Tips 'n' Tools for Translators - software

Going back to an earlier version of memoQ

nospam@example.com (Carl) — Fri, 02 Nov 2018 15:24:00 +0100

If you have a valid support & maintenance agreement for memoQ, you are entitled to download the latest release of the software (either a build or a major upgrade) and install it on your PC. After doing that, however, you may find it doesn't do some things quite as well as your previous version, and if you come across enough of these shortcomings, you may want to go back to your old version and carry on using that for a while until the shortcomings get ironed out by the software development team. How do you get hold of that older version, though, now that it's been replaced by the latest one on your computer?

If you haven't had the foresight to save the installation file beforehand, don't worry – all is not lost! All you need to do is go to a page on the memoQ website and download the right installation file from there – it's https://www.memoq.com/en/downloads.

The versions of memoQ you can currently find here go back all the way from the newest one to memoQ translator pro 4.2, which was released several years ago.

Download the file, save it to your desktop (for example) and double-click on it to install it over the existing installation. The next time you launch memoQ, this earlier version will be used automatically.

And that's all there is to it!

Best,

Carl

Checking the integrity of your PC's Windows operating system

nospam@example.com (Carl) — Fri, 27 Oct 2017 16:08:00 +0200

Is your Windows operating system playing up again? Are Windows updates being installed correctly or failing? If you've got a sneaking suspicion that something's wrong, then it's a good idea to check your Windows installation and see if everything is the way it should be as some files may have been corrupted by previous software installations.

The procedure you need to do this is simple enough:

First of all, call up the Command Prompt ('Eingabeaufforderung' in German) as the administrator:

In Windows 10, move the mouse cursor over to the Start button in the taskbar (it's a window symbol), right-click your mouse and select the correct prompt from the list that then appears (there are two prompts, one of which is for the system administrator. Select that one). Instructions for various other Windows systems are provided here.

Second, scan your Windows system by typing this command in the black prompt window that appears:

sfc /scannow

(Write it exactly that way with a space after 'sfc'.)

The letters 'sfc' stand for System File Checker.

Windows' system files, which are protected, will then be scanned internally to see if they are as they ought to be (i.e. SFC will run a file integrity check). This can take a while, depending on how many files there are, what faults get discovered in the system and how long each repair takes (it usually takes around 10 to 15 minutes).

You'll see the progress that SFC is making as a percentage and will also be able to see if any files are found that really are corrupt, in which case SFC will repair them. The prompt will also tell you when the check has finished.

Carl

MemoQ 8.1 and translating PDFs

nospam@example.com (Carl) — Sun, 28 May 2017 02:30:00 +0200

Software-maker Kilgray has just released a new version of memoQ 8 that is likely to be something of a landmark development. Although memoQ has been able to import non-scanned PDF files for translation for some time, this was not a particularly strong feature up till now. Version 8.1 changes that, however, as it comes with the ability to link up to Iceni's TransPDF servers to convert PDF files and produce translatable, formatted texts that have been extracted from the source files. PDF files get converted into XLIFF format and can then be imported into memoQ by adding them to a project via a new tab called "TransPDF import/export".

For more information on the steps involved, read Peter Reynolds' post on this feature (Peter works for Kilgray) and then watch this short video about it on YouTube.

To take advantage of Iceni's software, you will need to set up a user account with them first. A trial account is for free. After that, you will need to buy some "credits" off them to be able to use the OCR feature on scanned PDFs and get a PDF file as your target format after translating it.

According to Iceni, their PDF-conversion system supports a wide range of file types, including those from CAT tools like memoQ, Memsource and Déjà Vu. (Memsource has actually already "incorporated" TransPDF the way memoQ 8.1 has.) Rather than having to convert your files on Iceni's website and then import them into your CAT tool, you can now do this through memoQ, which is obviously more convenient.

It's helpful to know that Iceni converts source PDFs into a file with a text-based format for free, so you can translate the resulting file and then send it to your customer for them to check or modify and then export it as PDF themselves, which is really the usual procedure. That way, they will have a copy of the translation in a format they can work with easily; if you were to send them a translated PDF, on the other hand (which Iceni would charge you for producing), then they would essentially be getting a final version off you and could only work with it by using PDF editing software such as Adobe Acrobat or ABBYY PDF Transformer.

If you haven't heard of Iceni's PDF conversion before, why not try it out and see how well it does the job on a typical PDF file of your own? It's an alternative to using an OCR application like ABBYY FineReader and can be used regardless of whether or not you have memoQ.

Regards

Carl

images: memoQ © Kilgray, TransPDF © Iceni

SDL Trados Studio 2017 - first impressions

nospam@example.com (Carl) — Fri, 17 Feb 2017 21:13:01 +0100

Over the last 30 days, I have been trying out SDL Trados Studio 2017, the latest version of SDL's flagship CAT tool for translators. My first impressions have been mixed: some good, some bad.

The very first thing you should be aware of when you request a free trial version of Studio 2017 online is that you will not be getting a full-feature version of the package to try out, but one with some major restrictions. This was my first surprise as the other CAT tools I have tried out so far like memoQ translator pro, Déjà Vu X3, OmegaT, Swordfish and memsource have always been fully functional versions. Although the interface of the trial version of Studio 2017 includes icons for MultiTerm, the termbase program, and for software localisation using a powerful tool from SDL called Passolo, clicking on the icons will trigger a message saying that these programs are not installed. In other words, you can't try them out. Trying to use a CAT tool that has a translation-memory ('TM') module but not one for terminology is frustrating as it means you can translate proper files with it, but you can't import terms from other programs, which would help you with the translation.

Funnily enough, some features of MultiTerm are actually included in the trial version, meaning you can save new terms if you want, but you can't export the termbase you create to send it to someone else or import into another CAT tool; it's stuck inside Studio 2017. I hope SDL decides to include full MultiTerm support in the next version of Studio, if not before, as being able to draw on terminology you have already collected is important for a translator.

What did I like about Studio 2017?

- The interface, which is quite easy to work with (i.e. it's designed in a logical way) and uses a colour scheme I now find easy on the eye (I didn't like the gaudiness of earlier colour schemes). The interface also contains a number of very useful icons such as links to tutorials and to SDL AppStore (an external, web-based resource from SDL where you can get extra add-ons to enhance Studio's out-of-the-box functionality; it used to be called OpenExchange).

- The amount of customisation possible for the interface - you can add specific functions you need a lot to a Quick Access bar, for example.

- The vertical translation grid, which - like memoQ's - is clear and easy to use; the source language is displayed in segments on the left, the target in segments on the right (at least in my LTR language pair, German and English; I presume this order is reversed for languages written in RTL scripts like Hebrew and Arabic).

- You can filter segments using a wide range of practical criteria.

- The two or three software updates that Studio installed during the trial period went quickly and smoothly.

- The Release Notes that come with the package tell you exactly what's new in Studio 2017. They also say what issues there are with it (optical character recognition, or OCR, in PDF files that Studio can read is limited to 14 languages at the moment).

What didn't I like about Studio 2017?

- It's not very easy to export a TM to TMX format (which is a common file format for exchanging TM data between different programs). You can get around this limitation by installing a special add-on for exactly this purpose or by checking a settings box that allows you to export the TM in 'a Trados 2007-compatible format' (i.e. TMX!).

- Some features that are a standard part of memoQ translator pro are not included in Studio 2017; if you want them, you need to install an add-on from SDL AppStore first. MemoQ lets you import terms from a CSV file, for example, and you can look up tricky terms on the web straight from the translation grid. Not so with Studio (yet, at least):

- The trial version includes a small number of pre-installed apps, but you can't install any extra ones of your own choice (like the Glossary Converter), meaning you can't see what they do or how well they work. (That was disappointing since there were a number of apps from SDL AppStore that I wanted to try out, too.)

- The Studio 2017 software package is considerably bigger than memoQ translator pro's in terms of hard-disk space and takes longer to launch as well.

- Studio 2017 won't run on Windows 8.0, Windows Vista or Windows XP; it will only run on the latest versions of Windows 7, 8.1 and 10. So some versions of Windows are fine, others aren't. Woe you've got the wrong one on your PC!

- Studio 2017 also has issues with certain web browsers and versions of Microsoft Office.

Please read the Release Notes carefully to see if your PC meets Studio's requirements before you install it.

In sum, I enjoyed using the trial version of the program, which in my opinion is the best one I've worked with so far. However, my experience as a user would have been even better if all of Studio's functionality had been available. Since trial versions of programs are intended to persuade potential new users to buy the package, it doesn't make sense to offer them a restricted-feature version that will hamper their productivity rather than boost it. Apart from that, having worked with CAT tools for a good few years now, I found Studio 2017 relatively straightforward to use – many of them now work in a similar way. What I wasn't able to see instantly, however, was what clear advantages the tool has over other sophisticated packages like memoQ.

If you are interested in getting a licence for SDL Trados Studio 2017, I recommend you to take a look at the group buys that frequently take place on Proz.com as you can save a lot of money that way. SDL also runs several promotions a year itself. If you are a member of a translators' association, that may have made a special arrangement with SDL to allow its members to buy the software at a reduced rate. So there are various options you can benefit from.

