A little tool that I wasn't aware of is TransAbacus. I looked at it this week and liked what I saw -- provided that users are aware of certain restriction of this tool.

All too often we get queries from (potential) clients that sound a bit like this: "Can you translate my website for me? Just go to www.microsoft.com and give me a bid." Now, chances are that you will not get a query for this specific website (in fact, I know you won't). Even if you did, our tool in question would not be of much help. However, let's imagine you get a query to a much, much smaller, static (more on that in a second) website. Something like www.internationalwriters.com. You might ask the client to send you the source files that need to be translated -- but we all know how they'll respond to that, right? "The WHAT files? Can't you just go and look at the website?"

And since we are still in the bidding process, we gotta be nice and not argue (that will have to be done with the exact same question once we get the job). So we need to find out a) what kind of website it is, b) how many files of what type need to be translated, c) how may words on those files need to be translated, and d) how much time we'll need to manipulate complex file formats (graphics, Flash files, PDF files) so that our translation can be used.

Assuming that we find out that this is a static website (a website where the content does not sit in a database that is dynamically served to webpages as users request those), we need to at least get an overview of how many words are located in the translatable files. One way to do that would be to go to the site, open each web page, select File> Save as, and make sure that Webpage, complete or Webpage, HTML only is selected under Save as Type in Firefox or IE. And do this for every single page.

Just kidding.

If you were to really do that, you would not only waste hours, but you'd be likely to miss a lot of files in the process. A much better way of going about it is to use a web spider that allows you to download a complete website. These are tools like Tenmax Teleport Pro or the free HTTrack. With these applications you can download all the files of a static website, including multimedia content, PDFs, etc., and then use a word count tool such as PractiCount & Invoice or one of its many competitors to make counts. You could use your TEnT to count words as well, and in that case you will even get repetition counts, etc. For graphics, you can use a free tool like XnView to quickly browse through those files to find how many graphics need to be translated; for Flash files you can use a tool like the Flash Decompiler or others and so on.

Not surprisingly, the makers of TransAbacus felt that this is still a little bit too involved, so they set out to offer an easier solution:

Once you open TransAbacus, just enter a URL (website address) and you will be presented with a list of HTML, PDF, and RTF files on the site in which words were automatically counted. Those counts can be saved in a text file (or a slightly corrupted CSV file) and you can use that as the basis of your estimate. It's easy enough, and in my tests this all worked seamlessly. However, I still have a word of caution or two.

This is great for super-simple websites (like www.internationalwriters.com), but that's about it. And even super-simple websites may have graphics that you might need to evaluate.

The makers of the translation environment tool (TEnT) Similis sent a note to me this last week saying that they have also released a large, searchable data pool. It's still in beta stage (don't use the English user interface!), but on test.libellex.fr you can find interesting data mostly between English and French.

I am not sure what the purpose of this tool eventually will be, maybe just to show off the sophisticated alignment features that Similis has for a number of European languages. Currently the data consists mostly of EU data and other aligned (but not further specified) data from Similis customers.

The search itself is a little slow (compared to the recently reported engines of TDA and Linguee), but it might still unearth interesting material for EN<>FR translators.

Again (and I'm sort of repeating myself here), the good news is that bilingual data is more accessible than ever before, and we are among the first who should be able to benefit from it.

Belarc Advisor to be exact. The irony with this tool is that while it reminds you of the necessity of Windows and Office updates, it does not remind you to update itself. So I have been using a copy that I downloaded a few years ago, unaware of the interesting new features that it now offers.

This tool provides you with a very detailed report of all the hardware and software that you have installed, including operating system, processor speed and memory, system serial number, printers, controllers, displays, etc.

This can be very helpful for various reasons. It gives you instantaneous access to all the information you need when your computer needs to be serviced; it shows you how many crazy applications you have installed (and hopefully convinces you to uninstall a bunch of them in due time); and it lists serial numbers for many of the software programs you installed which you might otherwise have forgotten or have a hard time getting to.

I'm a proud member of the ATA, the American Translators Association (though I still long for the day when it changes its name to American Translators' Association), but with a large, 10,000-member organization like that, things sometimes take a long time to develop. However, once they do, it's all the more pleasant. Here are a couple of examples:

At least here in the U.S., the ATA certification is an important qualifier for professional translators. For years there has been a demand for computerized exams, but the actual development turned out to be much more complex than originally anticipated. And yet a few weeks ago there was a first very successful real-life sitting with no unexpected glitches, so you should expect to quickly see more of those.

Another thing that took quite awhile to develop was a policy for the ATA Member-Provider Program. It, too, is finally done and Ted Wozniak's Payment Practices list (a database on payment habits of translation agencies) is the first offering, with reduced fees for ATA members. Expect to see yours truly's TranslatorsTraining offered there sometime soon as well.

And then this email reached me a little while ago from David Hostyk:

I am a member of the ATA and I enjoy reading your column [in the ATA Chronicle]; and I think your readers might enjoy learning about a program I have written.

For years I have been frustrated at the inefficiency of the mouse-keyboard setup.  I hate moving my hands from the Home key position. So I developed a software application called Integrated Keyboarding, available at: www.inkeyboard.com.

The program allows you to control the computer from the keyboard, without moving your hands. Whether it's moving the mouse, moving the cursor, scrolling, dragging, highlighting or numbers, you use your second, third and fourth fingers in their Home key positions. There are separate versions for right-handed and left-handed people. 

I looked at it (there is a helpful video presentation) and I think it's quite cool. Everything can be controlled from the main keyboard, including all the tasks that the mouse, the number keypad, or the arrow keys usually provide. Aside from the problem that -- once you get used to it -- you would sort of cripple yourself for keyboards on machines that do not have this program installed, it's helpful for anyone who thinks it's silly to move around too much on the extended keyboard/mouse interface. Plus, the fact that this was developed by a translator and ATA member double-qualifies it in my mind.

With some applications you say to yourself: "Wow, this is what I have been waiting and looking for forever!" With others you say: "Yeah, that's nice -- not earth-shattering, but helpful." And that impression will only be stronger when realizing that that particular utility is free.

FileTypesMan is one of those tools. Its a no-install little program that gives you very easy access to what is otherwise accessible under Tools> Folder> File Types in Windows Explorer in Windows XP and before (and without such tool not accessible anymore under Windows Vista). This is the place where you can decide with what program a type of file opens when you double-click on it etc. FileTypesMan makes this all more accessible and less technical.

Plus, when you click on a certain file type you also have access to helpful things like these:

• Open this file type immediately after download without confirmation
• Always show this file extension
• Don't add this file type to Recent Documents in Window's Start menu (in case you don't want your kids or spouse to see that you always read Excel sheets or something like that when they are asleep)
• Show this file type in the New menu of Windows Explorer

Also, while you are at the site from which you can download FileTypesMan there are hundreds (well, maybe just dozens) of other little free programs all developed by the same guy. Most are very helpful, while quite a few others are beyond my technical expertise and interest (and I would not be surprised if many of you would have the same impression).

Here is another tool of a very different nature that I was made aware of by Christian Oblin. Christian contacted me awhile back asking for help in finding a little application he had used years ago that automatically entered Word comments with glossary matches into .doc files any time such a match is found in an associated text file. I did not know that exact tool -- though most TEnTs and terminology tools offer something similar, of course -- but then he wrote back, saying that he had found it himself again: It's Glossy. As the name suggests, it's not the most current tool (I strongly doubt that it would run on Word 2007), and in fact the purchase page is currently offline -- but the trial download works.

If you want to try it, I would strongly discourage you from using it for HTML files as they describe it (I am almost certain that this is going to create problems), but for some Word files and projects it might be helpful.

Of course, if you have a full-blown TEnT, I am not sure what the use would be.

In this newsletter you can find an intermittent series about characters I really like. I have a passion for exploring different writing systems, character sets, and fonts & this is the latest specimen.

If you have a Javascript-enabled browser, hold your cursor over the character for a definition.

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