Most keyboard-friendly CAT tool?
Thread poster: Jean Dimitriadis
Jean Dimitriadis
Jean Dimitriadis  Identity Verified
English to French
+ ...
Jan 10, 2021

Hi,

I am not really looking for a CAT tool myself (CafeTran Espresso is my main choice, running on a GNU/Linux laptop), but I thought it would be interesting to gather opinions on this subject.

How keyboard-friendly is your preferred CAT tool?

For those touch typing their translations, being able to avoid lifting the hands from the keyboard to use the mouse or trackpad can be a huge time-saver.

Not all CAT tools are created equal in that depart
... See more
Hi,

I am not really looking for a CAT tool myself (CafeTran Espresso is my main choice, running on a GNU/Linux laptop), but I thought it would be interesting to gather opinions on this subject.

How keyboard-friendly is your preferred CAT tool?

For those touch typing their translations, being able to avoid lifting the hands from the keyboard to use the mouse or trackpad can be a huge time-saver.

Not all CAT tools are created equal in that department.

What’s your take? Are you able to mostly avoid using the mouse? Apart from your CAT tool, what else is helping you keep your hands close to those keys?

[Edited at 2021-01-10 14:29 GMT]
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Dan Lucas
Dan Lucas  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:06
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
Navigation Jan 10, 2021

Jean Dimitriadis wrote:
How keyboard-friendly is your preferred CAT tool?

One thing that I find annoying about Studio 2019 is that - as far as I can tell - you can't use keyboard shortcuts to move between parts of the screen, such as the different panes, or the filter panel. (Source/target movement is possible.) This makes navigation tricky when you want to script something using AHK. I have found that relying on absolute positions (x, y) is not reliable over time, as small changes in position will throw a script right off. Other than that, Studio's not bad. Most things have a shortcut.

Dan


 
Michael Beijer
Michael Beijer  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:06
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
try Ctrl+Tab! Jan 10, 2021

Dan Lucas wrote:

Jean Dimitriadis wrote:
How keyboard-friendly is your preferred CAT tool?

One thing that I find annoying about Studio 2019 is that - as far as I can tell - you can't use keyboard shortcuts to move between parts of the screen, such as the different panes, or the filter panel. (Source/target movement is possible.) This makes navigation tricky when you want to script something using AHK. I have found that relying on absolute positions (x, y) is not reliable over time, as small changes in position will throw a script right off. Other than that, Studio's not bad. Most things have a shortcut.

Dan


In Studio, try:

Next View: Ctrl+Tab
Focus Editor Window: Ctrl+0

Michael


 
Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Germany
Local time: 13:06
English to German
In memoriam
Offline-CATs in general Jan 10, 2021

I'm very much with you here, I also hate it if I need to lift the hands from the keyboard for whatever reason, and mouse use should be an absolute no-go with CATs. I find that MemoQ works well for me in this sense, I don't need the mouse for any routine thing, except maybe if I want to insert a TM hit that is not among the first 20. In general, most online CATs seem to be poor in this regard. They are not only relying on mouse input frequently, they are also often too slow for really fast typing... See more
I'm very much with you here, I also hate it if I need to lift the hands from the keyboard for whatever reason, and mouse use should be an absolute no-go with CATs. I find that MemoQ works well for me in this sense, I don't need the mouse for any routine thing, except maybe if I want to insert a TM hit that is not among the first 20. In general, most online CATs seem to be poor in this regard. They are not only relying on mouse input frequently, they are also often too slow for really fast typing. A system that takes time for server processes between segments can disrupt my work immensely, I hate it when I already want to type into the next segment and the CAT still contemplates about repetitions of the previous segment or TM activity. I bought a fast PC and I want to use it and not wait for slow servers.Collapse


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Stephanie Busch
Jean Dimitriadis
Philippe Etienne
Alison Jenner
 
Dan Lucas
Dan Lucas  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:06
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
Flawed, unfortunately Jan 10, 2021

Michael Beijer wrote:
In Studio, try:
Next View: Ctrl+Tab
Focus Editor Window: Ctrl+0

Thank you for this reminder Michael. I find that the number of Ctrl+Tabs required ends up taking longer than using the mouse (and I have also found it a bit "sticky" in that the selection of the pane in question travels down the list with a noticeable lag).

Ctrl+0 has no noticeable effect on my system.

Dan


 
Baran Keki
Baran Keki  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Local time: 15:06
Member
English to Turkish
I hate online CAT tools Jan 10, 2021

Almost 80 percent of the time I seem to confuse the tab opened for the online CAT tool with the non-existent CAT tool (Trados Studio) in the taskbar after having done a Google search in another tab in the same browser window and end up staring at the desktop screen.

 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 13:06
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
WFC Jan 10, 2021

Jean Dimitriadis wrote:
How keyboard-friendly is your preferred CAT tool?


WFC is so keyboard-friendly that one can actually call the widgets, menus and buttons "bad".

Obviously editing the settings is done mostly with the mouse, but the actual translation is done with keyboard shortcuts. The WFC toolbar does contain some buttons for frequently used actions (e.g. next segment) and a menu with many of the actions on it, but those are comfort buttons only -- you're not really supposed to use them.

The only time I use WFC buttons for tasks is when I perform a clean-up or I want to launch the data editor (i.e. the TM/glossary viewer/editor) to make manual changes to the TM/glossaries and I can't be bothered to use as text editor in that particular case.


 
Hans Lenting
Hans Lenting
Netherlands
Member (2006)
German to Dutch
Transit NXT Jan 11, 2021

Transit NXT offers an awful lot of keyboard shortcuts:

https://www.star-ts.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/star-transit-keyboard-shortcuts.pdf

Besides these, you can press the ALT key for one second and mnemonics for the menus and submenus will be displayed (I think Studio offers this technique also):

1

Transit also offers a Macro Recorder that allows you to record key sequences (e.g. menu commands, phrases).



[Edited at 2021-01-11 08:34 GMT]


 


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Most keyboard-friendly CAT tool?







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