Systran for Dummies (Systran Enterprise)

Member Name: zoe_page_1

Product:	Systran Enterprise
Date:	02/10/02 (308 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great for rough+ready output, Simple to use design

Disadvantages: the price ?!?!?!

If you go into network explorer on my PC, and click on the file marked ‘Zoë’, you’ll immediately be transported into another world. A world of a 20 year old, 1 month into a year’s work placement, who doesn’t always have her mind on the job. A world of hotel bookings and half written opinions and downloaded pages from timesonline. Tucked away at the back of all this, is a little, non-descript yellow folder labeled ‘Systran’. Click on that, and you’re presented with a number of documents. “Problems, Problems, Problems” is one, “Why I hate this stupid package”, another. Sometimes the only way I can vent my frustration is through file names, and believe me, it’s nowhere near as satisfying as blowing up computers (which, for the record, I only did once, while I was at school, and it was an Acorn so it’s hardly been missed).

Anyway……

*** What is Systran? ***

Systran claim to be “the leading provider of the world's most scalable and modular translation architecture”. In other words, they provide computer based translation and thing they’re pretty darn good at it. Covering 35 language pairs (German-English and English-German being just one pair) in 20 specialized domains (think payroll, computing, advertising), their programs are pretty versatile.

While you may not have heard of the company themselves, chances are you’ve heard of some of the corporations they work with, and the portals they power.
PricewaterhouseCoopers, Sony Online Entertainment, Altavista, AOL, Google, and TerraLycos are just some of the big names with whom they are associated.


*** How does it work? ***

The following is based on Systran Premium (ooh, only the best for us) 4.0 – the version I’m most familiar with.

The Systran package contains a number of different components, each with a spe
cialized function within the area of Machine Translation.

(1) Systran Clipboard Taskbar

Once installed, this attaches itself to various packages, including all those in the Microsoft Office Suite. The taskbar will then sit there happily until you need a quickie translation, when it will jump into action. Highlight a word, make sure the language pairs and direction are correct and click on the blue S logo. Systran will find a translation and substitute it for the selected word in the text. There’s also a help icon on the toolbar for when you get stuck, and an option selector I’ll come back to later. Handy when you don’t want to load a big package, and just need the odd word translating then and there.


(2) Systran Translation Project Manager

Useful for individual words and phrases, or longer documents, the project manager aspect is very easy to use. You click on the icon to load it up, and then need to go

file -> new project

or

file -> open (to open a previously saved project)

as appropriate.


After setting the language pairs and direction, you’re then free to imput your text – wither by typing directly or by cutting and pasting. To translate it’s either

CNTRL + T

Or

Translate - > Translate

On the menu bar.

The translation appears in the window on the right, alongside the original text. Click on any sentence in either and both it and the corresponding sentence in the source / translation will also highlight, making it easy to compare originals and translations.


(3) Systran Multi-Translate Utility

This only works for files, but is quicker than the Translation Project Manager. It’s simply a case of dragging and dropping your file from it’s directory into the Utility. You can drag as many as you like in, and then translate them all together (maybe going to have a
coffee while you wait) or do one at a time. Files need to be of the rtf (rich text format) variety, but if you have a .txt or .doc file, you can easily change their format in Network Explorer beforehand. Again, there are the options to change language pairs and directions, and you can also choose whether to re-translate already translated documents each time – sometimes you won’t need to, so will save time by not doing, but if you’ve change the dictionary or language direction for example, you need to re-translate.

The translated file is saved automatically, given the name it originally had with the languages tagged on the end – so PYCH.rtf for example can become PYCHdeen.rtf when translated from German (De(utsch)) to English (En(glish)). Although there is no automatic way to compare the source text with the new translation, if you open them both in Word you can change the view so both are displayed at once.


