If you are the kind of translator who likes reading about the latest news from the translation industry, picking up tips about using your computer, learning about programs that can help you in your work and hearing an expert's opinions on new product developments, then you ought to have a look at Jost Zetzsche's "Tool Box" newsletter.
It comes in two editions: a basic one that contains several short articles and a teaser from a longer one, which is free of charge, and a "premium" version, which features all the articles in their entirety and a few more to boot, plus access to the archives, and is available at an annual subscription fee of $25. To get a copy, all you need to do is sign up for it, pick the edition you want and say which e-mail address it should be sent to, then it will land in your inbox on a regular basis.
The basic version of the current issue, no. 225, contains a piece on SDL Trados Studio 2014 and MultiTerm 2014, which are due out around the end of September this year. Jost discusses the revamped interface of Studio 2014, which – like Microsoft Office 2007 and later versions – includes a ribbon instead of drop-down menus. He also mentions Studio's new alignment tool, which has been integrated into the program for the first time and replaces the separate WinAlign application that was needed in earlier versions.
Apart from taking a look at SDL Trados's latest innovations, Jost also addresses the topic of machine translation (MT), looking at what offerings are currently available to freelance translators rather than large translation companies and corporate users, which have tended to be the focus of MT service providers up until now (the full version of that interesting article is in the premium edition).
What else is in the newsletter? Well, the basic version starts with a lengthy, descriptive piece on João Rodrigues, a Portuguese interpreter who lived in Japan in the 16th century, then it jumps to the fate of QuarkXPress, the DTP software that lost much of its market share to Adobe's InDesign, and goes on to mention CopyFlow, a tool that enables you to work on such DTP files. It ends with an announcement about an event to be held by an American translators' and interpreters' association in September where Peter Schmitt (University of Leipzig, Germany) will be talking about "new trends and risks at the translator's workbench".
One of the advantages of getting the premium edition is that Jost also discusses features of personal computers that can help you get more out of your own PC. So as you can see, the newsletter's a mixed bag of subjects with something of interest for everyone.
Hope you enjoy the read and find it helpful as well.
Regards
Carl
image: courtesy of Jost Zetzsche, International Writers' Group
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