Tips 'n' Tools for Translators - PDF

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

Converting scanned PDFs into translation-friendly files

nospam@example.com (Carl) — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 18:11:29 +0100

This week a customer from an advertising agency I work for sent me a PDF file to translate containing a newspaper article she had scanned. What struck me right away was that the whole article was an image and that it was laid out in a number of columns with a headline and large picture at the top. It looked quite nice as pieces of journalism go, but how did she expect me to make a quotation and translate the text? To be honest, I don't think she realised what she was asking of me; these days it's so common for people in PR, sales and marketing to work with PDFs of glossy-looking articles that they don't realise how tricky they can be for translators to deal with.

One way of handling such image files is to load them into Adobe Acrobat®, a powerful but pricey application for creating and editing PDF documents. You import the file and then process it using the optical-character-recognition feature (OCR). This theoretically "captures" any text found in the image and makes it editable. After doing that and saving the results as a new PDF file, you can export it to an external word-processing application like Microsoft Word® and then check it to see if all the text has been captured and reproduced correctly. It's only once this last step has been taken that you can actually start translating.

If you do most of your translating in a CAT tool, then you may also want to go over the editable file again before doing that using a utility such as Dave Turner's CodeZapper as this can reduce the number of formatting "tags" or "codes" in it, which appear in the translation grid and stop you from translating segments quickly (as you have to insert them in your translation one by one).

Well, after creating an editable Word file from Adobe Acrobat XI and not being very impressed with the outcome, I remembered a blog post that Dominique Pivard wrote a while ago about handling scanned PDFs using a Web-based CAT tool called Wordfast Anywhere®. Dominique has made a large number of short but generally very instructive videos on CAT tools that you can watch on his blog or on YouTube for free, and this is one of them.

I watched the video twice (just to make sure I'd understood everything!), set up a free user account on the Wordfast Anywhere site and then uploaded the original scanned PDF file to it. You need to create a translation memory and set the source and target languages before it processes the PDF, but once you've done that, you're off! The Wordfast Anywhere server processed my PDF file using a powerful OCR algorithm and converted it into an editable file in just a few minutes. It lets you either translate the output in a Wordfast environment directly on the server or download the file and translate it by other means if you wish (e.g. in a desktop CAT tool).

The results of the conversion I got it to do were very good and the file didn't need much fine-tuning at all – it was better than Acrobat's output and didn't cost me a penny.

Many thanks to Dominique for making his video tutorial. If you'd like to watch it, then just click here. (The 4-minute video will start running as soon as the page has built up in your browser.)

Carl

image: Wordfast logo © Wordfast LLC

Related posts: Uses of Adobe Acrobat XI (part 1)

Scammers and identity theft

nospam@example.com (Carl) — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 09:44:39 +0200

For a while now, I've been receiving some rather odd applications for freelance work by e-mail. This prompted me to write a post about the do's and don'ts of applying for freelance work this way a little while back, which some readers will hopefully find of help for their own marketing activities. However, what I've now discovered is that most of the odd-looking applications were actually scams produced by people wanting to get assignments – and ultimately money – from gullible customers around the world.

How did I find that out? Well, simply by looking up some of the applicants' names on the Net. Many of the names that have been used seem a little strange and are actually fictitious, so it turns out. (Not all of them are, though, which makes investigation trickier.) The intriguing thing about applications of this kind is that they apparently contain lots of background information about the person that is true. Because it's been stolen from existing translators who once made their CVs available to the wrong readership by mistake!

A long directory of scammers who claim to be translators has been created by João Roque Dias, a Portuguese translator. Click here to access the page. It lists the name of the "applicant", the e-mail address they have used and the original translator whose personal details were stolen (the victims of identity theft, in other words). If you receive scam mails of this kind, but can't find the person's details on this list, then please contact the people now running the site [as of 15 Feb. 2014] and forward the messages to them so the data can be checked. Any new scammers found will then be added.