(4) Systran Dictionary Manager

It is likely that although detailed, the dictionary provided will not suffice for all your translation needs, so Systran has a built in dictionary manager where you can add words and phrases specific to your translation areas – for example trampolining moves, or special computing terms. The DM is nice and easy to use too – just enter your source text language, and the language you’re translating into. Add a name for your dictionary and you’re away. The screen looks a bit like an Excel work book, and you work down the columns, adding a word in one cell and the translation in the cell immediately to the right. Save your dictionary and you can use it with any of the above parts of the system – just click on the “dictionaries” icon (an open book) and select the one you’ve made. Bring it to the top of the list – using the arrow keys – and it will over-ride the default dictionary settings, so if you have a translation that
you want it to use even though an alternative exists in Systran’s original dictionary, it will use yours rather than theirs.

9/10 for their range of options and customizability


*** What is the translation quality like? ***

This op would be totally useless without some reference to the translation quality of the product as after all, that is its purpose. I was appalled when I first used it but then I tried other packages and saw that this one wasn’t so bad after all. If you’re after a perfect, human-like translation then you’re in the wrong place, but for a good rough-and-ready output suitable for post-editing, this one doesn’t do too bad a job. Vocab’s usually right (although your own user dictionaries can improve output immensely) and, on the whole, the grammar is, well, understandable if not immaculate. A lot of the errors are stylistic – such as split infinitives – and occur in the majority of MT packages. Some are strange though and occur occasionally for no apparent reason, for example:

· verb agreement errors e.g. you receives

· noun agreement errors e.g. statistics is

· does not view ä and ae as the same thing although they usually are (applies to German only)

· errors with “a” rather than “an” occurring before words starting with vowels

One of my favourites is when it translates 10 Uhr 30 as 10 O’clock 30, but when it always sees “Sie” as “they” and never as “you” then I start to scream.

“Dr, my leg is hanging off”

“Well they had better have it stitched back on then”

???????

7/10 for quality of translation – I’ve seen worse but I’ve also seen better


*** What is the usability like? ***

The interface throughout all sections is so straight forward even a baby could use th
em. Well a baby who was familiar with computers, anyhow. Let’s start again. If you have ever used a Microsoft package then you can use Systran. If you have ever used a Lotus package then you can use Systran. If you have used neither of these but know how to switch on a computer then you can use Systran.

The layout is clear and easy to use, and the blue and white designs very aesthetically pleasing (well at least to someone whose favourite colour is blue….). At each point there is a link to the main help menu which is, on the whole, helpful.

I’ve used some packages which are a nightmare to navigate, but I’m happy to say that this is not one of those.

10/10 for usability


*** How much does it cost and where do I get it? ***

The price varies dramatically depending on the quality you’re after. You can order bi-directional (2 languages only) packs or multi language packs offering a range of languages (usually several source langs all into the same target language, and back again, so although you can choose from Spanish, French, Italian and German, say, into English and vice versa, you can’t do Spanish to French or Italian to German)

Systran Personal:

Bi = $29

Multi = $49

Systran Standard:

Bi = $249

Multi = $349


Systran Premium (the one we use)

Bi = $599

Multi = $799 (!!!!!)


Order from their website – see below.


*** Where can I find out more? ***

The company’s website can be found at www.systransoft.com . It’s a lovely multi-lingual little place, available in French, Spanish, German, Italian, Greek, Dutch and, erm, American if the flags are anything to go by. Here you can find out about all their products, translate webpages or individual words and phrases and order stock. You can also read press reviews, although these are naturally all raving on
es – after all, if someone said something bad about your new multi-million dollar baby, would you re-print it for potential customers to see?


*** Overall ***

26/30 isn’t all that bad a score. While I wouldn’t personally pay that much money for this package, if it’s the one your company have chosen for you to use, you could do a lot worse. Considering the errors at the top level, I wouldn’t really want to go for one of the lower level versions.


*** Disclaimer ***

Contrary to popular belief, I’m not a computer geek. Above all I’m a linguist (albeit a computational linguist) who just happens to have ended up doing an MT placement. No one showed me how to use this package, or explained anything about it – I just picked it up as I went along. This is my first attempt at writing in this area of the site, so I would appreciate any feedback you might have to offer. Thanks.

Summary: