| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | What are "must-have" softwares for a beginner translator? 投稿者: Cristina Mazzucchelli
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I just bought my first laptop ever and I planning to start working "on-my-own" (hopefully! )
The computer came just with Office and a basic anti-virus software and now I was wondering if you could suggest me the "must-have" softwares that I should buy/download from the Internet.
Thank you!
Cristina
| | | | Momoka (X) 
Local time: 17:23
日本語 から スペイン語
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| Jerzy Czopik
ドイツ
Local time: 10:23
2003に入会
ポーランド語 から ドイツ語
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| Must haves for translating | Jun 27, 2005 |
IMO the most important to be able to work is Microsoft Office, as almost any customer in Europe will work with it.
You can also get the free Open Office, but I´m not sure how far the comatibility between them goes.
As for CAT - it is something you will need, if you get repeatable textes as files from your customers, ie handbooks etc.
Don´t forget a good anti virus and firewall application.
You will also need a compressing programm for sending your finished... See more IMO the most important to be able to work is Microsoft Office, as almost any customer in Europe will work with it.
You can also get the free Open Office, but I´m not sure how far the comatibility between them goes.
As for CAT - it is something you will need, if you get repeatable textes as files from your customers, ie handbooks etc.
Don´t forget a good anti virus and firewall application.
You will also need a compressing programm for sending your finished work per email. Consider at least a ZIP-utility, but you could also go for WinRar, which is far better then Winzip, but not that much wide spreaded.
A good (convenient) file organizer and manager (as addition to Windows Explorer) would also be very advisable.
Some backup utility is then the next step.
Regards
Jerzy
PS
All this aussmes, you are working with Windows ▲ Collapse
| | | | Peter Linton (X)
Local time: 09:23
スウェーデン語 から 英語
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| Accounts & Invoicing | Jun 27, 2005 |
You will also need some sort of software to handle the business side of freelance translation, and particularly invoicing. It is important to send out accurate, professional-looking invoices that meet legal requirements.
There are various ways of doing this, such as:
- design your own from scratch
- obtain or create an MS Word invoicing template
- design an invoice based on a spreadsheet
- find some shareware
- purchase a ready-made package.
... See more You will also need some sort of software to handle the business side of freelance translation, and particularly invoicing. It is important to send out accurate, professional-looking invoices that meet legal requirements.
There are various ways of doing this, such as:
- design your own from scratch
- obtain or create an MS Word invoicing template
- design an invoice based on a spreadsheet
- find some shareware
- purchase a ready-made package.
I chose the last option and bought a package called Translation Office 3000 (sometimes advertised here on ProZ), which I find handles all the business aspects of translation very efficiently. ▲ Collapse
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| Intellicomplete | Jun 27, 2005 |
Hello,
I think that Intellicomplete is a very useful tool as it allows you to complete words. For example, if you type "nat" the first word that comes up in its list is "national" and you can just choose it.
It really speeds up your typing, at least by 10%.
I am not sure where you can get it, but you can search for it in Google.
Good luck,
Patricia
| | | | Alessandro Cattelan (X)
イタリア
Local time: 10:23
英語 から イタリア語
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| openoffice has a similar function | Jun 27, 2005 |
Patricia Fierro, M. Sc. wrote:
Hello,
I think that Intellicomplete is a very useful tool as it allows you to complete words. For example, if you type "nat" the first word that comes up in its list is "national" and you can just choose it.
It really speeds up your typing, at least by 10%.
I am not sure where you can get it, but you can search for it in Google.
Good luck,
Patricia
OpenOffice.org has a very similar function: it suggests words that you've already typed during the same work session. It does speed up typing and it avoids typos...
I would give it a try anyway: the compatibility with MS Office is quite good and it is a nice piece of software.
As for the software you absolutely need, I am not that experienced to give you a sound advice on translation specific tools, but I want to stress the importance of a good firewall and of a good antivirus especially since I believe you will transmit sensitive data.
I am a little paranoid, I know, but I wouldn't use a Windows operating system without, at least:
- antivirus: AVG if you don't want to spend a lot of money is VERY good... and free!
- firewall: a router with built-in firewall functionality would be the best thing, but you can also download a free version of two good softwares: www.zonealarm.com and www.kerio.com
- adaware: this will clean your pc of all - being optimistic - spywares, trojans and similar stuff (dowload it for free here: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/ )
Since you speak Italian, you might want to have a look at this:
http://www.attivissimo.net/acchiappavirus/
You might also want to try an open source CAT tool: www.omegat.org
If you're interested in something that will help you handle XLIFF files, check out:
https://open-language-tools.dev.java.net/
It's a very young program but it is based on the Sun Translation Editor, one of the CAT tool used by SUN to localize their products.
Ciao,
Alessandro.
[Edited at 2005-06-27 18:58]
| | | | PAS
Local time: 10:23
ポーランド語 から 英語
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| Toys and tweaks | Jun 27, 2005 |
Cristina Mazzucchelli wrote:
The computer came just with Office
Cristina
Well, that's quite a lot for starters - you can start working immediately!
Below are some minor programs I use for all kinds of things. All are absolutely free (not shareware):
Irfan View is a nice freeware graphics browser with minimum editing options. It handles practically all graphics file formats known to man.
IZarc is a freeware compression utility which handles many compression formats (at least to unpack). Some people swear by RAR, but IZarc is free...
A desktop search utility is nice for those moments of doubt "I know I've translated this before, but where's the bloody file?"
