Translator's Tools

Converting any file to a PDF file or image file without hassles

noreply@blogger.com (Gururaj Rao) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 08:07:00 +0000

For quickly sending invoices by printing them to PDF format, converting files of exotic formats including Powerpoint files that can be printed, I found it best to use a PDF printer driver. This is an application that works as a printer. You install it and it comes up in the list of printers when you print a document. You print to it, and instead of printing to a printer it creates a PDF file. Who wants to waste time using Acrobat for this? I tried all kinds of utilities – mostly freeware – that purport to do this; some allow you to print but watermarks appear on each page, some call home, and some need you to install Ghostscript. I finally found a freeware utility that does this without any hassle. In my opinion, PDFCreator wins – HANDS DOWN! It is Open Source, stable, works on all 32-bit Windows OS, and does its job efficiently. Additionally, it has these features: encrypt PDFs and protect them from being opened or printed; send generated files via e-mail; create more than just PDFs: PNG, JPG, TIFF, BMP, PCX, PS, and EPS; autosave files to folders and filenames based on tags like username, computer name, date, and time; and merge multiple files into one PDF. And all this comes with a great price tag – Free! I recommend you get it now and install it.

February 2008 Recap

noreply@blogger.com (Gururaj Rao) — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 00:49:00 +0000

In February, I told you about Free online storage and free software, pointing you to a website that you can register freely and save your data, and of another website that offers you software that is free only for 24 hours. I have one more addition to free online storage since then. MediaFire gives you unlimited storage space to which you an upload your files and share them too. Check it out! Next, I posted an article on Quickly searching online references using a browser add-on -1, which was an extension to an article previously published on December 30, describing how to search more references useful to translators such as Yahoo Progressive Dictionary, Microsoft Terminology, Chemical Substances Database, Science Terms, E-Words, and Searching Japanese Patents using Needlesearch, a Firefox browser add-on. You can of course, go to the links mentioned above and search each site individually too. Next, I told you how to about Finding place names in Japanese, in which I also mentioned about an add-on called OpenSearchFox that also helps you to quickly add websites to search for. The other articles this month were December Recap and January Recap, that summarized the posts in December and January. Until I set up a separate Categories section enabling you to search for relevant posts quickly, you can use the Recap posts that give you a quickly summary of what you will find in each post. Until the next post, I leave you with a quote by Indira Gandhi: There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there.

Quickly search glossaries and translation memories during translation

noreply@blogger.com (Gururaj Rao) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 01:09:00 +0000

To increase your productivity in fields that you translate once in a while, you need quick access to glossaries in that field. A tool that allows you to search for terms and phrases while you are translating such a document, preferably by using a hot key, and also enables you to paste results into your document. Apsic Xbench is such a tool.

How to use it

In short, here's what it does. Say you are translating from Japanese to English and get stuck over how to translate a term or a phrase. Select it and hit Ctrl + Alt + Ins, and Xbench brings opens up a window almost immediately with all the hits in glossaries, translation memories or tab-delimited text files you have already registered earlier. Here is a sample of the screen with a search for a "船首楼甲板":

The matches on the right hand side are from all your references – glossaries, translation memories and other text files. You select the term you prefer and hit Enter; the translation is copied to the clipboard, and the Workbench window closes. You can now paste the translation by Shift + Ins.

Input formats supported

This tool enables you to maintain your glossaries as simple text files and search them quickly. In addition you can use all kinds of common CAT bilingual formats such as Microsoft glossaries, TMX, Trados, SDLX, Star Transit, Wordfast, and IBM Translation Manager and save them under different projects. See the website for details of the input text formats supported. Recent formats supported TBX, Multiterm XML, XLIFF, or Mac OS software glossaries.

Other features

The best part of it is that this convenient tool is free! It also has some quality assurance features and can be used as an online quality tool to check consistency in terms used for ongoing translations. The QA function also warns of other problems such as tag mismatches and so on. Google-like queries from the application is also a recent addition. Definitely a keeper!

Until the next post, here's a thought from Robert Frost: The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.

Lightning search of an online database

noreply@blogger.com (Gururaj Rao) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:59:00 +0000

I use the Glova bilingual database frequently during my translation work. Although it does give redundant matches sometimes, the contextual database gives a good idea of how a term is used in Japanese. I have registered it using OpenSearchFox (pointed out in an earlier post) in the small window on the right side of the browser. See image below.

