more about about CAT tools I'm not sure it is possible to use MemoQ for Transperfect. Maybe you are already aware of this, but you'd have to download the translation memory in a TMX format (which I can't remember if you can do since I never gave it a go in the end), ie in a format that works for any translation tool and that your CAT tool then turns into its native
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Hi Kátia,

As you noted, no one replied and so in doubt I did buy a Wordfast licence. However, now that I know a little more about about CAT tools I'm not sure it is possible to use MemoQ for Transperfect. Maybe you are already aware of this, but you'd have to download the translation memory in a TMX format (which I can't remember if you can do since I never gave it a go in the end), ie in a format that works for any translation tool and that your CAT tool then turns into its native format. And then to deliver the file, in Transperfect's project director you have to upload a glp file, which I'm not sure you can obtain from MemoQ. But I'm still relatively new to all this so it might be worth checking with more advanced users. There could be a way around it that I'm not aware of.

Hope this helps!
Enora
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Dr. Christopher Kronen
Dr. Christopher Kronen  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 03:45
Member (2004)
German to English
It looks like this should be possible in memoQ 9.8.8 Sep 12, 2021

I haven't had occasion to do this yet myself, but a Wordfast Pro GLP file certainly can be unzipped by simply changing the file extension to ZIP and using an appropriate utility program like WinZip. Use the reverse procedure to recreate the GLP when finished with your work.

The Wordfast Pro bilingual TXLF file(s) contained therein are readily recognized/detected by memoQ 9.8.8 in Windows Explorer and thus could be processed. If you only have a Wordfast Pro native TXT TM available th
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I haven't had occasion to do this yet myself, but a Wordfast Pro GLP file certainly can be unzipped by simply changing the file extension to ZIP and using an appropriate utility program like WinZip. Use the reverse procedure to recreate the GLP when finished with your work.

The Wordfast Pro bilingual TXLF file(s) contained therein are readily recognized/detected by memoQ 9.8.8 in Windows Explorer and thus could be processed. If you only have a Wordfast Pro native TXT TM available this can be converted to TMX for import/use in memoQ by using the free tool Okapi Olifant.

See https://helpcenter.memoq.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010266480-Dealing-with-Wordfast-TXT

An alternative option would be to use the free Wordfast Anywhere software (https://www.wordfast.com/products/wordfast_anywhere) to perform the TM conversion to TMX.

Of course, it may just be simpler to process such a project directly in Wordfast (specifically the free online Wordfast Anywhere) which does handle GLP files and allows the translator to upload/download TMs and thus use personal local TMs in any project as desired.

[Edited at 2021-09-12 18:32 GMT]
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John Di Rico
John Di Rico  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 11:45
Member (2006)
French to English
Yes and no… Sep 13, 2021

Hello,

As Christopher points out, the GLP package is simply a zip file with a different extension. In other words, you can extract them using the method he describes. MemoQ can then open the files.
However, there are a few caveats to be aware of:
1. While you should be able to translate the file in MemoQ and generate a translated TXLF file, I am not sure if you can recreate the GLP file (not as easy as extracting) so that Project Director identifies it as such. If the pr
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Hello,

As Christopher points out, the GLP package is simply a zip file with a different extension. In other words, you can extract them using the method he describes. MemoQ can then open the files.
However, there are a few caveats to be aware of:
1. While you should be able to translate the file in MemoQ and generate a translated TXLF file, I am not sure if you can recreate the GLP file (not as easy as extracting) so that Project Director identifies it as such. If the project manager is OK to receive the naked TXLF file without its packaging, then it should be OK. If they want it back as a GLP file, you should contact MemoQ to see if they can import from and export back to GLP.
2. It is extremely likely that Transperfect is using a remote TM Server for TMs and glossaries. I do not think you can connect to these with MemoQ. It would be a shame not to be able to leverage the TM for concordance search, nor the glossary for terminology during your translation or for Transcheck. On the other hand, if an agency is using Wordfast Server (not the same as TM Server), MemoQ should be able to connect to the TM and glossary. I don't know how easy this is to set up and if it is still supported. You would need to check with MemoQ.
As to your point Enora about creating your own TM, that is the definite advantage of working offline in Wordfast Pro (or MemoQ). You retain your translation in a TM, thereby increasing your intellectual property and the value of your business with each translation.

I hope this info helps.

Kind regards,
John
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Dr. Christopher Kronen
Dr. Christopher Kronen  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 03:45
Member (2004)
German to English
Possible useful workaround for connecting to remote Wordfast resources in memoQ and SDL Studio Sep 14, 2021

For those who may be interested:

https://theopenmic.co/use-wordfast-remote-tms-concordance-reference-cat-tools/


 
Philippe Locquet
Philippe Locquet  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 10:45
English to French
+ ...
Works now? Jul 11, 2022

Dr. Christopher Kronen wrote:

For those who may be interested:

https://theopenmic.co/use-wordfast-remote-tms-concordance-reference-cat-tools/


I came across this post and I'm curious: I know the plugin in memoQ to connect to Wordfast TM and glossary hosted remotely (WFS for example) used to work and then stopped working in newer versions of memoQ. Maybe this issue has been fixed now. Is anybody successfully using this at the moment?


 


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Can you use MemoQ for a company working with Wordfast?







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