If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Changing technology and the Internet have transformed the way translators work. I started 15 years ago with an IBM PS/2 with Windows 3.1 and floppy disks for back up and I either hand delivered my files or sent them using the Z modem protocole. I had piles of heavy paper dictionnaries and paid regular visits to University librries. We’ve come a long way since then. I still got paper dictionaries that get used sometimes but many are kept just for nostalgia. Any translator starting out today is going to be computer based and use the latest technologies. But which ones? Here’s a list of stuff you shouldn’t be without.
Word processor
You’ll recieve files mainly in the standard .doc (or the more recent XML-based .docx) format. That doesn’t mean you have to use Word! There are a number of much cheaper or free (well, just go for the free ones really) alternatives. Look at Open Office’s Writer, AbiWord or even Google Docs for simple documents (you’ll have to sign in to a Google account to see this).
Spreadsheet
Why a spreadsheet you ask? I remember when I was 17 being told by my French teacher that I had to learn vocabulary in order to pass my exams. So I bought a paper address book and wrote down all the new words I came across and learnt them by heart. A spreadsheet is the modern equivalent of my address book and ideal for compiling glossaries of frequently-used terms or client or industry-specific terminology. Professional translators don’t need to learn vocabulary off by heart but putting it into an easy to use format in a spreadsheet puts it at your fingertips rather than on random pieces of paper and makes it easy to export to Computer-Asssisted Translation (CAT) tools. Again, don’t think you have to use Excel. Cheaper solutions exist, particularly Open Office’s Calc or Google Docs.
Electronic dictionaries
One of the greatest time savers I’ve come across in my professional life. No more thumbing through pages and pages until I find the word I want. Enter the search term, the computer finds it and sometimes cross-references it with others. If it doesn’t find the term, move on to the next one. I still use the Collins-Lexibase on a PC and the Collins-Robert on a Mac.
Online bilingual dictionaries
These have superseded electronic ones to a certain extent. They have the advantage of being able to be updated instantly and regularly without waiting for a new version of the CD to come out. Since the demise (for non-EU staff that is) of Eurodictotum, the daddies for the French/English pair are the Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique and Termium Plus. Both are managed by the Canadian Government (more of them below), the GDT is free and Termium used to be available at a hefty but worth it price on CD. Now it’s gained a Spanish section and is available for an online subscription after a 15 day trial. I find the new interface a little clunky but it’s still worth it. The advantage of online dictionaries is of course that they’re not platform dependent and you can use them on any computer you like. Google searches will throw up a results in a variety of other online dictionaries the quality of which vary enormously.
Online and offline monolingual dictionaries and thesaurii
These are almost as important if not more than their bilingual counterparts. It’s easy to forget that translators are writers who refer to another language for guidance and structure in what they write. I’ve often used a French thesaurus (dictionnaire des synonymes) to get me out of a hole. For us UK-based people, obviously the grand old man is the OED. It’s available as a pricey CD or on subscription. To be honest, it’s overkill for the majority of us. I use the one-volume Oxford Dictionary of English, the Oxford Thesaurus and the Oxford Style Manual.
The day I discovered search engines was the last day I spent in a University library. Online search obviously provides enormous help for translators. Use the Advanced Tools to drill down to specific pages and specific languages. For French-English translators, the Canadian government government is great. All government web sites are bilingual, but additionally, when you click on the English tab on a French page, you actually get the same page translated.
Computer-Aided Translation (CAT)
CAT tools build up databases of the translations you do and if you have jobs with repetitions in them, you translate only once. That’s the theory anyway. A detailed analysis would be the subject of another long post. They are a big investment for a beginner but if you have jobs with lots of repetition, you could make the money back quickly. Especially if you’re a Mac user, it’s difficult to get away from the majors, Trados, Déjà Vu and Transit. Free options exist, the multi-platform Omega T or Cafe Tran, my particular jury’s out on those at the moment. You can use Wordfast 5.5 if you have small(ish) projects, but it doesn’t work very well on a Mac.
Specialist dictionaries
Whilst paper generalist dictionaries are all but dead, specialist ones are very much alive and kicking.
Voice dictation software
This won’t suit everyone and it’s not suitable for all types of text. I never learnt to touch type properly and even if I’ve attempted to do so over the years, I’m two or three times more productive talking to a computer rather than doing battle with the keyboard.
This is not an exhaustive list, just the stuff I use. Any other suggestions are of course more than welcome.
Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.