I decided to write an Autohotkey script that would search this site when I select a specific phrase in a Word document. Although I don't write difficult scripts, this was fairly easy and it worked! I can now select a Japanese phrase or term, hit Win key + G (for Glova) to open Firefox and bring up the English equivalents in a flash. Note that the script may not be optimized; but I was pleasantly surprised to see that it works. Here's what you do if you wish to use it yourself. Note that this is for Windows only (sorry Mac and Linux users; I regret I didn't learn to use these OS too) and you need Autohotkey on your system.

1. Install OpenSearchFox, the Firefox add-on.

2. Go to the Glova site, select both databases (General/Business and Medical/IT/Science) by Ctrl + left mouse click.

3. Check JE if you wish to search for Japanese phrase or EJ if you wish to search for English phrase.

4. Place your cursor in the Search window, right click and register Glova with OpenSearchFox so that it appears in the browser on the right hand side.

5. Now copy the script below to a plain text editor and save it as say, Sglova.ahk

#g::

Send, ^c ;Copy to clipboard

Run, www.google.com ;Launch Browser

WinWait, Google - Mozilla Firefox

IfWinNotActive, Google - Mozilla Firefox, , WinActivate, Google - Mozilla Firefox,

WinWaitActive, Google - Mozilla Firefox,

Send, ^l ; Focus on main window

Send, ^k ;Focus on search window

Send, ^v ; Paste from clipboard

Send, {Enter} ; Hit Return key

Return

6. Double click on this script so that it appears with an H icon at the bottom right part of your screen.

7. You are all set. Select a Japanese/English phrase and hit the Win key + G. Your browser should open and the hits displayed on the screen. Happy scripting!

Until the next post, here's a thought: If you want to be happy for a year, plant a garden; if you want to be happy for life, plant a tree.

Searching dictionaries quickly while you translate

noreply@blogger.com (Gururaj Rao) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 06:17:00 +0000

Interaction/Feedback

A small note before today's post. I have not had the interaction that I expected with readers through comments. I can only assume that this is because of "user-non-friendliness" of this blog. I have taken steps to remedy this by providing instructions on the right on how to post comments and how to post your messages directly to my mailbox, if you do not wish to post to a public forum. I look forward to interaction and feedback. If you like something say so. If you don't like something -- well, don't say a thing. :)

Searching JE/EJ online dictionaries

Today, I give you an Autohotkey script that I hacked, which will enable you to search four standard online Japanese English dictionaries while you translate. You can selectively search any of these, when you get stuck on an English or a Japanese term or phrase during your translation work. I have tested the script on Mozilla Firefox running on a Windows XP system. Hopefully, it should work on other browsers. The four dictionaries are: Progressive/Daijirin, Exceed/Daijirin, Kenkyusha Online and Sanseido Daily Concise dictionaries made available by Yahoo, MSN, Excite and Sanseido respectively.

Procedure

The procedure is as follows:

a. I assume that you have already installed Autohotkey – if not, read an earlier post introducing this free utility, and install it on your system.

b. Copy the script at the end of the post to a plain text editor, and save it in a suitable folder say with the following name: gendic.ahk

c. Open Explorer, go to the folder where you have saved this file, and double click on gendic.ahk

d. You should see a green icon with an H in your system tray indicating that the script has been loaded.

That's all there is to it -- you are now ready to go! Select the phrase or term, hold down the Win key and hit 'g' (indicating "general" dictionaries). The screen shown below should appear:

Select the dictionary you wish to search and hit Enter!

Let me know it if works for you too, as it did for me.