Regards,

Carl

Related articles elsewhere on the internet

- Product review by Andrea Luciano Damico

- FAQs about Studio 2017 on SDL's own website

- Emma Goldsmith's blog post on fragment recall in Studio 2017, a new feature in Studio to improve automatic assembly of target sentences

- Order a free trial of Studio 2017 from SDL

Special end-of-year offers on scanner and PDF software

nospam@example.com (Carl) — Thu, 29 Dec 2016 16:06:40 +0100

ABBYY, the software company behind FineReader, arguably the best OCR software package in town at the moment, is currently offering two of its products, FineReader 12 and PDF Transformer+, at a 25% discount until 31 December.

FineReader scans paper documents and images and turns them into digital files, which you can save in one of various Windows or Mac formats. Its optical character recognition ('OCR') is highly accurate and can be used on a host of source languages.

PDF Transformer+ is an easy-to-use program for editing PDF files and converting them into editable file formats like Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Open Office Writer. It also lets you scan paper documents and create editable PDF files.

Both of these programs help translators transform documents that customers send them on paper or as PDFs into digital files that can be processed in common word-processing packages and then translated with CAT tools, for example.

To find out more about this offer, click here to go to ABBYY's website. You can watch short videos there that show you what the programs can do and download a trial version of each program as well if you want to try them out before buying them.

This special offer has been running for a while now and is only valid until 31 December, so be quick! (I bought PDF Transformer+ recently and thoroughly recommend it; it does its job well, is easy to use and is great value for money in my opinion.)

Regards

Carl

Preparing PDF files for translation - how to handle a protected file

nospam@example.com (Carl) — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 16:52:00 +0100

PDF files are constantly being created by businesses and non-profit organisations to show colleagues, customers and other interested parties what material has been written or drawn and what its layout will be like once it's printed. Basically, they are exact images of documents and can be viewed on computers running on various operating systems, not just Microsoft Windows.

PDFs can either be created from other electronic file formats such as Word .docx files or they can be generated by a scanner. Depending on what settings have been made in the software, the PDF files that are created may or may not be searchable. If they are, then individual words can be found in them thanks to a processing step called optical character recognition, or OCR for short. It's usually quite easy to create an editable Word file thanks to this kind of data processing; in Adobe Acrobat XI, for example, you just select these items in the 'File' menu to export the contents into a new Word document:

The 'tough nuts', in contrast, are the scanned images of paper documents we sometimes get sent, as it can take a lot of time and effort to create a reasonable editable text from these that can then be typed over and translated. To do this, you will need to use OCR software on the file in question to try and turn the image of the document into a set of legible and hopefully correctly rendered words. Sometimes this can work well, especially if you use high-quality programs such as Acrobat, ABBYY Finereader or Nuance OmniPage, which come with powerful character-recognition software. But things don't always go to plan, and the results of OCR'ing a scanned image can also be very disappointing, requiring copious editing – or even a completely different approach to creating a translatable file.

This is the situation you may also find yourself in if you ever get sent a PDF file that has been protected (i.e. 'secured') in some way – by a password, for example, meaning you can only open it or add comments to it if you enter the password first (providing you are authorised to do so). If you don't have the password, you won't be given the full right to use and process the file. This also means you won't be able to copy its contents and paste them into a blank Word file for translation. And what then?

Asking the customer for the password may be the obvious answer here, but if they don't have it themselves and are unable (or unwilling) to get it, what else should you do? Well, there are various suggestions about this on the internet, some of which I've tried out, but have you ever thought of using a simple work-around with a printer? That may be a faster and simpler way of getting round the password-protection issue.

If you are able to print the file out (this may not be allowed, depending on what properties the PDF has been given – see the screen shot below on how to access these in Adobe Acrobat XI), then do so using the best resolution and clearest print you can. Scan the printout and create a brand-new, multi-page PDF from it yourself. Most types of scanner software will let you do this, including the three I've just mentioned.

When the scanner creates the new PDF file, get it to make the file searchable when you check or adjust the settings beforehand; it will then OCR it (don't forget to tell it which language it should recognise first, though). Once you've got the file, check it to see if the quality of the text is okay, and if it is, export the contents into a new Word file. Now you should find you have a Word document that is straightforward to translate. A little editing may be necessary, but not much (utilities like CodeZapper and TransTools Suite will help you tidy the file up if need be).

Thanks to my German colleague Ludger Giebel for mentioning this idea.

