Language Technology Division

MS Office Proofing Tools – Major backstep

I recently purchased the Portuguese Microsoft Office Professional, which claims to include proofing tools for Portuguese, English, and some other languages. I really, really like the new layout of Microsoft office 2007 products and have avoided using MS Office 2003 (though I still need it for compatibility with some translation tools). Unfortunately, today I discovered that it’s spelling checker for UK English is a complete dunce. It didn’t recognize: incorporation, validation, Lisbon, collectable, pursuant, Angola and some other common words. It also had no suggestions for many words it underlined. Since it did perform a spelling check, and did find one misspelled word, it is installed correctly. Even worse, …

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Articles in Last Newsletter, and Deadline for next newsletter fast approaching!

The ATA has not yet sent out the official message to members that the most recent LTD newsletter is available, so let me provide readers with a preview. Don’t forget that the deadline for submissions for the next issue is Feb. 15th!

Thomas Hedden wrote an interesting article about DVD Region Codes and Video Encoding Standards, and How to Overcome Them. I was totally unaware that DVD region codes affected PC DVD players, and not just stand-alone DVD players. Half my DVDs were purchased in the US and half in Brazil, but my current DVD-Rom drive is too old to complain. I live in a Korean neighborhood and I wonder how the Korean DVD rental stores deal with this problem. Do users have to have two DVD players at home? That sounds awful, but I can’t imagine the Korean DVD manufacturers releasing Korean films for every immigrant community in the world. The best part is where Thomas tells us…

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PDF Conversion Programs – Which is best for Translators?

The principal products seem to be ABBYY FineReader and Nuance OmniPage. These two companies also have less expensive tools with fewer features (ABBYY PDF Transformer and Nuance PDF Converter). A recent LTD list discussion (see the LTD Mailing List for information on joining if you are an ATA member) introduced by member Betty Welker discussed which software is best for converting pdf files into MS Word documents.

I have PDF Converter (by Nuance), but I probably chose it based on price alone. At the time, I was more interested in marking up (editing) pdf files and converting Word files into pdf files. Most list contributors felt that…

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Hot Off the Press

Issue 4 of the division newsletter is available online. Go to Newsletter Archive on the left and click on Issue 4. A big Thank You to:

• Editor Lisa Carter and her contributors Thomas Hedden, Tuomas Kostiainen, Naomi de Moraes, Dierk Seeburg, Emily Tell, and Jost Zetzsche
• Barbara Guggemos, Naomi de Moraes, and Dierk Seeburg for proofreading
• Cindy Gresham for the layout