Tips 'n' Tools for Translators

Over the last few weeks, I've been busy working on a big translation and editing project for a customer. There were a lot of Microsoft Word™ files to translate, and during the project, I wanted to measure the length of the translations in order to issue a preliminary bill for the work that had been completed by then.


Obviously, I could have opened each file in Word and then measured it using the program's own word-count feature, but that would have taken ages to do for so many files. What I really needed was a dedicated program for counting the amount of text automatically in a number of files, and more or less simultaneously. What's more, I wanted it to go a step further and calculate the figures I needed for invoicing: the net amount to be invoiced, the amount of VAT due and the grand total.


This is where dedicated text-counting programs come in. One of these tools is AnyCount, a program with three different versions made by Ukrainian software producer Advanced International Translations, aka AIT (also the developer of Translation Office 3000, in which it has been incorporated). As its name implies, AnyCount can count a large number of file types (I made it 36 in the latest version of the Enterprise edition, v8.0.8, including images, HTML, XML and exchange formats like .mif for FrameMaker™ files). Needless to say, this range also covers Microsoft Office™ formats (PPT, DOC, XLS and the more recent XML-based ones), but PDF and OpenOffice™ formats have been included as well, which makes AnyCount very versatile. Even Microsoft Visio™ and compiled help files (CHM) can be processed. A full overview is available on AIT's website (click here).

The workflow with AnyCount

Before you measure a file with AnyCount, you can make a number of settings in it to specify what gets counted and what doesn't. Under "Settings" in the menu bar, you can say whether headers and footers should be included and even how often (once per page or once per section). If there are footnotes or end notes in the file you want to count, you can also specify which of these it should cover, as the screen shot on the left shows.

Objects that are embedded in files, such as Excel tables in Word or PowerPoint documents, can be measured, too, along with a number of other (albeit rarely needed) options like shapes and hidden text.

Under "Settings", you can also choose the unit of text you want to be measured, a feature that includes words, characters with (or without) spaces, lines and pages, and define how many units make up a line or page, for example:



Select the files you want to measure under "Files", check you've made the right settings and then count the files by clicking on the "Count!" icon in the menu bar.

The whole workflow is summarised by this screen shot from the interface:

Putting it to the test


It took AnyCount less than two minutes to count the number of characters in 16 Word docx files and calculate the overall figure and resulting cost. You can either process this data yourself or get AnyCount to export it to a file format like Excel to make a printout. If you have configured a template for invoicing in the program, you can even get AnyCount to create an invoice automatically using the data. It can save you a lot of time by automating such data-processing steps.

What I like about version 8 of the tool is that...

• it's simple to use


• it measures the amount of text in files quickly and seems accurate (I want to check this more closely, though)
  


• the interface is attractive (a nice shade of blue!) and intuitive to work with
  


• you can configure a good number of settings yourself to suit your own way of counting
  


• and it lets you output the results as reports in a number of common formats such as Excel, HTML or Word (these can also be printed out without much editing).