Script

Gui, Add, Radio, x7 y40 w240 h20 Checked vDict, Progressive

Gui, Add, Radio, x7 y60 w240 h20, Exceed

Gui, Add, Radio, x7 y80 w240 h20, Kenkyusha

Gui, Add, Radio, x7 y100 w240 h20, Sanseido

Gui, Add, Text, x7 y10 w240 h20, Select Dict:

Gui, Add, Button, x86 y120 w70 h20 Default, Ok

Gui, Show, h185 w251 +hide, Selection

RunOnce = 0

Return

#g::

RunOnce=0

#z::

Send,^c

if (RunOnce = 0 or SendThis =)

{

Gui, Show, h185 w251, Selection

WinGet, SelId, ID, Selection

WinWaitClose, ahk_id %SelId%

if SendThis <>

{

Send,!d

Send, %SendThis%

}

;Send, {Enter}

Return

ButtonOk:

Gui, Submit

if Dict = 1

run "http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=%clipboard%&stype=0&dtype=2"

else if Dict = 2

run "http://dictionary.msn.co.jp/result.aspx?keyword=%clipboard%&matchtype=startwith"

else if Dict = 3

run "http://www.excite.co.jp/dictionary/japanese_english/?search=%clipboard%&match=beginswith"

else if Dict = 4

run "http://www.sanseido.net/User/Dic/Index.aspx?TWords=%clipboard%&st=0&DailyJJ=checkbox&DailyEJ=checkbox&DailyJE=checkbox"

RunOnce = 1

Return

Customizing Word before you start the translation work

noreply@blogger.com (Gururaj Rao) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 08:50:00 +0000

I like to start working on a document with a large text space on the screen, free from unwanted icons, toolbars, sidebars and the like, but with all the tools and macros to help me translate speedily, and enhance productivity. Here are some methods I use.

Icons

I have retained only those icons and menus that I use frequently, and conserve the rest of the valuable space for the document I'm translating. Here's what you do. First, pull down View/Toolbars and uncheck all those icons that you have never used and will never use. I have retained just the Standard and Formatting icons, and have also eliminated common ones such as Copy, Paste and Cut (I use the corresponding keyboard shortcuts). To remove these icons, click Tools/Customize and with the Customize Window open, right click on any of he icons you don't need and delete it. By so doing, I have managed to retain a fairly large working space while having ready access to all the icons and macros. Also retain only those Wordfast icons that you need. If you always hit Ctrl+Alt+ right, left and down arrows for searching and inserting placeables, there is no need to retain icons taking up valuable space! See the image below of just the essential icons.

Adding essential macros

Add your most used macros to the top line on the right side of the default Word menus. In my case these include small macros that I use often in the course of the work, such as Paste Special, Print Preview (helps me see what the created document would like on an A4-size sheet at 100% magnification), ExtTBox (a macro that extracts text from text boxes and dumps it into another file), Wide2Narrow (for converting double byte to single-byte characters) and so on. Also add the useful ones not in front of you such as Wcount (Word's counting feature), and EditGlos (edit Wordfast glossary) so on. To add macros to the menu, again click Tools/Customize, select Commands/Macros and drag the macro to the menu bar. Right click on the name and pare it down to a short one (such as Normal.NewMacros.DDwin to just "DDWin").

Using AutoCorrect judiciously

Register long words that you use frequently in AutoCorrect by abbreviations. If you use "consequently" "specifications" "temperature" often, register them as "cns" "spc" and "tmp." AutoCorrect will expand them for you and cause less wear and tear of your wrist in the long run. After you type a few pages, scan the text for frequently-used words, hit Alt+T+A to bring up the AutoCorrect menu, enter your abbreviation and the complete word or phrase once and register it. From the next time onward just type spc and let AutoCorrect do the rest of the work.

If you don't use the Autocorrect spell check script to automatically correct spelling mistakes as you type, you can use Word's Autocorrect feature to correct spelling mistakes for you. If you have a tendency to type "adn" instead of "and" then register it in Autocorrect and let it correct these mistakes for you. When you finish typing out the document, you might not have to do a spell check!

Also register often used hard-to-find symbols such as the following in Autocorrect:

± ˚C α β γ (I type plmin, deg, alpha, beta and gamma to obtain these).

Other shortcuts

Besides the above, I use other macros such as FindNextJ to check that no Japanese double-bye character remains in the final document, the Quality Check Wordfast shortcut, and some other Wordfast-related macros that assist in translating documents quickly and accurately. Watch out for a separate post on working faster with Wordfast!

Two free utilities to enhance your productivity

noreply@blogger.com (Gururaj Rao) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 03:13:00 +0000

Yesterday, I installed two utilities that have already helped me increase my productivity. Both are Windows applications.