Carl

Related links

- My earlier post on converting PDFs into a translation-friendly format using Wordfast Anywhere

- My earlier post on Acrobat XI and Acrobat Reader

- Kilgray, the maker of memoQ, on converting PDFs using various tools, including their own CAT tool

- Eric le Carre on translating PDFs using various free tools

MemoQ in 5 minutes (3): changing the font used in memoQ's translation grid

nospam@example.com (Carl) — Sun, 31 Jan 2016 22:32:00 +0100

Did you know you can use a range of different fonts to display segments in memoQ's translation grid? You don't just have to stick to one, but can customise the appearance.

Many translators probably don't even consider using a different font to display text in their CAT tool, but it may well be worth your while to try a few other fonts out from time to time. You may even want to change which font you use in the course of a day as your eyes get tired.

I find that sans serif fonts are particularly easy to read on screen. These include popular fonts such as Calibri and Arial. MemoQ allows you to select a different font from a drop-down list and pick a different size as well. To do this in memoQ 2014, you need to call up the 'Options' menu from 'Tools' in the main menu ...

... and then select the item called 'Appearance' in 'Category'. The dialogue below will then be shown.

To pick a different font, go to the 'Editor fonts' section in the top half and pick a font from 'Font family and size' (click on the downward arrow in the font box to open a drop-down menu listing all the fonts available on your computer). Separate font families are listed for Asian languages like Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

Apart from adjusting the font you'll see in the translation grid, this dialogue box also lets you switch the colour of the text – to do this, move down to 'Editor colors' and click on the box to the right of 'Text color'.

After making your new settings, activate them by clicking on 'Apply' or 'OK'. For some specific help on the options available here, just click on the 'Help' button on the far right.

To call up the 'Options' menu in memoQ 2015, go to the dark-blue 'MemoQ' tab at the top left of the screen, click on it and then move down to 'Options' near the bottom of the list, which will display various items. Pick the 'Options' item (the three cogs) to access the settings in the dialogue.

More details are available in the help documentation or on Kilgray's website.

Regards

Carl

Related links

Paul Filken's blog post on making similar adjustments via the 'View' menu in SDL Trados Studio 2014

Two virtual events from Proz on International Translation Day

nospam@example.com (Carl) — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 20:00:30 +0200

Translators' platform Proz.com is going to be staging its 7th annual virtual conference shortly, in celebration of International Translation Day on Wednesday, 30 September 2015.

This conference is actually one of two training events for translators running over two whole days starting from 29 September.

100+ hours of scheduled and on-demand sessions and content

30+ hours of LIVE content including Q&A sessions, panel discussions, chat rooms and more

Panel discussions on “Terminology management” and “Customer relationship management”

Exhibit booths where you can chat live with exhibitors and software vendors (including prize giveaways)

Earn 10 ATA CE credits for attending

Save up to 50% on popular CAT tools including SDL Trados Studio, memoQ, Wordfast, Déjà Vu and more

Here are some of the topics that are going to be discussed according to Proz:

How to find direct clients and run a business that you love

Translation or Interpreting? & the Emerging Market for Hybrid Communication Models

Getting in the game: a 'how to' for translation beginners

The beauty of machine translation

10 essential tips that are most helpful for a professional translator

Where to find clients and how to approach them and do the follow-up without sounding too pushy

Glossary & terminology management

Panel discussion on client relationship management

Panel discussion on leveraging voice-recognition technology for greater efficiency.

View the full programme here, after which you can click here to register as an attendee. (It's free!)

N.B. If you attend at least one live event, this will give you free access to recordings after the event, which you can watch any time for a period of at least 90 days.

For events concerning CAT tools on 29 September, see the special programme here. This will include the following talks:

Free Tools for Translators

Technical translation: is it really about terminology?

Setting up an MT system

Managing client expectations

Economics of pricing for the translation industry

Panel discussion on meeting clients

Panel discussion on machine translation

Medical documents for academic publishing: creating English content with precision, accuracy and style

How to participate in EU tendering procedures for translation services.

I'm sure you'll find something worthwhile as the topics are very varied. There are also quite a lot of pre-recorded webinars to accompany the two-day event that you can watch on demand, i.e. whenever it suits you.

Regards,

Carl

image: © Proz.com

Related links

FIT (the International Federation of Translators) on International Translation Day

The British Library's day-long programme of events on translation in London on 2 October ("An opportunity for translators, students, publishers, booksellers, librarians, bloggers and reviewers to gather and debate")

A webinar on how CAT tools have changed

nospam@example.com (Carl) — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 11:37:00 +0200

If you are interested in hearing what a prominent speaker and writer on computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools has to say about the state of the 'art', a forthcoming webinar is likely to appeal to you.

