Translation Memory Software Specifications

Specifications  

 

 
Size: Wordfast technology is scalable up to 1,000,000 Translation Units (TU) per TM. Note that using Wordfast's VLTM project can greatly enhance TM capacity if you have internet access. (1,000,000 TUs represent 20 years' work for a full-time translator.)
 

 
Format:

Wordfast uses either plain text (ANSI), or Unicode (UTF-16) TMs. The Wordfast TM format is open, straightforward, easy to read, maintain, share, and store. Practically any text editor can open a Wordfast TM. Microsoft Word can be used to manage TMs, but Wordfast itself offers tools to edit, compress, prune, merge, and reverse TMs.

This open format means robust data, superior versatility and compatibility. It is probably the most compact format in the industry: a Wordfast TM is typically three to four times less memory-intensive than that of its competitors. This is important when numerous and or large TMs are relevant.

The Wordfast TM format has never changed: Wordfast versions 1, 2, 3, 4, Classic and Pro all share the same format. This format is extensible for future features without hindering compatibility with previous versions. To force upgrades, competitor products are generally designed to be less open in this regard.

 

 
Compatibility: Wordfast can read and write (import from, export to) the TMX format.
 

 
TM engine performance: The Wordfast Translation Memory engine is built to spot exact and/or fuzzy matches in less than half a second in most cases. In the case of no fuzzy or exact matches, Wordfast can retrieve expressions of text that have a relevance to the source segment being translated.
 

 
Integration: The Wordfast Classic Translation Memory engine is totally integrated in Microsoft Word. It is not necessary to have a secondary application running. This saves screen real estate and allows for a translation environment with more visible context. The Wordfast Pro Translation Memory engine is a standalone java-based application that does not require Microsoft Word to run.
 

 
Networking: Wordfast Classic allows up to 20 simultaneous users to share the same TM over a LAN (Local Area Network) free of charge. Wordfast Pro requires the purchase of WfServer in order to share TMs over a LAN or the internet.
 
 

 

 

 
Number: Wordfast can support up to three glossaries simultaneously (a feature unique to Wordfast among major CAT tools).
 

 
Size:

The size of a glossary in Wordfast is virtually unlimited. It has been voluntarily limited to 250,000 entries. The majority of commercial use glossaries contain less than 10,000 entries.

 

 
Format: In keeping with Wordfast's goal of open formats, the glossary format mirrors that of the Translation Memory: plain text, tab-delimited. Therefore, it is extremely easy to paste terminology into a Wordfast glossary from the clipboard.  Wordfast Pro can also read and write (import from, export to) the TBX format.
 

 
Features: Wordfast glossaries offer a full range of functionality, from querying a term or expression, to full-fledged terminology recognition that highlights known terms in the source segment, in real time.
 

 
Fuzzy terminology recognition: Wordfast can recognize exact or fuzzy terminology in glossaries. Glossaries can be used as they are, or fine-tuned with the use of wildcards. Wordfast's fuzzy terminology recognition engine can also automatically recognize various inflections of a term or expression.
 

 
Integration: Wordfast's glossary functions are totally integrated in Microsoft Word. Another secondary application need not be open/running. This saves screen real estate and allows for a translation environment with more visible context.
 

 
Networking: Up to 20 simultaneous users can share the same glossaries over a LAN (Local Area Network).
 
 

 

Supported Languages

Wordfast can be used to translate any language supported by Microsoft Word. This includes Chinese/Japanese/Korean, right-to-left languages (Arabic, Hebrew), Cyrillic, in addition to all European, Latin-based languages, Central European languages, Greek, various forms of Hindi, and numerous other languages.

Document Format

Wordfast uses Microsoft Word as text editor, thereby taking all formats recognized by Microsoft Word. In addition, Wordfast can also be used to translate Excel and PowerPoint documents without the need of any filter or tagging device. Wordfast supports HTML documents if the +Tools is installed (+Tools is freeware), or if the HTML file has been tagged. Wordfast is compatible with the "tagged" format produced by competition products such Rainbow or S-Tagger. Therefore, Wordfast can easily be integrated in a Trados-based project architecture to handle FrameMaker, SGML, QuarkXpress, PageMaker, and other formats.

Quality Control (QC)

Wordfast offers numerous QC features. Among them is the market's only real-time quality control, which is designed to minimize the post-translation time required with other CAT tool products. At the user's option, a QC check can be run after the translation, and a corresponding QC report produced. The QC check verifies terminology, consistency, placeable and tag symmetry, spelling, grammar, and other time-consuming quality points that are easily overlooked.

Other Features

The Wordfast feature set is vast. Wordfast can support third-party dictionaries, machine translation, Context search, Concordance search (searching terms or expressions in a corpus of raw documents), etc. A large feature list can customize Wordfast to specific projects. Advanced users can add Microsoft Word macros to cater to the most demanding translation projects.

System Requirements

Wordfast will run on any platform that supports Microsoft Word 97 or higher. Wordfast strictly operates within Microsoft Word, and uses no other resources (no DLLs, no runtime, no EXE files).

Supported Microsoft Word versions are: Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002 (a.k.a. XP), Word 2003, Word 2007, as well as Word 98, Word 2001, Word X, and Word 2004 on the MacIntosh. Any system which runs Microsoft Word will run Wordfast in a similar manner (speed, reliability etc). Wordfast will even run on a modest 120-Mhz Windows workstation running Microsoft Word 97. For the MacIntosh, a medium processor (500 Mhz) is recommended with OS7-9, and a fast one (>=1 Ghz) is recommended for OSX. See supported platforms for more detailed information on this topic.

Wordfast Pro will run on Windows XP or higher, Mac OS 10.4, 10.5, and 10.6, and Linux with the following hardware requirements CPU: AMD or Intel processor 1.6Ghz (minimum) Mac: Intel or PPC Disk Space: 300 MB Free (minimum)Ram: 512 MB (minimum) (1024 MB recommended)