Windows Search 4.0 Preview
The first is a search tool for Windows XP and Vista that indexes your desktop and tells you in a flash which character string exists in which file. I'm quite impressed with it – not as bulky as Google Desktop or any of the other index-your-desktop-and-search software that take up a lot of space. It is a new tool meant for Windows Vista but can also be used on Windows XP. These are the versions supported according to the link provided:
32-bit versions of Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 (SP1)
All 64-bit versions of Windows Vista with SP1
32-bit versions of Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) or a later version
All 64-bit versions of Windows XP
Windows Server 2003 with SP2
All 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2008
Windows Home Server

Just yesterday evening, a client asked for clarifications on some phrases of a project with a large number of files I had translated. I launched this utility with which I had already indexed my data folder containing all the translated data files. See for yourself here the results of a search for a phrase that appeared almost instantaneously:

The list of files containing the Japanese string appeared in less than 2 seconds; the preview window on the right however, did take several seconds before displaying the file. The download for the 32-bit Windows XP version weighed in at only about 5.3 MB. It appears to be an exciting tool to play with and search for all kinds of information from your desktop. Search for passwords that you use sometimes - you'll be surprised at the results. Definitely a keeper!

Utility for updating applications on your desktop
The Free Update Checker from Filehippo.com scans your desktop for updates to download and also provides the links from where you can conveniently download them and keep your PC running smoothly; it also gives a list of beta updates! The Update checker is only 100 kb and works very fast. Note, however, that although it works on any Windows PC running Vista, XP, 2003, 2000, ME or 98, it requires that the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 be installed. Here's what it showed me when I installed and ran it:

The arrows on the right indicate the sizes of files to be downloaded and also serve as links.

Have a great weekend!

March 2008 Recap

noreply@blogger.com (Gururaj Rao) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:43:00 +0000

I described How to set up an RSS feed as a live bookmark in your browser in 5 seconds in the first post in March; and then told you How to securely back up your valuable data using freeware utilities SyncBack Free or RealSync. I wrote about an exciting application called 1-click Answers that gives you immediate answers when you click on a word in your browser with your mouse and the Alt key. Next, I described the method of Converting any file to a PDF file or image file without hassles using the free utility PDFCreator; I gave you a summary of all the posts in February in February 2008 Recap, and then how to Quickly search glossaries and translation memories during translation using again a free tool called Apsic Xbench. I told you how to perform a Lightning search of an online database using Firefox and an Autohotkey script, and how you would go about Searching dictionaries quickly while you translate again using a hacked Autohotkey script to look for terms in online references, how to go about Customizing Word before you start the translation work by removing all unnecessary icons to get more workspace, registering often-used macros, and using Word's autocorrect feature efficiently, and ended with Two free utilities to enhance your productivity, namely Windows Search 4.0 Preview and the Free Update Checker. Watch out for a different look to this blog and more fresh, updated tips, tricks and tools next month!

More Google tips

noreply@blogger.com (Gururaj Rao) — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 03:59:00 +0000

The first installment of Google Tips appeared to be fairly popular, and having studied and stumbled upon some more cool tricks -- here you go. Let me first touch upon those that might prove useful to translators.

1. Bilingual documents

You sometimes find documents on the web translated in two languages. If you wish to locate, say documents replated to financial statements in Japanese and English, you can try searches like this in Google Japan:

+"financial statement" +対訳

対訳 refers to "bilingual." To find bilingual documents in other languages, replace 対訳 by its equivalent in the language you wish to search and use the specific country site for Google.

The first hit led me to a site where one can search for legal terms.

If you are translating material safety data sheets, then the search

material safety data sheet +対訳

will give you MSDS of various items and glossaries, which could be fairly useful.

2. Research using Google Scholar

If you translate technical reports frequently as I do, Google Scholar searches helps you discard unwanted hits and helps you to focus on scholarly documents from educational institutions, research organizations and so on. You could search only in the target language or both target and source language to find reports where the abstract might be in English while the rest of the report is in Japanese.

I generally use the target words and insert a relevant Japanese term too; for instance:

"marine pollution" +汚染

(where 汚染 is "pollution" in Japanese) led me to websites as shown below.

The first four websites were probably South Korean websites, so I added "site:jp" to the search terms to focus on Japanese sites only. This led to better results for my purpose as below.

3. Finding glossaries using "inurl"

As an extension to the above, you can find documents or websites with specific words in the URL of the websites. Let's make use of this Google feature to find a glossary related to marine pollution. We use the search terms as below:

"marine pollution" +inurl:用語

where 用語 should give a glossary of terms.