Jost Zetzsche, the author of a newsletter on translation tools that I reviewed here back in August 2013, will be holding a webinar entitled 'Translation technology – what’s still missing and what has been fixed?' on 21 May (4 pm British time). This is actually a continuation of an earlier interactive webinar he held in January 2014 (see below for more details).

As the organiser, eCPD Webinars, explains in today's newsletter announcement about it, Jost 'will be talking about what has happened in the intervening 16 months and how, if at all, things could further improve for translators'. If you attend the talk, you will also be able to participate in it actively by asking Jost questions.

This webinar is free of charge, eCPD Webinars says. To sign up, just go to http://www.ecpdwebinars.co.uk/events_122730.html (or click here). Places are limited, but fortunately, the event will be recorded for later viewing.

Regards,

Carl

image: © eCPD Webinars

Related links

Jost's initial webinar on this topic, which can also be viewed free of charge (lasts 1 hr 11 mins).

The Tool Box Journal ('a monthly journal for people in the translation industry who want to get more out of their computers')

Subscribe to eCPD's free webinar newsletter on their website to keep up to date with their events.

Coping with a bug in memoQ 2014

nospam@example.com (Carl) — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 13:21:00 +0200

This post is rather technical and will only be of real interest to other users of memoQ, which is the main computer-assisted translation tool I use. Software bugs can be minor annoyances, but from time to time, a major one appears in a new software build that can play havoc with your workflow and productivity. So much for CAT tools saving you time! Don't believe everything you read on the glossy pages of CAT-tool websites!

Over the last week or so (middle/end of March), a serious bug has appeared in memoQ 2014 (build 71) and R2 (build 58) that has been causing many users headaches, it seems (including me). It stops you from exporting your translation back to the original .docx file format – you get a puzzling error message like this:

..............

TYPE:

System.InvalidOperationException

MESSAGE:

Die Sequenz enthält kein übereinstimmendes Element.

SOURCE:

MemoQ.Project

CALL STACK:

bei MemoQ.Project.TranslationDocImportExport.LocalExportController.<DoJob>b__12(ExportUnitBase eu)

..............

[The equivalent English version is this, apparently:

TYPE:

System.InvalidOperationException

MESSAGE:

Sequence contains no matching element

SOURCE:

MemoQ.Project

CALL STACK:

at MemoQ.Project.TranslationDocImportExport.LocalExportController.<DoJob>b__12(ExportUnitBase eu)]

.............

... and can't get your translation out of memoQ! There is a simple way of dealing with the issue, however – if you happen to know how.

First of all, don't panic, as your translation is safe and sound inside memoQ; nothing has been lost. One way of getting your translation back into the original file format (only Word files are affected) is to re-import the source file, pre-translate it – in which case everything will be inserted automatically if the segmenting has been done the same way – and then simply export the file as usual. Voilà! And it's all done in a matter of minutes.

So why does this work if the export didn't work before? Well, it's because your original translation will have contained comments, apparently. (Comments can be inserted deliberately, but they are also added by memoQ by default if you happen to mark a word or phrase to highlight it and return to it later.)

To get things working smoothly again until the bug has been fixed (which will probably be the case shortly in the next build), change the settings to export .docx files without any comments:

- go to 'Options' in R2 (use the icon in the top menu bar)(or go to 'Tools' > 'Options' in memoQ 2014) and select the 'Miscellaneous' category.

There are five options in the middle that you can set to define which type of comment you want to export (e.g. 'Export information-level comments to final file'):

- uncheck all of them, click on 'OK' to save the setting and then try to export your documents again. It ought to work now.

Thanks to Technical Support at Kilgray for this advice, which I am passing on here to spread the word faster. (Once the bug has been fixed, you will need to go back to these settings and tick them again to re-activate them if you want comments to be exported, otherwise they won't.)

Last but not least, despite all the enhancements that Kilgray's developers keep on adding to memoQ, which, like any piece of user software, is a work in progress, it's always worth remembering you can re-install a previous, stable build of memoQ and work with that until the major bugs in the latest build have been rectified. Just double-click on the installation file and it will get installed 'on top of' the current installation. That will also save you a few headaches.

It's a wise idea to keep the last few builds on your computer for this reason rather than deleting them soon after installing them – that way, you will always be able to access them, no matter where you are and what your internet access is like (sometimes it can be poor or even non-existent, especially if you're travelling somewhere and trying to work at the same time). Alternatively, you can just ask Kilgray's Support team for a particular build and they will send it to you.

Hope these pointers prove helpful.

