Anaphraseus: a free TenT that works within OpenOffice.org

If you run OpenOffice.org and/or Linux and are getting impatient while waiting for the cross-platform standalone version of Wordfast, you might want to take a look at Anaphraseus, previously called Open Wordfast.

Anaphraseus is a translation tool that works from within OpenOffice.org and uses a segmentation model that seems similar to the one used by Wordfast and Trados. It’s still technically a beta version, and I know at least one translator who reported that she installed it according to the instructions and it essentially didn’t work. However, I downloaded and installed the most recent release yesterday and was pleasantly surprised by the functionality. Anaphraseus definitely isn’t as feature-packed as the commercial TenTs or OmegaT, but it has some definite appeal. One of the only times that I hit a roadblock working in OmegaT (my current preferred TenT) is when a client wants to either send or receive files in Trados uncleaned/bilingual format. Since OmegaT doesn’t use the equivalent of cleaned and uncleaned files, it can be a problem to accommodate that request. However, Anaphraseus seems to do quite a good job of producing a Trados-style bilingual file.

Given that Anaphraseus is still new on the scene and doesn’t have many of the support features (i.e. a very active discussion group) that other open source TenTs have, I’m not sure I would use it for a large or critical project, but I think it’s a nice addition to an OpenOffice.org-using translator’s quiver of tools.