The first hit leads to a Word document with a glossary of terms with explanations in Japanese and a fairly useful list of abbreviations.

4. An addictive Google search

As a bonus, I give you some addictive searches, and you are hereby warned: IF YOU HAVE LOTS OF WORK TO DO, DON'T READ FROM HERE ONWARD!

a. To see network cameras all over the world

Enter the search terms exactly as below in Google:

inurl:viewerframe?mode=refresh

You should see network cameras at various locations in the world. This is fairly addictive and you see all kinds of places, including some fabulous cherry blossoms in full bloom!

b. To find mp3 files

Enter the search terms exactly as below: (DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK; some websites may be harmful. If your system is not well protected by firewalls and AV software, desist from visiting suspicious-looking websites). You can replace "Clapton" by your favorite artist or group, or mp3 by mov, if you like:

"intitle: index of" Clapton mp3

This led me to a site where I could listen to my favorite music.

Happy browsing!

Microsoft resources for translators

noreply@blogger.com (Gururaj Rao) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 06:57:00 +0000

1) Glossary search

Microsoft has some useful resources for translators. Let me point you to a new one that has just appeared – a searchable database of Microsoft terminology in various languages from English. You enter the English term in the upper box and select the language in which you want the equivalent term.

For English to Japanese, here is a trick enables you to copy a term in English and search directly.

1) Copy the URL below and paste into a text editor or MS Word.

http://www.microsoft.com/language/en/us/search.mspx?sString=XXX&langID=ja-jp

2) Substitute XXX by the English term.

3) Copy the entire string and paste it into the address box of your browser and hit Enter.

You should get a list of Japanese equivalents. Here's a part of the results for "localization."

2) Style guides

Microsoft has also made style guides available for download in various languages – but unfortunately the one in English is only available in the print edition.

Download the Japanese and other versions here.

The style guide contains a wealth of information for translators working in the IT field. These style guides are updated versions (March 2008).

3) MVP web sites

There are folks who are now, or have been in the past, designated as Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals recognized as such by MS for their willingness to share their expertise. The MVP web sites have valuable information on all aspects of MS applications; the ones I read often are the Word MVP web sites. Explore – there is a wealth of resources here.

Have a great weekend!

Yet more Google Tips

noreply@blogger.com (Gururaj Rao) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 12:37:00 +0000

I gave you some Google tips in More Google Tips at the beginning of this month, and some in the first installment of Google Tips in January. I have some more for your this time – I'll be running out of words to add at the beginning – maybe "Yet Some More Google Tips" next time? These are some tips that I have tried out and have found useful; those that would help translators come first, of course.

1. Adding a tilde to get related terms and lists of terms

To your search word prefix a tilde (~) and glossary to get glossaries, dictionaries and list of terms.

Example: ~welding +glossary

2. Range of numbers

You can use this 2007..2008 to your search terms to find hits during the years 2007 to 2008.

For instance, you can search for all the posts that you sent to the Honyaku mailing list in these years by using the following keywords in Google:

+Yourname +site:http://groups.google.com/group/honyaku +2007..2008

3. Weather in any city

Find the weather at any location (in Japan too).

Ex: weather Tokyo OR weather Antwerp

For the US, you get the weather information by typing the zip code too.

Ex: weather 94306

Gives the weather in Palo Alto California

4. Find many useful e-books

You can read up information on a specific topic by finding downloadable e-books related to the subject.

+fundamentals +welding +filetype:pdf

+introduction +C programming +ebook

5. "better than XXX" or "YYY sucks" search!

If you wish to know about products that are better than XXX, or alternatives to product YYY, trying using this search.

For example: Enter "better than Trados" and it should give you details of various CAT Tools!

Have a great day!

First poll on Translator's Tools

noreply@blogger.com (Gururaj Rao) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:16:00 +0000

I know there are at least some avid readers of Translator's Tools - some of you I met at the recently concluded IJET at Okinawa did sound me out on this. Thank you for your show of appreciation; this has spurred me to write more about translation tools in my spare time. My thanks also go to other faithful readers – I think there are 40 to 50 of you out there who have subscribed to Translator's Tools through some reader. Since this blog will cease to exist without you, my dear readers, I have decided to ask you what you'd like and tailor my posts henceforth to satisfy the majority of readers.