Carl

image credits: memoQ logo courtesy of Kilgray Translation Technologies

Useful links and addresses

E-mail Kilgray's Technical Support team at support [@] kilgray [dot] com

The thread about this particular issue on the memoQ user group at Yahoo! Groups, where memoQ users can discuss issues they are having with memoQ and sometimes resolve them with each other's help (you will need to have a Yahoo! account to be able to access this).

MemoQ in 5 minutes (2): keyboard short cuts

nospam@example.com (Carl) — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 18:24:08 +0100

This short post is about a selection of keyboard short cuts I find particularly useful in memoQ.

There are actually quite a number of blog posts on this topic already, which are either quite detailed or just brief lists of short cuts the writer has found to be useful personally. My post here falls in the second category. Perhaps you'll also benefit from using these combinations of keys in your own work with memoQ.

Five useful "F" keys (in the top row of your keyboard)

Press F1 to call up memoQ's help documentation

... F2 to edit a source segment, e.g. to correct a spelling mistake

... F4 to auto-assemble a target segment, i.e. automatically insert matching target terms from your project TBs into the target segment to assemble a preliminary translation (using your own resources, not MT)

... F7 to do a spelling check

... F9 to insert the next tag into the target segment.

Five other useful functions called up by pressing Ctrl and another key simultaneously

Ctrl + K: calls up the concordance window so you can search for a word or phrase in all the TMs attached to your current project. To use it, double-click on a term to mark it, then press Ctrl and K at the same time. You'll then see a list of occurrences of the term in your TM entries if it crops up there.

Ctrl + Enter key: confirms the current target segment and sends it off to your primary TMs

Ctrl + P: look up a term in your project TBs

Ctrl + Q: save a source and matching target term to your primary TB instantaneously (remember, Q = "quick")

Ctrl + E: save a source and matching target term to your primary TB and then change or supplement either entry in a term-base dialogue (remember, E = enter a term)

------------------

On a final note, it's helpful to know that quite a number of keyboard short cuts used in memoQ are identical to those used in the popular Office programs made by Microsoft. One example is Ctrl + F (or H) to find (and replace) a phrase (F = "find"). Pressing F1 to call up the program's help documentation is another.

A full list of keyboard short cuts is included in memoQ's help documentation, both offline (press F1!) and online (http://kilgray.com/memoq/2014/help-en/index.html).

Try some of the short cuts out and see if you find them handy. There are far too many of them for users to be able to remember them all, unfortunately, but the ones you use most often will obviously be the ones you recall best. Whichever short cuts you pick up, they'll save you time and improve your productivity.

Incidentally, did you know you can customise a lot of short cuts in memoQ? To find out more, see Kevin Lossner's blog post and Kilgray's help documentation on the subject (see the links below).

Regards

Carl

Related links

Kilgray has a detailed list of short cuts in its online knowledge base (there's a PDF file you can download from there, too)

Here's a nice overview of memoQ's short cuts arranged in practical groups

Kevin Lossner's post on customising keyboard short cuts

For the sake of comparison, here's one on SDL Trados Studio 2014:

Translator Emma Goldsmith has written several blog posts on keyboard short cuts found in this CAT tool. This one is on basic commands

and this is one on short cuts for more advanced users of Studio 2014.

MemoQ 2014 R2 is due out soon...

nospam@example.com (Carl) — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 14:19:47 +0100

For anyone interested in computer-aided translation, which has become as omnipresent in the translation world as Microsoft Office has in business generally, it's always intriguing to hear when a major new release of a CAT tool appears on the market. MemoQ has become very popular among freelance translators and translation agencies in recent years and has been evolving at a very fast pace – faster than the product documentation, in fact. This week (the second week of December), a new version of the tool is going to be released called memoQ 2014 R2.

What exactly's new about it? Well, the most obvious change is that it now has a ribbon interface. This aligns it with Microsoft's Office products as well as with a number of memoQ's competitors like SDL Trados Studio 2014 and Déjà Vu X3. Although memoQ's current interface (I'm referring to memoQ 2014 "R1" and memoQ 2013 here) has been around for a while and users have got used to it and can find functions reasonably easily on it, there have been plenty of calls for a better menu bar from users.

The new menu bar is now divided into sections of related functions. This makes the interface more intuitive to use and less cluttered, which is also due to the fact that the functions that used to be available in the bottom half of the screen have now been moved up into the ribbon as well. The groups of features have been designed to reflect a typical translation workflow:

The ribbon bar can be reduced in size just like Word's menu bar to save space if you need more room to view your translation or other windows in the interface. This is also useful if your list of projects is quite long as more of them are now displayed. At the moment, the ribbon can't be customised by removing or adding any features, however (which I personally like about Word). What it does do, though, is change its contents, depending on whether or not you have opened a project to work on. Besides having a "memoQ" tab and "Project" tab, it then adds one called "Documents", another one called "Preparation" and one called "View". If you click on an icon like "Translate" in the "Documents" tab, four more tabs appear: "Translate", "Review", "Edit" and "Quick Access", all of which contain functions of particular interest for that step of the translation workflow. So this is a nifty way of putting a lot of functions at a user's disposal as and when they need them.

