Translators' Perceptions on Open Source Translation Tools: Trados and OmegaT

Abstract

In the last century, great technological development has changed the working principles and methods of institutions and professions worldwide and has started a radical innovation process. While it eliminated those who could not keep up with this innovation, it raised those who did to be the best in their fields. One of the professions affected by this change is undoubtedly translation. Translation technology systems are widely used by translators all over the world today and have a large market. Translators' use of translation technologies more effectively and accurately ensures that their translations are carried out more accurately and in a faster time, and it has become the indispensable equipment of a good translator in the historical process. This has given vital meaning to translation technologies such as translation memories and machine translations. The benefits of translation technologies to the translator are many. Although many studies have been conducted on the problems experienced by translators and the limitations and advantages of translation technologies in general, there are very few studies on the problems experienced by translators individually about the use of translation technologies, the problems they experience and their attitudes. The aim of this article is to identify the various problems that translators experience while using computer-assisted translation tools, to reveal the reasons for using the programs they frequently use, and to get the comments of the translators who use alternative options. By employing a document analysis approach to collect data, the article presents a descriptive analysis of opinions. This analysis is between the paid Trados program, which is known to all translators, and the free alternative program OmegaT. The user comments of the Proz forum, which is known worldwide by translators, are used in the analysis. An analysis is presented by listing the positive and negative opinions about both computer-aided translation tools. The article presents some suggestions regarding translation education based on the findings.