On the sidebar to the left you'll see a question and list of five answers. Choose an option that best reflects your needs and click Vote. The poll will run until the 15th of next month. The subsequent articles will be based on the results.

I'd like to say thanks again, and I look forward to your active participation, especially with comments on any post you feel like. If you do your own website, do link to this blog.

Have a nice weekend!

Some simple find and replace strings in Word

noreply@blogger.com (Gururaj Rao) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 05:47:00 +0000

I have often used these simple find and replace strings to edit Word files, and also some regular expression strings in Word to edit large Word files and Wordfast translation memories. Here are some simple searches that translators may find helpful when using Word's Find and Replace. In a subsequent post, I hope to take up some simple regular expression strings.

In all the instances below, F: refers to the string you need to enter exactly in the "Find what:" box and R: refers to the string you need to enter exactly in the "Replace with:" box when you press Ctrl + H in Word.

1. Replace soft returns by hard returns

F:^l

R:^p

2. Replace hard returns by tabs

F:^p

R:^t

3. Replace double spaces in front of a hard return by a single space and a hard return

(Note: "@" below represents a space that you enter using the space bar and is not the "@" character)

F:@@^p

R:@^p

4. Delete all graphics (images) in the document

(Note you could use a hard return (^p) in the Replace with box if needed. Don't enter anything in the Replace with box otherwise.)

F:^g

5. Replace white space in front of units (such as kg and so on by a non-breaking space)

F:^wkg

R:^skg

(This will keep numbers and their units together even at the end of the lines).

Watch out for a subsequent post on regular expression searches in Word.

Macintosh Resources

noreply@blogger.com (Gururaj Rao) — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:13:00 +0000

This post is just for Mac users　– sorry, Windows users – I have ignored readers of this blog who use Mac completely until now, and I'm trying to make up to them. Note however, that I don't use the Macintosh operating system, so Mac users will have to fill me in on various details through Comments or you may write directly to me to add to the cumulative knowledge of the subscription list and other readers. I have listed here various applications that may help you to perform searches and maintain your system.

1. Google Desktop for Mac

Google Desktop for Mac (beta) seems to have incorporated many of the features from the Windows product, such as indexing Gmail and web history, Google.com integration, finding content in past file revisions and deleted files, and fast application launching. It is designed for a Mac, from the bezel on the search box down to correctly and securely handling multiple users and FileVault. The search box makes launching documents and applications lightning fast and provides quick access to your files, folders, email, and web pages.

To send feedback to the team developing this product, go their forum.

2. Mac-specific searches in Google

Google has come up with a Mac specific search. So the next time you wish to restrict your searches to hardware, software and other resources for the Mac only, try searching Google through this link.

3. AppMenuBoy – a free Mac download

Adds an applications menu to your Dock. AppMenuBoy helps you to expand your application folder into a hierarchical menu.

4. Mac application tracks software serial numbers

RapidoSerial makes a database and stores your software license keys. This will help you retrieve your license keys especially when your hard disk crashes and you don't have a list of all your license keys.

I would love to have something like this for Windows too – anybody know of an equivalent?

5. Free download to create Mac keyboard shortcuts

Spark 3.0 beta 7.0 helps you to create keyboard shortcuts. Here is a blurb from the website:

Spark is a powerful, and easy Shortcuts manager. With Spark you can create Hot Keys to launch applications and documents, execute AppleScript, control iTunes, and more... You can also export and import your Hot Keys library, or save it in HTML format to print it. Spark is free, so use it without moderation!

Mac users, let me know if you found any of the above useful or they were just "old news" to you.

Poll results

noreply@blogger.com (Gururaj Rao) — Fri, 23 May 2008 04:11:00 +0000

I was out of office for a while and saddled with three urgent jobs – the dust has cleared and I hope to start writing more frequently. The Masters' swim meet in Hokkaido was a great event; and Hokkaido is a wonderful place to be in spring!

Thanks for voting – the poll gives me an idea on what readers like to read.

95% of the readers voted for software/ utilities to assist translation

55% of the readers voted for translation resources

40% of the readers found Web search tips interesting

30% preferred tips on CAT tools

25% voted for tools to maintain and enhance productivity.