The ribbon toolbar displays tooltips whenever you move your mouse over specific icons, which can be instructive en passant and may even help you re-discover features you forgot about in the old interface, where many of them were hidden from view.

Another new aspect of memoQ 2014 R2 is that its translation memory editor has been pepped up and made more convenient to use. Meta-data (e.g. the name of a customer) can now be altered, for example, and tags can be handled better (e.g. they can all be removed from the segments you select just by clicking a button). It's also possible to edit an unlimited number of segments at one go, whereas that was limited to a hundred in the past. Filtering has been enhanced as well: you can now select specific groups of segments (those translated by a particular person, say) and then search for certain segments in that group (e.g. those containing a particular term). To make it easier to resume your editing work later, it's now possible to mark segments with a flag as well. A short video on these points is now available on YouTube.

Segmentation of source files has also been improved by making it easier for users to add abbreviations to the list of existing segmentation rules and even re-segment a file on the fly after doing so, giving better segmentation results in the translation grid.

Compatibility with other software formats has always been an important aspect of memoQ, which supports a large number of formats and makes working with files processed by users with different CAT tools relatively simple. In memoQ 2014 R2, Kilgray has improved compatibility with WorldServer by improving how it deals with SDL WorldServer’s file formats, XLZ and WSXZ.

To help you learn more about this new version, Kilgray is offering a number of free webinars on it in December. These are intended for both freelance translators and project managers (as each user group works with a different version). To see which webinars are being staged and register for them, go to their webinar page.

Regards,

Carl

picture credits: courtesy of Kilgray

Related links

- Overview of memoQ 2014 R2 on Kilgray's website

- Kilgray's blog

- A recorded webinar on memoQ 2014 R2 by Kilgray on YouTube

- Translator Dominique Pivard explains how to create a project and translate a file in memoQ 2014 R2

- Kevin Lossner's blog post on the first project he did using memoQ 2014 R2

- A post of my own on the introduction of SDL Trados Studio 2014, which also features a ribbon interface.

MemoQ in 5 mins (1): 100% matches + auto-propagation

nospam@example.com (Carl) — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 10:17:00 +0100

"What do you mean 'it's identical'?"

1. Matches

One of the main marketing arguments for buying a CAT tool is that it is capable of "translating" files that contain a lot of repetition very quickly, thus saving you time. This statement is basically true, but it ignores the fact that it may still be necessary to check the "100% matches" and other very close matches to see if they fit the context, which also takes time and calls for great care on the translator's part.

Kilgray has made this easier for users by introducing the concept of a "101% match" in memoQ, which simply means that the segments directly adjacent to the 100% match are also taken into account; if they match up, too, then you have a highly dependable 101% context match.

2. Auto-propagation

Matches get copied – or "propagated" – throughout the text you are translating if you have set memoQ to do this. The setting is accessible via "Translations" > "Auto-Propagation..." in the main menu bar at the top of the screen when you have a document open in a project, as the following screen shot shows (auto-propagation is the fourth item down):

If you click on the item, the following dialogue will appear:

As you can see, you can set memoQ to propagate translations of identical segments in a particular direction: (a) "only forward", i.e. downwards from the cursor or (b) "backward and forward", i.e. upwards as well as downwards (= throughout the document you're translating). Various other settings can also be made.

Translations that have been propagated, i.e. copied to "identical" segments, are indicated by a dotted green arrow pointing downwards:

3. No go!

Before you choose an option, though, you might want to ask yourself if auto-propagating translations of "identical" segments is actually a wise idea; there are cases where it isn't, namely if a source segment needs to be translated in different ways, depending on its position in the overall text (= the context).

I encountered this situation in a recent translation in which a short source segment was used as a heading in one place and as a bullet point in another, which called for capitalisation in the first case, but not in the second one. It's also in cases like this that you might want to pick different translations for the same source text. But beware! If you set memoQ to propagate "identical" segments automatically upwards and/or downwards, it will insert one translation wherever the source text occurs, regardless of its contextual function.

