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Advanced word count options

EA Asset Loc

December 14, 2023 08:27

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Hey Wordbee Team,

Hope all is well with you.

I'm trying to understand a bit more about the advanced word count options in the word count profiles with the CAT counting algorithm. Could you help me out by explaining what counts as a "symbol" in the "Count any symbols as words" option? For example, is an & sign considered a symbol or just punctuation? 

Also, I'm curious about what the "Adjust to standards" option means.

What standards are we talking about here?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Best,
Maria

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4 comments

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  Maik Mehlhose December 15, 2023 14:36 Official comment

  Dear Maria,

  Thanks for your questions, let's have a look at them:

  1. "What counts as a "symbol" in the "Count any symbols as words" option? Is an & sign considered a symbol or just punctuation?

  We don't have a definitive list of symbols in the code but rather an exclusion. A symbol is every character that is not a punctuation mark, letter, digit, word delimiter, special number or an underscore.

  An & should thus be considered a symbol.
  
  

  2. What does the "Adjust to standards" option mean?
  
  This option dates back to the beginning of Wordbee. This algorithm was built to adjust word counts to harmonize with Trados and MemoQ word counts at the time. We have recently checked this algorithm and found that the later CAT tool versions don't align with these word counts anymore. Our suggestion is to switch to the Word option as it gets closer results for all kinds of third-party tools like Trados and Microsoft Word.
  
  I hope this information helps. If you need anything else, please let me know.

  Cheers,
  Maik
  
  Maik Mehlhose
  Head of Product

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  EA Asset Loc December 15, 2023 14:56

  Thanks a lot, Maik for the quick answer, appreciated!

  Is there any kind of documentation going into detail around the topic of word counting? Most of our word counting profiles are using the CAT algorithm. We are considering changing this and following your recommendation above, but we would need to understand the impact. 

  Thanks in advance!

  Best regards,

  Maria

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  Maik Mehlhose December 15, 2023 15:07

  Dear Maria,

  We have some explanations about word count profiles in our documentation.

  I'm afraid though that it will not go into the depth that you expect. The different word count profiles are based on very complex mathematical algorithms. I think even a more detailed documentation would not really give the exact insights into what exactly will change switching from one to the other, especially in light of all the different options available and the many different ways text can be extracted.

  I think the only viable way is to run some tests on a sample of your texts and project the impact on larger text amounts based on it.

  Cheers,
  Maik
  
  Maik Mehlhose
  Head of Product

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  EA Asset Loc December 15, 2023 15:11

  I see, thank you very much, Maik! Have a great weekend!