SkyCAT - A Review of a Refreshingly New CAT-Tool

by Korina

In an interview with babelport.com SiteFounder Christian Hansel, SkyCAT developer István Lengyel praised the soon to be released new CAT tool as being easy to use: "In ca. 1 hour everyone can get access to 95% of its functionality." We wanted to try the new software ourselves and see whether it keeps up to these promises, since most importantly computer assisted translation tools should facilitate a translator's work and not make it more tedious.

Mr. Lengyel kindly provided an evaluation version (corporate edition), which we laid our hands upon. Those translators familiar with other CAT tools like TRADOS, Wordfast and across v3 will have no problems finding their way through the application although it provides a refreshingly new and indeed easy to use interface.

Despite the lack of help files, manuals and documentation for the SkyCAT test version working with the program was fairly easy. The user is guided through the application step by step - from creating a new project to specifying project features, creating term bases and working on the actual translation.

File formats supported by SkyCAT:

• Microsoft Word Documents (.doc, .rtf)
• Microsoft Excel Documents (.xls, .xlt)
• HTML Files (.htm, .html)
• Text Files (.txt)
• Trados Files (.ttx)
• PowerPoint Files (.ppt)

SkyCAT is a standalone software, which means that files are opened within the program for translation. This offers the advantage of always working in the same familiar environment. Furthermore, one can work on documents without having to worry about expensive software licences and different versions. The most important advantage of this solution is the separation of content and format thus creating an independent working environment for the translator. A disadvantage of Sky CAT is the lack of automated spell check available in Microsoft Word, although SkyCAT also provides a spell check feature.

We tested SkyCAT with a simple English sample text in Word format containing similar and equal sentences that were translated into German. The start screen looks as follows:

Here you can navigate between the different sections of SkyCAT such as Translations, Alignments, Translation Memories, Term bases and Settings. After adding a translation document and opening it the translation interface appears as follows:

In the left column you find the sentences from the original document and to the right their translation respectively. Icons in the toolbar offer a variety of functions from formatting to pre-translation and other useful features, which are similar to those of other translation tools. In the column next to the target translation one can add comments to the document, add a translation to the term base (or choose not to in order to allow different translations) and view repetitions as well as the match percentage. After having finished the translation of the document at hand the file is converted into the original file format and exported into the appropriate application.

Features we especially liked include:

• Term base management: SkyCAT enables you to edit, change, export or import term bases; a convenient feature that keeps your terminology up to date.
• Translation Memory management: Translation Memories can be edited, exported and imported as well; SkyCAT uses the industry standard format tmx, which guaranties compatibility with other translation tools.
• In SkyCAT the number of Translation Memories and Term bases is not limited, and they can be both local and remote enabling different translators to access the same TMs and TBs.

Apart from the typical childhood problems, which will be solved before the software is finally released, we found SkyCAT to be a refreshingly different translation tool when it comes to layout and usability. The user interface is very clear and appealing. The program can be used intuitively for such fairly simple tasks as translating a Word document. However, one would need to consult the help files in order to make use of the full functionality of the software. SkyCAT is a translation tool that can save translators time and money but keeps them in control over their translations.

Read the interview of babelport.com SiteFounder Christian Hansel with István Lengyel here.

If you would like to become part of the SkyCAT beta testing team read this news article.