To prevent this from happening, you need to de-activate auto-propagation altogether, after which you can handle seemingly identical segments on an individual basis rather than as a group. To do this, just unclick the box at the top, next to "Allow auto-propagation":

When you decide to re-activate the function afterwards (don't forget!), just go up to the menu again, select the item, click on the box again and a tick will re-appear. Close the dialogue and then memoQ will be set to propagate identical translations automatically again. (It would be nice if auto-propagation could be switched on or off with a single click on an icon in the main toolbar one day...)

Regards

Carl

images: my own screen shots & courtesy of Kilgray

Related information on the topic

Kilgray's online help documentation on auto-propagation

More details about the auto-propagation settings dialogue

And a quick look over the fence...

Changing SDL Trados Studio 2014's auto-propagation behaviour (a blog post by Jayne Fox)

Auto-propagation and "one-to-many" matching in OmegaT

AnyCount wins on many counts!

nospam@example.com (Carl) — Sun, 28 Sep 2014 20:10:14 +0200

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).

It's also reasonably priced at 49 euros for the basic edition, called 'Personal Standard', (or less during promotions), 79 euros for the 'Professional' edition (which supports more file formats) and 95 euros for the full-feature 'Enterprise' version (which is the one that counts text in images – four different kinds!). AIT's technical support is also friendly and responsive. AnyCount 7.0 is available in 15 different language versions, while version 8.0, which is relatively new, is currently available in 11, English being the default. You can pick another language for the interface during the installation process:

Similar products

PractiCount is another rival product I also use, but the customer service its maker (Practiline Software) provides is not as good in my experience (they are slow to respond to enquiries) and the tool doesn't include the option of counting text in images, which AnyCount does. Another program I know of on the German market (where I'm based) is called TextCount, which is available in English and German. You'll find other packages on the internet, too, which have interfaces in other languages. You can find out more about these alternatives by reading the posts on word-count software on one of Proz.com's user forums, for instance (see the link at the end).

Try them out and see what you think. Tools like these are practically a necessity for a busy translator.

Regards,

Carl

images: my own screen shots from AnyCount 8.0.8 and by courtesy of AIT

Related articles

Corinne McKay on ways of counting texts

Discussion on counting tools for translators, Proz.com

Goodbye Heartsome! Hello Open Source!

nospam@example.com (Carl) — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 19:33:00 +0200

Some of you may already have heard of Heartsome, a firm that produces computer-assisted translation software. Its two main products these days are TMX Editor and Heartsome Studio, a suite of translation tools. The company is based in Hong Kong and has partly been catering to the Chinese-language market in Asia and partly to speakers of English. What's unusual about it is that it's about to close its doors for good. And it's making its products available for further development in an Open Source environment.

Heartsome says it's doing this in the hope that other software developers will pick up where its own developers left off and make the two tools more helpful to translators and agencies (see the farewell note on their website [which may get discontinued]).

Development and technical support at Heartsome is going to stop tomorrow, on 31 July. This is an unusual move in the CAT-tool industry, or at least one that doesn't happen very often. But like any business, if the sales figures just won't offset your business costs, you can only keep going for so long before drastic action is called for. Other companies in the field have seen bad times, too (like Atril, the makers of Déjà Vu), but they may manage to consolidate their business and carry on (which Atril did with a French financier's help).

I'm sorry to hear about this step as the more producers there are on the CAT-tool market, the better, at least in terms of competitive product development and pricing in the interest of users. It will be interesting to see what becomes of Heartsome's products in the future. I also hope the Open Source move is a positive one and that competent developers will step in and not let development stagnate.

Anyone who wishes to try out Heartsome Studio 8.0 and/or TMX Editor 8.0 now (à la Heartsome) can do so by downloading them from the GitHub site Heartsome has set up (see below) or from other trustworthy software platforms (even so, please make sure your PC is well protected from web-based viruses before downloading the packages; the software links are sound as far as I can tell, but you never know...).

The products can run on several operating platforms: not just Windows and Mac OS, but also Linux, for example.

I haven't tried out Heartsome Studio yet, but I know it can create bilingual XLIFF files, which can be easily modified for importing into other CAT tools (such as memoQ and SDL Studio 2011 or 2014). For more details about the Heartsome Studio suite, check out the features listed on GitHub.

I'll have a go when I get a chance and see what it's like in terms of usability. As for TMX Editor, that's a useful program you can use to edit and modify TMX files created by other CAT editors if their own TMX editing features are lacking. Why not try them both out and see what you think?

Regards,

Carl

Related links

- blog post in German by Torsten Rox-Edling: "Heartsome wird Open Source"

- Dominique Pivard's short e-training video on how to translate using Heartsome Translation Studio 8 (it lasts 8.5 mins)

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