Xbench for QA - do you like it?
Thread poster: Ditte Duclert
Ditte Duclert
Ditte Duclert  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 19:21
Member (2011)
English to Danish
+ ...
May 10, 2017

Hi,
A client has asked me to get and use Xbench for QA of files translated in Trados Studio. Now, I generally feel I have had enough of new softwares to get to know and use, so I would like your input, please, if you use Xbench as a quality assurance tool. I am referring specifically to the free version.

Do you like it? Do you use it with every project? Would you recommend it to improve quality of your work? Is it as simple to learn as my clients says it is?

Than
... See more
Hi,
A client has asked me to get and use Xbench for QA of files translated in Trados Studio. Now, I generally feel I have had enough of new softwares to get to know and use, so I would like your input, please, if you use Xbench as a quality assurance tool. I am referring specifically to the free version.

Do you like it? Do you use it with every project? Would you recommend it to improve quality of your work? Is it as simple to learn as my clients says it is?

Thank you in advance!

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Michael Beijer
Michael Beijer  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:21
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
You want the truth... ? :-) May 10, 2017

Ditte Duclert wrote:

Hi,
A client has asked me to get and use Xbench for QA of files translated in Trados Studio. Now, I generally feel I have had enough of new softwares to get to know and use, so I would like your input, please, if you use Xbench as a quality assurance tool. I am referring specifically to the free version.

Do you like it? Do you use it with every project? Would you recommend it to improve quality of your work? Is it as simple to learn as my clients says it is?

Thank you in advance!



The party line: Yes, it's great, and I use it, and all manner of other QA tools on my transaltiomn work after finishing it.
A perhaps more realistic version: I usually don't have much time for that kind of thing once I'm finished, and I am actually quite slow and methodical in my work anyway, so hope for the best

Having said that, the more my client pays me, the more time and effort I can expend on QA stuff. I currently us the various QA features in Déjà Vu X3. Also, if they are one of those clients that insist I work with SDL Studio projects, even though I have asked them politely and insistently if I can use my own CAT tool, I let them handle all the QA stuff in Studio. They asked for it.

I own a licence for Xbench, but have never really warmed to its QA functions. I use it solely for TMX editing stuff.

Michael


 
Paulinho Fonseca
Paulinho Fonseca  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 15:21
Member (2011)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
It is a helpful tool May 10, 2017

If you are working on big projects, I suggest using X-bench or a similar tool, since it helps checking keyterms. There are other features that Trados will not have.

Good luck.


 
Riccardo Schiaffino
Riccardo Schiaffino  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 12:21
Member (2003)
English to Italian
+ ...
Yes, and I recommend you try the paid version May 10, 2017

  • Do you like it? Yes, very much: it's wonderful tool, not only for QA, but also for terminology and translation memory management
  • Do you use it with every project? Almost every project: the sole exception are a few small "one-off" projects
  • Would you recommend it to improve quality of your work? Yes, absolutely. Xbench not only helps to catch the type of errors that is difficult for a human being to to detect (e.g. two con... See more
  • Do you like it? Yes, very much: it's wonderful tool, not only for QA, but also for terminology and translation memory management
  • Do you use it with every project? Almost every project: the sole exception are a few small "one-off" projects
  • Would you recommend it to improve quality of your work? Yes, absolutely. Xbench not only helps to catch the type of errors that is difficult for a human being to to detect (e.g. two consecutive same words, like the two to's I've just used, inconsistencies in source or target, etc.): it also includes a more practical spell-checker, and can be expanded (via personal checklists) to catch the kind of errors you know you might be particularly prone to.
  • Is it as simple to learn as my client says it is? No, there is a learning curve. Just like any other useful non-trivial piece of software, you have to devote the time necessary to learn it.

    Xbench is a terrific program, it includes excellent documentation (via the help file), and, if you devote to it the time necessary to learn to use it well, can be very useful for your projects. I highly recommend it (and not only the free version, which is starting to be a bit outdated: the paid version as well).

    You can find a thorough presentation of what Xbench can do for translation QA and terminology management in this presentation of mine: Xbench for Terminology Management and Translation QACollapse


 
Michael Beijer
Michael Beijer  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:21
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
Déjà Vu X3's "Lexicon" May 10, 2017

Paulinho Fonseca wrote:

If you are working on big projects, I suggest using X-bench or a similar tool, since it helps checking keyterms. There are other features that Trados will not have.

Good luck.



Btw, with Déjà Vu X3's "Lexicon" feature, you can check key terms.


 
Gabriele Demuth
Gabriele Demuth  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:21
English to German
Yes May 10, 2017

One client asked me to do xBench QA check on their Trados files.

You can use it for free for a while, but then you are asked to pay. I use it for larger corporate documents as it picks up irregularities and other things. I haven't really looked into it properly, so maybe you can adjust it and do more with it, but yes, its ok.


 
Kevin Fulton
Kevin Fulton  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 14:21
German to English
They lost me with the subscription model May 10, 2017

I normally don't mind buying paid versions of free software I use on an ongoing basis, assuming the cost-benefit ratio is reasonable. However, I have only one customer who requires XBench, and the functions they specify can be handled by the old (free) version. My main CAT tool, MemoQ, has the features I generally need for my work. Having to shell out 99€ annually for a tool that provides functions I don't need is an expense I can do without.

Nicole Eustace
 
Riccardo Schiaffino
Riccardo Schiaffino  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 12:21
Member (2003)
English to Italian
+ ...
That's not exactly correct May 10, 2017

Gabriele Demuth wrote:

You can use it for free for a while, but then you are asked to pay.


That's not exactly right: Version 3 (the commercial version) is free for a trial period, then you have to pay, or it stops working -- but version 2.9 is free forever.