To find out more about this issue, which seems to be a big one affecting the translation industry (and many other fields as well), you might want to read the section that Proz.com has created on scammers and identity protection; click here to go to it.

There are also plenty of other sources of helpful information you can refer to, many of which are on the internet. Marta Stelmaszak, for example, has written a detailed blog post on how translators can protect the CVs they send out to prospective customers from abuse; click here to read her advice. (Among other things, she refers to an article on the BBC's website on what information you shouldn't put in a CV in the first place.)

One easy step you can take is to save your CV as a PDF file, which makes it harder for people to extract the information quickly (unless they know how). You can also write-protect the file and prevent any content from being copied by using a program like Adobe Acrobat®, say – pick the appropriate security settings before you generate the PDF file (this short video from Adobe will show you how).

If you haven't done so already, take a look at the CV you've prepared for new customers (and the personal details you've included in any internet profiles you've created on platforms such as Proz.com, Xing, LinkedIn or Facebook) and think about steps you could take to protect your own identity. This is something that's becoming increasingly necessary as the amount of networking and self-marketing we do via the internet is growing. It can be as easy as leaving out your date and place of birth and adding the words "Further details upon request" for anyone who is really interested in working with you.

And in addition to that, please think twice about sending detailed personal data to agencies en masse. Hand-pick the agencies you want to contact after checking out their websites and seeing if they are likely to be interested in receiving your application; the more you personalise your covering letter and match the requirements they specify on their website, the better your chances are of being accepted as a potential supplier of translations. By increasing the quality of the contacts you pick, you ought to find your applications become more effective and you can keep track of the agencies that have your personal details much more easily. Protect your identity – and your reputation as a translator.

Regards

Carl

Applying for freelance work by e-mail

nospam@example.com (Carl) — Thu, 04 Jul 2013 13:49:23 +0200

Tess Whitty, a Swedish translator I know, recently wrote a post on her own blog that was about unsolicited e-mails she gets from other translators. As I read it, I nodded in agreement with each of the points she made. Take the introduction, for example:

"Almost every day, I receive emails addressed to 'Dear Sir/Madam' from freelance translators applying for a job as a freelance translator, translating into or from other languages than Swedish. This is inevitably a result of someone finding my company information in a database, among many other companies and sending out mass emails to most of them, without checking the company facts."

Same thing here!

I currently receive several e-mail applications from translators each week, just about all of which get binned within 60 seconds (I'm sorry to say) because they don't meet my basic selection criteria. It's easiest to summarise these here as a list of do's and don'ts:

10 "golden rules"

Address your e-mail personally, i.e. use the actual name of the person you're writing to, not an impersonal "Dear Sir or Madam" – it will catch their attention right away and make you stand out from the crowd.

Never send the same unsolicited e-mail application to a group of agencies or other translators – it won't be personalised or meet each person's specific needs, so it's likely to waste their time and land in the bin.

If you really do want to do point 2, don't make the e-mail addresses of all the other people you are contacting visible to the reader – this data is private and the recipients won't want to know who else you have chosen to write to.

Tailor the content of your message to the recipient by checking out their website (or blog) first of all; the more you refer to that, the more impressed the recipient will be – because you are showing them you have made an effort to find out about their company and needs. If you do translations in a language the company doesn't offer itself, then there's not much point in asking them for work, is there?

Don't mention their website or blog if you haven't taken a look at it beforehand – it's annoying for them if they can tell you haven't read the information they've put on it (or haven't read it properly). Take your time and learn something about the firm before you apply.

Only apply to a translation agency for freelance work if it offers your target language to its customers. Check out their website beforehand and see if your language is listed as one that the agency covers. If it isn't, then move on to the next potential customer on your list – your chances of finding a new business partner are much higher if you offer them something you know they need.

If an agency you are interested in working for has provided a special e-mail address for unsolicited applications on their website, then please use it. And if they have posted instructions on how to apply for work, please follow these carefully. Again, this will impress the agency as they will see you have been making an effort to find out about them.

