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Freelance translator since 1977


Translator's Tips

This page will compile some of the professional and productivity translation tips that I have been collecting over the years. It also includes solutions to know translation problems that have given me headaches in the past, and which might assist fellow translators in meeting a critical deadline.

  1. Counting text. Note that counting words is very important for translators (after all, you get paid by the word), but unfortunately it's not always well done. Word, for example, does not count text boxes, and tools like Trados don't count them if grouped together. Try some other external tool, such as the free CompleteWordCount from Shauna Kelly.

  2. Source or target text count. Careful with this is, make sure that you agree with your customer whether the text has to be counted on the source or target text, there may be a significant difference! I usually agree for Source text couting on documents where the number of words can be counted beforehand, so that both I and my customer know exactly what the translation cost will be and there are no disputes. The only exception is when the text cannot be counted beforehand, for example if the original text is faxed, or is a hard copy. In that case, I count the target text.

  3. Lines/Characters/Words & currencies. I am always amazed that though most of the world counts words, in some countries the agencies ask for prices based on lines or characters. This, of course, comes from the typewriter era and was mainly used to assess typesetting or mechanographic work, though I never understood why it has survided such things as the word counting in MS Word. In such cases, I personally use Amtrad's FeeWizard for these conversions, and Xe.com for currency conversions.

  4. Translating Text Boxes. One of my personal nightmares is the translation of text boxes, which are often pasted on top of images. Now, this is mostly manual work. A few is not a problem, but what if the same term(s) are repeated dozens or hundreds of times? Do a "replace all" in Word (outside the text box) of the text you need to translate by its translation, using "complete words"! (but mind you, it is necessary to make then a careful check afterwards for context) This works even with grouped text boxes! Note that if the translated text is longer than the original, you may also have to make the boxes bigger, or part of the translation might disappear!

  5. Forgotten terms. Remember that complicated word that you translated a few pages ago but forgot to include in the dictionary and can't find anymore? Forget about finding it using the TM, that just shows complete sentences. Or do not forget it. Just export your translation memory and look the word up with Apsic XBench, which can search for specific terms in many different TM formats.

  6. Very technical terms. Have you encountered a very technical term and cannot find a translation for it? Look for a definition in Wikipedia. Not only will you find out what it means, but maybe you are also lucky in finding the translation - look to the left sidebar, in "other languages", and find and click your target language - you will jump to the definition in that other language!

  7. PDF files. I do not know why people are so keen on sending PDF files instead of the original Word, but you cannot apply your usual productivity tools (D�ja Vu, Trados, Fusion or any other CAT tool) to these, obviously increasing the translation time. Unless, of course, you use a tool to covert it from PDF to Word. My favorite in most cases is Solid Converter due to its simplicity and accuracy, but if the text has been scanned or faxed (and therefore stored within the PDF as an image), then Abby Finereader with its incorporated multi-language OCR is what you need.

  8. Corrupted Trados segment. Yes, that infame message that Trados junks out from tome to time, and that despite the "Fix document" menu item there's no way to get rid of... Go to Word Tools/Options and activate the "show hidden text" tick. Trados stores the translation in Word something like:

    {0>Original text <}97{> Translated text <0} (the number in the center may vary)

    Ensure that the text is such a format. Note that the markers (also called "tags") with curly brackets have to be hidden text (you can do that with the Font properties of that text). Specially make sure there is NO carriage return in-between. If necessary, delete the markers such as {0> from the offending sentence. If so, do not forget to put the font properties of the original text as "visible", or you'll lose it!

  9. End of paragraph not found. Ever received this message that drives a lot of TRADOS users nuts? The problem is that immediately after the sentence there is no carriage return, probably because it is the end of page, or alternatively that you have placed inadvertently a carriage return before the closing Trados tag (<0}). Go to Word Tools/Options and activate the "show hidden text" tick. Check that the closing Trados tag mentioned before is immediately after the text (i.e., no carriage return between the Trados tags) or, it it does not even exist, place the cursor immediately after the text and press the return key. This will create a carraige return after the text (and the tag, if it exists), and Trados will stop complaining.

  10. Trados does not clean. Ever had some stupid Trados error such as "server not responding" that prevents you from cleaning a file, only one hour before delivery? Don't panic! Open the file in Word, select Edit/Replace, then click on "More", and then on "Format/Font". Select a "hidden" font, then do a replace with absolutely nothing as a replacement. All the Trados dirt disappears and you have a "clean" file!

  11. *BIG* Trados files with many graphics. One kind of document I get quite often for translation is a PDF conversion to Word with many graphics. Now, often these graphics do not have a line break before the end of the section or end-of-page marker, and the "cleaning" fails with an error such as "Error while writing breaks" or similar. A "quick-and-dirty" way of solving this situation is to make a replace of "^g" by "^&^p", in both cases without the quotes, preferably before starting the translation, but it has been known to work also afterwards. If you use Tageditor, then you have to perform the change before you create the ttx file.

  12. Trados error "(50202) Word could not convert the document due to an OLE/COM error." during TRADOS cleaning. This particular error drove me nuts until I discovered that it is generated when it is a big file with lots of graphics (typically, a partially scanned document). Simply divide the document into smaller ones, clean these separately and put them back together. Ten pages at the time don't seem to cause problems, but depending on the particular document segment, bigger "chunks" may be easily digested.

