Kilgray's is currently offering memoQ at a 40% discount; the offer is available until June 2, 2014 (or until there are still licenses offered at that price - only 4 remain as of this post).
In this promotion you can buy a memoQ translator pro license for 372 EUR or 462 USD instead of 620 EUR or 770 USD.
If you buy a memoQ license now, the price includes a full year of upgrades and support, a ten-lesson online course, and also a free copy of Kevin Lossner's e-book "memoQ in Quick Steps: Configuration".
If you are interested in Déjàvu X3, instead, you still have two days to take advantage of a 20% discount (if you do, you need to enter the code CREATIVITY. Click here for a link to the Atril web store.
NOTE: From time to time I post these links to software or discounts that may be of interest to other translators. When I do that, it's on my own initiative: I'm not surreptitiously selling ads on this site.
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Xbench plug-in for SDL Trados Studio 2014
After a successful beta test, ApSIC announced today the
official release of the ApSIC Xbench Plugin for SDL Trados Studio 2014.
This plugin integrates the two programs, and allows translators to:
- QA Studio projects with Xbench just with one click from the Studio ribbon.
- Instantly edit any issues found by Xbench right in Studio, with all Studio project settings in place.
It also makes it even easier the use of Xbench's powerful search to look into the translation memories (and other resources) you have loaded in your project. A very useful feature, considering the deficiencies of SDL's own concordance search.
The plugin for Studio is a free add-on and requires ApSIC
Xbench 3.0 build 1186 or later and SDL Trados Studio 2014 SP1 or later.
You can watch a 5-minute video featuring this cool
integration at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daWkATVCkvg
To download the latest buids of ApSIC Xbench 3.0 and the
plugin, visit http://www.xbench.net/index.php/download
Remember: the plug-in is only available for Xbench 3.0 - another excellent reason for upgrading to the new version of the program.
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Will SDL ever learn the difference between letters and words?
I have been using translation memory tools for about twenty years now. More and more, I’ve come to the conclusion that their most useful feature is not the ability to offer fuzzy and perfect matches (useful as they may be), but rather the concordance search, which can suggest previous translations from segments that are not similar enough to the one you are working on to qualify for a fuzzy match.
And this is why I get so annoyed with SDL: they think that if the memory does not contain the word you are looking for, it is useful to show you words that sort of look like it.
This is not useful: if I don’t have a word in my memory, I want the concordance search to clearly show that. I don’t want it to show me words that, since they contain most of the letters in the word I’m looking for, are considered by the algorithms used by SDL to be similar enough.
Not only this is not useful: it is positively annoying and harmful: if the program does not show any concordance, I just go on with my translation. If it shows a bogus concordance, I waste some precious time before I realize that the help I’ve been offered by the program is crap.
Case in point: I’m translating some marketing copy about watches, and wanted to check in my memory how I had translated previously the adjective “striking”. Turns out I had not translated that word before, but instead of indicating that no match had been found, Studio offered as suggestions “ticking” and “training” (with “ticking” considered as a 79% match for “stricking” and “training as a 75% match).
A memo to whomever designed the concordance matching algorithms used by Studio: if two words are not the same, they are not a match for each other: not a 79% match, nor a 75% match. Don’t waste our time with bogus matches that are no help at all.
And this is why I get so annoyed with SDL: they think that if the memory does not contain the word you are looking for, it is useful to show you words that sort of look like it.
This is not useful: if I don’t have a word in my memory, I want the concordance search to clearly show that. I don’t want it to show me words that, since they contain most of the letters in the word I’m looking for, are considered by the algorithms used by SDL to be similar enough.
Not only this is not useful: it is positively annoying and harmful: if the program does not show any concordance, I just go on with my translation. If it shows a bogus concordance, I waste some precious time before I realize that the help I’ve been offered by the program is crap.
Case in point: I’m translating some marketing copy about watches, and wanted to check in my memory how I had translated previously the adjective “striking”. Turns out I had not translated that word before, but instead of indicating that no match had been found, Studio offered as suggestions “ticking” and “training” (with “ticking” considered as a 79% match for “stricking” and “training as a 75% match).
A memo to whomever designed the concordance matching algorithms used by Studio: if two words are not the same, they are not a match for each other: not a 79% match, nor a 75% match. Don’t waste our time with bogus matches that are no help at all.
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Déjàxu X3: 20% discount until May 30
If you are planning to buy déjavu X3 (or upgrade to this new version), Atril is offering a 20% discount until May 30.
To take advantage of the discount, used code CREATIVITY in Atril's web store.
I have good memories about the early versions of déjavu, and of the outstanding service Emilio Benito provided: I was one of the very first users (I think that the serial number on my diskette was as 27), but I haven't used the program in over twenty years now.
Still, it's good that SDL and Kilgray still have competition.
To take advantage of the discount, used code CREATIVITY in Atril's web store.
I have good memories about the early versions of déjavu, and of the outstanding service Emilio Benito provided: I was one of the very first users (I think that the serial number on my diskette was as 27), but I haven't used the program in over twenty years now.
Still, it's good that SDL and Kilgray still have competition.
Update: Role of Translation in Nation Building now available also as an eBook
Role of Translation in Nation Building (see my previous post about this book), a book edited by Ravi Kumar, the President of the Indian Translators Association, is now also available in eBook format.
If you are interested, you can use this link to go to the Hind Center web page. There you can purchase the book or find more information about it.
If you are interested, you can use this link to go to the Hind Center web page. There you can purchase the book or find more information about it.
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
About Translation nominated for Language Lovers 2014 Contest
Once again, the bab.la language portal and the Lexiophiles language blog have chosen various blogs, facebook pages and twitter accounts as candidates for the "Top 100 Language Lovers 2014" list.
About Translation has been nominated in the "Language Professional Blog" Category.
About Translation was chosen among the top 100 language blogs in 2008 and 2011, and in 2011 among the top 25 language professionals blogs.
If you like this blog, and want to add your vote, you can do so, by clicking on the button below:
If you prefer another language professional blog (there are many good ones from which to choose) you can go to the bab.la site, and vote for your favorite.
In addition to the Language Professional Blogs 2014, you'll also find voting buttons for the other categories:
About Translation has been nominated in the "Language Professional Blog" Category.
About Translation was chosen among the top 100 language blogs in 2008 and 2011, and in 2011 among the top 25 language professionals blogs.
If you like this blog, and want to add your vote, you can do so, by clicking on the button below:
If you prefer another language professional blog (there are many good ones from which to choose) you can go to the bab.la site, and vote for your favorite.
In addition to the Language Professional Blogs 2014, you'll also find voting buttons for the other categories:
- Language Twitter Account 2014,
- Language Learning Blogs 2014,
- Language Facebook Pages 2014, and
- Language YouTube Channel 2014
Monday, May 12, 2014
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