I use Copernic Desktop Search, but there are others from Google, Microsoft... (all are free).
A screen capture utility is nice to have to copy a piece of your screen and paste it into another application as a JPG file. I use Screenhunter (freeware), but there are many others.
SpyBot Search and Destroy and Lavasoft AdAware SE are spyware removal utilities, both free. Spybot runs in the background (like antivirus software, it will alert you if something bad is happening) The free version of Adaware you need to run manually, but the two complement each other nicely.
Sygate personal firewall is a very good free program which does not require a lot of knowledge to run.
A scanner and OCR software may come in handy if you will be dealing with hard copies of documents that you need to rewrite.
Everything else is a question of your needs - dictionaries, encyclopedias, invoicing software etc.
HTH
Pawel Skalinski
| | | | lien
オランダ
Local time: 10:23
英語 から フランス語
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Thank you for pointing me to Sygate! I was looking for something like this for a while.
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| Investing to grow | Jun 27, 2005 |
Hi, Cristina:
I've been working as a freelance translator for eight years now and only after opening my own agency in 2004 I had the time (and $$$) to invest back in the translation business.
I believe Trados, even the freelance version, is a must-have. Most clients have been looking for those professionals working with it and I've got a lot more contracts since I bought my license. But now that SDL acquired Trados, I don't know what's gonna happen to new clients, so I ... See more Hi, Cristina:
I've been working as a freelance translator for eight years now and only after opening my own agency in 2004 I had the time (and $$$) to invest back in the translation business.
I believe Trados, even the freelance version, is a must-have. Most clients have been looking for those professionals working with it and I've got a lot more contracts since I bought my license. But now that SDL acquired Trados, I don't know what's gonna happen to new clients, so I would advise you to wait to check what they'll offer down the road.
In desperate need for financial organization with the agency, I also bought Quicken, which is great in terms of light accounting and tax reports. You can enter info about everything, from your personal to your business acounts, your shares and investments, and - OF COURSE - your invoices. Quicken is not that expensive (not as much as Trados) and I'm sure it will keep you safe in the financial area, helping you keep everything organized and even reminding you of those "overdue" invoices...
Among the freeware available for download over the internet, I would recomend PowerArchiver as one of the best programs for compressed files (from .ZIP to .TAR) and Acrobat Reader for PDFs (I now own Adobe Acrobat 6.0, which gives you more features, allowing you to create your own PDF files from Word, Excel, Quicken...).
As far as security, I would turn on your Windows firewall (is it XP?) and also download the Service Pack II (which is offered for free at Microsoft's website, in case your laptop didn't already come with it installed). Also make sure you have the automatic Windows update feature on, so you'll receive the latest patches directly from Microsoft.
The antivirus we use here is the AVG (which may be found for free at this url: http://www.grisoft.com/doc/40/lng/ww). I haven't noticed many differences between the free version and the "corporate" one, at least no privileges that would make a difference for a freelance translator with a brand new laptop nor for a small agency under development. Also make sure to turn on the automatic updates and scan your computer at least once a week.
Along with this antivirus, we also use Ad-Aware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/), which will help you get rid of those annoying ad programs that come in without letting you know what's going on. Keep it up-to-date and use it once a week to find anything that may be trying to slow down your computer and/or gather your information and internet behavior in order to enter your email address and IP in those stupid ad lists, which are sold for thousands of dollars to those companies that will try to sell you Viagra or diet pills...
You can also do a Google search using a combination of "open source" + another keyword that would be relevant for the kind of software you're looking for. Most open source projects are free programs that are in constant development and updating, but I've seen some pretty good things out there.
Lastly, if you need an email program, you can download Thunderbird for free (http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/). It supports multiple accounts (your personal and business), organizing it in different folders. It's junk email control is also pretty great, so you won't have to look for tools to be installed in order to help Outlook Express or Microsoft Outlook, which you probably have in your laptop already as standard Microsoft programs.
And, since you'll be using Thunderbird, why not install its "cousin" Mozilla Firefox (http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/), which is the best alternative available so far for Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which still has a lot of wholes that have been used by hackers to get into your business.
Well, I think that's all I can think of right now. Good luck with your new laptop and use these free tools I've mentioned in order to keep it nice and clean and excel in your career! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | 46 to choose from! | Jun 27, 2005 |
Christina
Have a look at this list. Everything is free as far as I can make out!
Best
Barnaby
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If you work with a Mac running OSX, I'd highly recommend Readiris 9.0, a decent OCR application.
| | | | | I forgot the URL! | Jun 28, 2005 |
How stupid can you get!
The list of best freeware may be found at :
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm
Though the list is not aimed at translators, I think all translators, beginners or not, will find something of interest here.
Barnaby
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| Check this out! | Jun 28, 2005 |
With "Iceni Infix" you can edit text directly on the PDF file, preserving the columns format. Truly amazing tool, it saved my life several times (thanx Roberta!)
Gianni
| | | | | Grazie a tutti! | Jun 28, 2005 |
Thanks a lot to everybody! Your suggestions have been very very useful! I sure have a lot of work to do!
Cheers,
Cristina
| | | | Angela Dickson (X)
英国
Local time: 09:23
フランス語 から 英語
+ ...
Something I have found very useful indeed is a PDF creator - it means you can send documents such as invoices in a stable format that is readable by just about everyone. I also send my CV/profile as a PDF.
PDF995 (Google it) is the one I use - it's free as long as you don't mind looking at a little advert every time you use it.
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