I'll concentrate more on giving you what you asked for. The next article will be on a tool that translators nowadays often need to use! Coming soon.

Have a great day!

PDF to Doc converter

noreply@blogger.com (Gururaj Rao) — Sun, 25 May 2008 01:13:00 +0000

After trying out various converters, I finally found a freeware converter that offers you a choice on whether to convert a PDF document to a Word file with or without text boxes, and with or without line breaks in the output. So here's one that's free and with no nags, and no ads with a cryptic name: Some PDF to Word Converter.

It also offers batch processing and other customizability such as selecting the number of pages to convert, deleting graphics, pictures, and so on. Although online converters exist that do a fairly good job, I would rather handle sensitive documents on my desktop rather than uploading them for online conversion. Here are the options this utility offers (see image):

The application works on Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista. This one is a keeper. I am, however, yet to find a similar one that has like features and works with Japanese PDF documents; would any of our Japanese readers who frequently scan Vector, Mado no Mori or similar Japanese websites like to add some information on Japanese freeware to convert Japanese PDF documents to Word documents? This is a long-felt need for JE translators.

Your results may vary with Some PDF to Word Converter – try out conversions with and without line breaks too. I had good results with a PDF document in English without fancy formatting.

Incidentally, the downloads page on the same site has other converters also to convert PDF to html, txt and so on; and all free, of course.

Word/character counting utility

noreply@blogger.com (Gururaj Rao) — Mon, 26 May 2008 10:01:00 +0000

Some of the most useful utilities for translators working between Japanese and English have come from Ryan Ginstrom, a translator and colleague. He's come up with the latest offering, which is useful, and also free: CountAnything. As its name indicates, it counts most of the file formats I generally translate, including words in text boxes and many other embedded objects. It counts the numbers of words, characters (with and without spaces), Asian characters, and non-Asian words. You can save the reports as html files or print them out. I personally would have prepared a tab-delimited file, as you can export it directly into Excel. The latest version 1.2.1 gives you word/character counts of the following document formats:

* MS Word (.doc, .rtf)

* MS Excel (.xls, .csv)

* MS PowerPoint

* Text

* HTML

* XML

* PDF (New!)

Here's what the screen looks like after a count:

I tried out the PDF feature on a document containing mixed Japanese and English, and CountAnything did very well.

	Asian characters	Non-Asian words	Characters (no. spaces)
MS Word	7087	3374	25243
CountAnything	7092	3377	25241

Another keeper!

FreeSnap – freeware utility for sizing a window

noreply@blogger.com (Gururaj Rao) — Mon, 26 May 2008 23:23:00 +0000

Although practically all of my translation assignments are in electronic format (data files such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint files), I occasionally need to translate embedded text in PDF image files. In such cases, I place a new Word document and the PDF file to be translated side by side, look at the PDF file and type out my translation into the Word file (see the image below).

I recently came across a nifty freeware utility called FreeSnap that makes sizing windows and adjusting the sides of windows a snap! Placing two windows side by side becomes an easy task using FreeSnap. It runs in the background (has no tray icon) and you use hotkeys (Win + arrows, Win + Numpad keys) to maximize any of the sides of a window, to center a window, or resize it. For instance, if you use the Win key with Plus or Minus keys on the Numpad successively you can resize the window to a specific size. FreeSnap also provides an alternate set of hotkeys for laptops.

Here are the basic operations:

Windows Key + Up Arrow: Snap top window edge

Windows Key + Down Arrow: Snap bottom window edge

Windows Key + Left Arrow: Snap left window edge

Windows Key + Right Arrow: Snap right window edge

Using Numpad (Number Pad)

Windows Key + Home, End, PgUP, and PgDn keys: Move a window to the corresponding corner of the screen without resizing the window

Windows Key + arrow keys: Size windows

Windows Key + corner keys (7,9,1,3): Move windows to the corner of the screen.

Windows Key + 5 key: Center the window

Windows Key + Plus and Minus keys: Resize the window to a specific dimension.

The dimensions used are:

640 x 480

800 x 600

1024 x 768

1152 x 864

1280 x 1024

Once you run FreeSnap, the only indication that it is running is its name that appears in the Start Menu. Have you come across anything better than or as good as FreeSnap? If yes, share your information by clicking on Comments below this post.