LTD News

The folks over at the Global Watchtower (a blog about the translation industry) provide consulting services to the Language industry and the large companies that contract language services.

A recent post caught my attention. It discusses alternatives to conventional TM solutions that most of us have never even heard of. An excerpt:

“What are the alternatives? Some companies have sidestepped traditional TM solutions by developing their own tools, while others have integrated products from companies like Kilgray and XML Intl. However, we’ve been advocating a different model for translation memory — free or very nearly free. We’ve long suggested a US$99 price point, more recently defined a free gmail-like offering, and have often recommended open source. The US$99 special threatens Atril’s or SDL’s commercial business, Lingotek offers free use up to a point, Across has a free Personal Edition, and LSPs like Elanex and Lionbridge to date have come forth with gmail-like products, but only their employees and subcontractors can use them.”

Read the entire post here.

Naomi de Moraes

Unfortunately, it is a fact of life that some people buy software, install it (or not!), but never even start using it, let alone get the most out of it.

I recently received a message from Wordfast, a well-known Translation Tool, announcing their introductory webinar which can be accessed at any time. I have not watched all of it, since I do not have Wordfast, but it starts with installation. It seems this webinar was given live, and simultaneously recorded for later viewing.

Across also has live training sessions (next one is July 15th) and interactive online tutorials.

SDL also has live webinars, that are later placed on its site as online training.

If you know of any other free webinars or recorded webinars, please let us know in the comments.

Naomi de Moraes

The latest issue of the LTD Newsletter is available for download! Go to Newsletter Archive on the left and click on Issue 2 – 2008.

The articles cover many diverse areas.

In Free and Open Source Software for Translators, Corinne McKay walks us through what FOSS is, why it’s important, and what’s available for translators.

If you’ve ever been asked to deliver a translation in SDL Trados segmented format but don’t have SDL Trados, read Naomi de Moraes’ Tool Tips column on how to do this without purchasing SDL Trados.

In her article on Articulate Presenter, Emily Tell reviews a software product that allows you to create professional Flash presentations the quick and easy way.

In Trends in Language Technology: Machine Translation, Dierk Seeburg ruminates on the prevalence of machine translation in the news recently and where it might be heading.

In his column Trados Tip, Tuomas Kostiainen points out how useful the Trados concordance function can be and how to use it.

Thank You to:

* Editor Lisa Carter and her contributors Corinne McKay, Emily Tell, Dierk Seeburg, Naomi de Moraes and Tuomas Kostiainen.
* Barbara Guggemos and Naomi de Moraes for proofreading
* Cindy Gresham for the layout

Gururaj Rao is writing a blog, Translator’s Tools, where he has a post about freeware applications to (1) extract the sound track from videos, and (2) help to transcribe the voice on the soundtrack. The software he used: Free Video to MP3 Converter V.3.1.1.2 and Express Scribe.

You should visit this fairly new blog and see if he writes about other tools and utilities of interest to you.

Recently, while I was out of the country, a lively discussion took place on the LTD list on the subject of Unicode. It all has gone quiet now. Perhaps all questions have been answered. I still think that character encoding and recognition of character encoding by client applications is one of the remaining frontiers of user-friendliness. Ideally, I don’t want to get involved in it and would expect the software to handle it all automatically – and correctly.

But back to the Unicode discussion on the LTD list: Here a short description of I found which I think is really helpful to lay the groundwork. From there I found my way over to Nick Rosenthal’s blog. And if you really want to immerse yourself into Unicode charts, you can do that here.

The ATA TCD (Translation Company Division) will be having its annual division conference in Englewood, CO, USA July 17 - 20, 2008. The following talks will be related to language technology:

• “Trends in Translation Technology, Take Two,” Ben Sargent, Common Sense Advisory
• “Why Machine Translation Is Making a Comeback,” Hannah Grap, Language Weaver
• “The New Age of Subscription-Based Software,” Don Shin, 1-Stop Translation
• “The Technological Vice Grip,” Jost Zetzsche, International Writers’ Group
• “Interactive Communication Tools for Global Teams,” Angela Starkmann
• “Globalization Management Systems,” Micaela Novas, Syntes Language Group
• “across Language Server,” Daniel Nackovski, across Systems

Click here for online registration.

Naomi de Moraes

Issue 1 (March 2008) of the division newsletter is available on-line. Go to Newsletter Archive on the left and click on Issue 1 – 2008. Thank You to:

• Editor Lisa Carter and her contributors Carey Holzman, Tuomas Kostiainen, Jonathan Lukens, and Naomi J. Sutcliffe de Moraes
• Barbara Guggemos and Naomi de Moraes for proofreading
• Cindy Gresham for the layout

The Colorado Translators Association is promoting the “Computer Tools and Methods for Great Translation Performance” seminar to take place on Saturday, May 31 from 9-5 in Denver, CO. The seminar will be given by Jamie Lucero. Early bird prices apply through April 20: $60 for CTA members and $75 for non-members.

About the seminar: Designed to boost translators’ work quality and productivity, this day-long workshop is a mix of theory, practical methods, software recommendations, brainstorming and hands-on exercises, all focusing on areas of the translation process beyond simply translating. More specifically, topics such as the following are covered: file management; business management; CAT tools; essential keyboard shortcuts; improved Internet research; computer maintenance.

Click here for details and to register.

Naomi de Moraes

Yesterday, I mentioned SDL’s new upgrade policy. Atril (the company that develops DéjàVu) has also launched a new upgrade policy, perhaps a counter-attack?

A recent email from Atril states:

“If you are using another TM tool, switching to Déjà Vu X is now easier than ever. We offer you the fastest and most effective way to introduce Déjà Vu X into your translation team. We have listened to you and this is the result: 20% discount on Déjà Vu X!

“Offer valid only until April 30, 2008.”

See the announcement page for more details.

I recently received the following email from SDL, which many of you may find interesting:

“From the 1st April 2008 our promotional pricing eligibility is changing for versions older than 3 years.

“If you are on versions Trados v6.5 or previous or SDLX 2004 and previous, we recommend you upgrade to SDL Trados 2007 now in order to retain discounted upgrade pricing for the software. From the 1st of April 2008 onwards, there will no longer be upgrade eligibility from these versions.”

See the SDL announcement page for complete details.

The previous policy was to allow users to upgrade even the oldest versions of SDLX or Trados, with upgrade price increasing with the age of the prior version. What do readers think of this?

Naomi de Moraes