You can use v. 2.9 for the QA of Studio files, but not, (for example), of memoQ files: that capability was added after the release of v. 3, so it is not available in the free version. There are some other limitations in the "free forever" version... the main one is that it won't be updated, so if (for example) SDL in the future makes a change to the sdxliff format that makes it no longer compatible with Xbench, you'll be out of luck.

I recommend paying for the commercial version, if you find the program useful: Xbench is an excellent program, good software doesn't come out of thin air, and developers should be rewarded for their efforts.


 
Ditte Duclert
Ditte Duclert  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 19:21
Member (2011)
English to Danish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you May 10, 2017

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, I appreciate it! I might give the free version a try and see how I get on.

 
Christophe Delaunay
Christophe Delaunay  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 19:21
Spanish to French
+ ...
Totally agree with Kevin May 11, 2018

Kevin Fulton wrote:

I normally don't mind buying paid versions of free software I use on an ongoing basis, assuming the cost-benefit ratio is reasonable. However, I have only one customer who requires XBench, and the functions they specify can be handled by the old (free) version. My main CAT tool, MemoQ, has the features I generally need for my work. Having to shell out 99€ annually for a tool that provides functions I don't need is an expense I can do without.


I just can't get used to this new pseudo leasing system for software. You buy something but it is not really yours. It's like you buy a car and after, say, 3 years, you have to buy it again. Who on earth came with such a twisted idea? Surely somebody who worked for Wall Street, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Société Générale and the likes!


Matheus Chaud
 
Epameinondas Soufleros
Epameinondas Soufleros  Identity Verified
Greece
Local time: 20:21
Member (2008)
English to Greek
+ ...
Dislike it May 11, 2018

I don't like Xbench at all, and it makes me wonder why it has become so popular. Its workflow, its layout and its concepts and terms (as manifested on the GUI) are quite confusing. And what kind of tool is it, anyway? Is it for QA, is it for terminology searches, is it for TM maintenance? I don't quite know: it's a little bit of everything, it seems; it looks like an app without a clear purpose, more like a hobbyist project that for some reason gained popularity.

But then again, Tra
... See more
I don't like Xbench at all, and it makes me wonder why it has become so popular. Its workflow, its layout and its concepts and terms (as manifested on the GUI) are quite confusing. And what kind of tool is it, anyway? Is it for QA, is it for terminology searches, is it for TM maintenance? I don't quite know: it's a little bit of everything, it seems; it looks like an app without a clear purpose, more like a hobbyist project that for some reason gained popularity.

But then again, Trados Studio is the no. 1 CAT tool, so I am not really surprised.

A tool like Verifika looks much more focused and well-structured.
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Erwin van Wouw
 
Epameinondas Soufleros
Epameinondas Soufleros  Identity Verified
Greece
Local time: 20:21
Member (2008)
English to Greek
+ ...
No, you can't May 11, 2018

Michael Beijer wrote:

Btw, with Déjà Vu X3's "Lexicon" feature, you can check key terms.


No, you can't, unless you work in a language pair where 1 lemma = 1 word form (or where 1 word form in the source language = 1 word form in the target language).

My target language being Greek, DVX's QA tools are useless: 9/10 things they flag are false positives. And, as usual, Atril is resistant to change.

[Edited at 2018-05-11 14:01 GMT]


Pavel Tsvetkov
 
DZiW (X)
DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
+ ...
No May 11, 2018

I used to QA in a free Xbench 2.9, but I didn't work in Trados much, so I really preferred Verifika, which still are no proofreading substitute.

Perhaps newer versions are more advanced, but for me it's just not worth it.


 
Eyob Fitwi
Eyob Fitwi  Identity Verified
Ethiopia
Local time: 21:21
English to Amharic
+ ...
Free version doesn't support unicode Aug 24, 2018

Riccardo Schiaffino wrote:

Gabriele Demuth wrote:

You can use it for free for a while, but then you are asked to pay.


That's not exactly right: Version 3 (the commercial version) is free for a trial period, then you have to pay, or it stops working -- but version 2.9 is free forever.

You can use v. 2.9 for the QA of Studio files, but not, (for example), of memoQ files: that capability was added after the release of v. 3, so it is not available in the free version. There are some other limitations in the "free forever" version... the main one is that it won't be updated, so if (for example) SDL in the future makes a change to the sdxliff format that makes it no longer compatible with Xbench, you'll be out of luck.

I recommend paying for the commercial version, if you find the program useful: Xbench is an excellent program, good software doesn't come out of thin air, and developers should be rewarded for their efforts.



On top of that, the free version doesn't support unicode. So if you work on a language that isn't ascii-based, then Xbench won't work for you. It's simply replace the characters with question marks.


 
Panopticon
Panopticon
Spain
Local time: 19:21
Member (2012)
Spanish to English
For me Studio's built-in QA module is best Sep 12, 2022

I looked into xbench a few years back after a customer insisted I use it for a project, but I really didn't like the user interface or layout. It just doesn't seem very intuitive or user-friendly. I don't really see what is wrong with the built-in QA module that comes with Studio, it seems to be a pretty powerful and highly customisable tool in itself. Why pay out more if Studio already has a very decent QA tool built in? I always run a spell-check and then click the "Verify" button to pull up t... See more
I looked into xbench a few years back after a customer insisted I use it for a project, but I really didn't like the user interface or layout. It just doesn't seem very intuitive or user-friendly. I don't really see what is wrong with the built-in QA module that comes with Studio, it seems to be a pretty powerful and highly customisable tool in itself. Why pay out more if Studio already has a very decent QA tool built in? I always run a spell-check and then click the "Verify" button to pull up the QA function before I hand in the translation. Does the job well.Collapse


Laura Kingdon
 


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Xbench for QA - do you like it?







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