E-mails that contain spelling mistakes or are poorly worded or structured are very likely to get binned quickly – if you are a translator, then you are a language specialist, so regard anything you write as a sample of what you can do. "If she makes mistakes in a simple e-mail like this, what will her translations be like?", the recipient will ask himself.

If you decide to write your e-mail in a language that's not your mother tongue and you feel the e-mail is important (which it is as you are trying to win a new customer and ultimately boost your income), then ask a friend or colleague who has a very good grasp of the language or is a native speaker to check it for you. After all, it ought to be as well written as any e-mail you write in your first language.

Last but not least, if you really are interested in working for a particular company, then follow the message up with a phone call to the same person a few days later. This kind of contact is more personal than e-mail correspondence and will help the recipient remember you when a suitable assignment comes in. A phone number ought to be listed on the "contact" page of their website.

These are just a few brief tips about applying for work by e-mail. If you follow this advice, chances are you'll get more (positive) responses from the potential customers you contact and a few more assignments as well. Why not try it out? Apply these "golden rules" and see if they can improve the results of your own customer-acquisition strategy. And remember: sending a prospective customer an e-mail for the first time is like handing them your business card.

Regards

Carl

Uses of Adobe Acrobat XI (part 1)

nospam@example.com (Carl) — Mon, 27 May 2013 17:49:23 +0200

Adobe is well-known for its free PDF readers, software that enables you to open, view and print out “portable document format” files on any software platform whatsoever, not just on Windows. In their current reader, Adobe® Reader® XI, it’s also possible for users to highlight words, phrases or whole passages and add annotations, all of which are important functions for reviewers of texts.

If you want to create a Word®, Excel® or RTF file from a PDF document you’ve received from a customer, for example, Adobe® Reader® XI will also allow you to do this automatically, albeit at a charge:

This is achieved by using Adobe’s Web-based services, which you need to sign up for beforehand (the lowest rate was $19.99 per year at the time of writing, which seems quite reasonable). Once you’ve registered and bought a suitable subscription, you can export your PDFs conveniently from inside Reader® and the document you want to export it to will be sent to you soon after by Adobe.

Another way of doing it is to buy Acrobat® XI Pro from Adobe, which is basically Reader® XI’s big brother. Acrobat® allows you to export the PDF file you’ve opened to other formats using its own resources and do so at no extra charge. It costs a lot more, mind you, so you ought to weigh up the pros and cons of a purchase first of all. If you already have an old copy of Adobe® Acrobat®, you can upgrade to version XI at a special reduced rate until the end of May, I was recently informed.

Acrobat® is nonetheless an interesting proposition for translators and reviewers (aka “proof-readers” and “copy-editors”). First and foremost, it can generate various kinds of Microsoft® Office® documents from PDF files:

- Word® 2003/2010

- Excel® 2003/2010

- PowerPoint® 2003/2010

as well as

- HTML

- RTF and

- TXT (which is obviously only text-based).

When I recently upgraded from Acrobat® 8 to Acrobat® XI, I was amazed to see how much the PDF > Word export had improved. The optical character recognition (OCR) worked very well on my documents and the page layout in Word® was also excellent, which meant I was able to import and start translating it very quickly.

Besides producing high-quality exports, Acrobat® also makes reviewing PDF documents relatively easy: just click on the word “Comment” on the far right and a panel of editing features (“annotations”) will appear:

Here are some of the options that a reviewer is likely to need:

- add sticky note

- highlight text

- add note to replace text

- strike through.

If you click on “Tools” in the same menu, this will open another panel that allows you to edit the text and images in the PDF file:

Select “Edit Text and Images” and then the text will be divided into sections with a line around them, each of which can be edited directly – no annotations this time, but direct changes. Admittedly, this option isn’t one that I’ve needed yet, but if a customer ever wants a PDF brochure to be checked and edited particularly quickly, skipping the DTP edits, then this would be a way of doing it.

In part 2 of this post, I'll take a closer look at the OCR feature in Reader® and Acrobat®.

Carl

images: my own screen shots