  13. Translating HUGE Word files and "out of memory" errors. Ever had a 50 MByte (or even greater) file to be translated? If you use Trados, you may find out that it first converts your file into the rtf format, generating files that can be as big as several Gigabytes. Apart that you can easily run out of memory and even out of hard disk, certain Trados operations (like changing from one segment to another) may take up to half an hour, dramatically reducing your productivity. Cleaning can take up hours! But there is a way around this: Instead of Word, use Tageditor instead! Yes, it can process Word files, and the memory requirements are much smaller. It is not always very good in restoring the graphics, but cleaning that up takes much less than having to wait for ages between each segment!

  14. Selecting many pages in Word. Ever had the problem that you had to select dozens of pages in Word for some purpose or another? Selecting the text and scrolling down is a no-no, which is both inaccurate and takes a long time. Rather set the Zoom function in Word to 25%, and easily select the pages you wanted....

  15. Translating Excel in Trados. Yes, you may know that Trados Tageditor can handle Excel. But what if the Excel file has for example several languages, and you only need to translate the English columns? Or if you have several columns and need to retain the original and translate in a different column? Paste the source text column(s) into the target text columns, and then HIDE all columns that do NOT have to be translated. In TagEditor you will only see the visible columns, which you can translate normally. After finishing, simply unhide the hiden columns, and you'll have it as requested!

  16. Review the reviewer. When the translation is reviewed by an editor, the changes to the translation are not always evident. The free Apsic Comparator comes here to the rescue - this tool that allows you to create side-by-side reports with all the changes made to a translation by a reviewer. These comparison reports can be used both to evaluate the quality of the translation and to provide feedback to the translator.

  17. Prices. Are your prices too low/too high? Though you can compare the prices of fellow translators to see whether you are (not) competitive, my advice is to find out what you NEED to earn to make a living and stay in the business. After all, if you do not earn enough to pay the bills perhaps you should either look for another profession or raise your rates. But how much do you need to earn? Check out the Price Calculator at Babelport.

  18. Discounts. Hmm.. a tricky issue both for translators and their clients. I DO give discounts, but only on volume, because on one hand I want to incentivate my customers to come back and on the other hand obviously I want to be as busy as possible. And of course I am not going to charge the same thing to an agency that provides me from time to time some small work as my top client, who gives me usually between half a million and sometimes over a million words a year. My rates are what they are. I am expensive? Sure. But why do my customers come back? (NOTE: I make the discounts after receiving the orders, not on the basis of promises...)

  19. Fuzzies, repetitions, etc. Again, many agencies "expect" discounts for fuzzies, repetitions, etc. My position is that if I have invested in a CAT tool to improve my productivity, it is me who should benefit from such productivity - after all, it is ME who paid for the tool! Are you going to a manufacturing plant and ask for a discount because they bought new machines? (OK, I accept a discount on full repetitions on things such as parts lists, but this is a very special case requiring hardly any context check on full repetitions...)

  20. Purchase orders. I always ask for a PO. This is a contractual commitment that protects both the contractor and the translator. The contractor has the assurance that the translator will do the work as requested in the PO, and not otherwise, and the translator has the assurance that he will get paid. Both sides benefit from this, no matter how much trust there is between them.

  21. Payment practice databases. Any professional translator takes a risk every time that he takes on a job - will he be paid? The vast majority of the agencies out there are honest, but unfortunately there are also crooks, like in any profession. Take the time to check the references of a customer before accepting a job, so that you can be assured that you are dealing with an honest pro. In case of doubt, ask for advance payment. On the other hand, if you have good experiences with a customer, post these also to the payment practice databases, so that your colleagues can identify the honest companies quickly. You can find some of these sites at my Links page.

  22. Late payments. Please refer to Directive 2000/35/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 June 2000 on combating late payment in commercial transactions.

  23. Website/free e-mail addresses (translators) . Once I decided to go on-line as a translator, I knew right from the start that I needed my own website with its corresponding e-mail address - How can a customer trust your professionalism if you are using a free e-mail address? It means that you are not established, that you are a start-up that has so little experience that you cannot afford a website of your own. Even worse, a hotmail-type address indicates that you can disappear without a trace, leaving the job unfinished. Or your e-mail might end up in a spam box. Customers want certainty that you are a stable, professional translator that will do what they entrust you with, and a free e-mail address wil undermine that certainty. Note it is not very expensive - I pay less that 15 euros/year for my domain name, and I host it for 30 euros/year at Exobits (they will also buy you the domain name if you want), but there are other hosting providers. You can also design your own website, like I have done, or buy a template (between 15-40 euros) and modify it, so money is not an excuse...

  24. NO Website/free e-mail addresses (agencies). Danger sign! Though many bona-fide agencies use free e-mail addresses as a complement to their company e-mail (which I personally do not understand, if you can use a Webmail at your own site), most of the crooks use a free e-mail address that allows them to disappear once you have delivered the work. ALWAYS check if your potential customer has a free e-mail address and check through their website whether that e-mail you received is legitimate. Crooks have been known to impersonate honest agencies. And in case the potential customer does not even have a website, then stay away... if they can't afford a cost of less than 45 euros/year for a website -which is what my website costs me in total- then they obviously can't afford your services. To see if an e-mail is free (sometimes it is not so evident), check it out here.

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