Software
Software is linked very closely to hardware, but the following section
aims to define what might be considered the “industry-standard” for
modern translation workstations.
- Operating System
- At the most basic level is the computer operating system; despite the
increasing popularity of Linux, the main system used by translators is
Microsoft Windows. Which flavour of Windows you select will depend largely on
what software you run, and the age and power of the hardware. Most new
computers come with Windows XP pre-loaded, but many translators still work with older versions
such as Windows 98 or Windows 98 SE. Bear in mind,
though, that if you are going to run memory-intensive applications such as a
translation memory tool (see below)then it is worth
looking at the newer workstation variants - Windows 2000
Professional or Windows XP. These both offer far superior memory management and crash
protection, and cope much better with the demands of heavy translation memory
and office software.
- Office Software
- Most major translation clients now expect their vendors to be able to
supply translations in formats compatible with the Microsoft Office office
productivity software. This range of products, which includes Microsoft Word,
Excel, Powerpoint, etc. is probably the most widespread software of its kind,
although other vendors, such as Corel and Star also provider similar offerings
in WordPerfect and Star Office. The latest version of Microsoft Office is
Office 2003, and this is the version that is now most readily available in the
shops. It is, however, fully compatible with its predecessors, Office 2000 and XP, which
means that translators who invested in those products only a couple of years ago
do not have to upgrade immediately.
- Translation Tools
- Many translators think of translation tools in terms of the amusing
machine translation efforts that are usually peddled out at meetings of
translators, and laughed over nervously, everyone thinking, “Surely
they’ll never invent something that will make me redundant... Will
they?”. The fact is that an increasing number of translators now work with
some form of translation tool, or CAT tool to give them their full trendy
acronym (computer-assisted translation). With machine translation still unable
to provide professional translators with satisfactory results, most people opt
for so-called Translation Memory systems. These applications work in tandem
with the translator, storing translations to a database “on the fly”.
Then, when a new untranslated “segment” is located, the translation
memory system attempts to locate an identical or similar source text in its
database. Modern translation memory software can differentiate existing
translations according to various levels of similarity (known as
“fuzziness” of a match), so that a translator is prompted with
existing translations for similar segments. The whole idea is to increase
productivity and quality of the end-product. With a well-defined translation
memory, productivity increases can be impressive - I have achieved translation
throughput of 4 times my normal daily rate by using Trados Translators
Workbench. The main systems available on the market are:
In addition to the translation memory software, the products mentioned above also
include some form of terminology management system. This type of software allows
the translator to define dictionaries, which can usually be consulted interactively
whilst translating with the translation memory tool.
These modern translation memory systems will handle a variety of formats, and
usually provide some form of format protection, to ensure that translators can work with
formats such as HTML or XML without worrying about accidentally deleting important
codes.