Insight #1: Never write disparagingly about music or anything else that touches readers personally. Mentioning Kraftwerk in a rather kräftige sort of way a few weeks ago caused a number of readers to protest in an even kräftiger way. Sorry if I infringed on your holy grail . . . but I still don't like them.

Insight #2: Last week was a good week for all those who don't like Microsoft because they could finally say, with feeling, "I always told you so!"

Insight #3: We are neither the center of the world, nor are we even close to it.

Here are a couple of quickies that will make Windows just a little less mouse-heavy. All of you know that you can use Alt+Tab to cycle between applications that are open. If you are not using Windows Vista I would recommend downloading the little Alt-Tab Replacement from Microsoft that gives you an image of the application you are switching to. This is helpful, for instance, if you have several browser instances open and want to actually peak at the open pages. If you have Vista and a strong enough video card, you will probably use the WinKey+Tab to cycle through the different applications in 3-D view. What many of you may not know is that the same keyboard shortcut is also available in earlier versions of Windows, but here it will simply go through the different applications on the task bar. This would be helpful, for example, if you are giving a presentation and you don't want everyone in the audience to look at all your applications in detail.

In Vista, there is also a helpful shortcut to open applications directly from the Quick Access bar (the toolbar to the right of the Windows/Start button). Any combination of the WinKey with a number is assigned to the applications listed there. So, WinKey+1 might open Windows Explorer (which of course is also opened with WinKey+E), WinKey+2 opens Word, etc., all depending on the order of your shortcuts. Unfortunately, with earlier versions of Windows there is no easy way to access the Quick Access bar with the keyboard unless you find the successive combination of WinKey, Esc, Tab easier than using your mouse.

 . . . even for rather experienced Trados users can be gathered when opening the SDL Trados Filter Settings application.

I had one (very experienced) user ask me this week how in the world she should translate CSV (comma separated value) files with Trados and make Trados ignore certain columns of data. Or other users have asked me how to hide certain data within Excel worksheets or adjust settings for .properties files (Java resource files), etc. The great thing about all these questions is that there is one easy answer: These settings are all available in the SDL Trados Filter Settings application.

Those who have never opened it will be pleasantly surprised about the relative wealth of settings for the many different formats. And those who have not opened it for a while should do so to refresh your memories about the variety of settings that can be used to manipulate the processing of files exactly to your specifications.

And for those who don't even know how to open it: You can open it under Filters in the Trados program group or by clicking on Manage Filter Settings in the Synergy component.

And here is another little Trados trick that I already mentioned a couple of years ago, but since I have just rediscovered it myself, here it is again.

I know that many Trados users complain about TagEditor because they are not as familiar with its interface as they are with Word. Here is one of the benefits of TagEditor: As you know, Trados (as well as most other competing TEnTs) has a feature called PerfectMatch. This allows a 100% pretranslation in context, thus giving an additional seal of approval to the translation. Because the idea is that these matches are not to be edited, they are automatically locked and cannot be overwritten in the normal mode with TagEditor.

If you don't use a version of Trados that gives you access to that feature, or if you simply want to protect certain content, you can open the TTX files in a text editor (the Windows-internal Notepad, for instance), look for the strings

Tu MatchPercent="100"

(for 100% matches) and replace that with

Tu Origin="xtranslate" MatchPercent="100"

As a result, all those matches will be locked in TagEditor.

Screeech . . . that's the sound of my soap box being pushed onto the stage.

After my article on my frustrating experience with Word and Adobe Acrobat, and Acrobat in general and particular, a well-meaning reader wrote to give me some advice on how to minimize the collateral damage that Acrobat causes on my system. And as far as the tall price tag for Acrobat, he mentioned that that's also no problem. For years now he has used cracks (illegal programs that force a program to run in full rather than evaluation mode) to run Acrobat.

I don't want to be the great moralizer, but his email came at just the right time to really trigger something in me. Just the night before I had finished writing an article for the tcworld magazine of tekom that ended like this:

So let's come full circle, back to the question of whether independent translation and globalization technology vendors can be sustained: The language industry is a significant market, easily capable of supporting those vendors . . . IF there is a willingness to invest in the technology. No one develops powerful products just because they're interesting to look at. Companies develop products to be purchased. And it's up to the small and mid-sized service vendors themselves to decide whether they want to continue to stand on the outside, or help to shape this interesting industry by putting their money where their interest is. We can't afford to leave technological advances to the industry gorillas.

Now, Acrobat Adobe does not really fall into the realm of translation technology, but the point is that we have a choice either to behave professionally and pay for the services and products that we use to make advanced development efforts and products possible . . . or not.

I just got done fighting with a client over a $5000 bill that he owed me and now, after months of me prodding and kicking and screaming, he has finally paid. I was frustrated and angry that he withheld the money for something that I knew were good services I had delivered. And I will not work for this particular client anymore.

I cannot think of a better analogy of why we should pay for technology. Why in the world would technology company XYZ go all out and invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into the development of a product that is being pirated anyway?

Of course, the two choices that I mentioned above are not the only choices we have.

You could also decide simply not to use technology so that you don't have to invest -- and maybe that's the right answer for you. But I know that I simply can't afford it. I wouldn't make enough money to support my family.

The last alternative is to join the open source community. There are a lot of tools specifically designed for translators, including some TEnTs like OmegaT, that have development communities devoted to them. No doubt they would welcome you to join them and help them take their tools to the next level. Martin Wunderlich's site is a great collection of links to the various projects.

Screeech . . . that's the sound of my soap box being pushed off the stage.

Dominik Kreuzer had some interesting comments on Software as a Service (SaaS), which includes TEnTs like Lingotek, Elanex, and XML-Intl, many translation project management solutions (such as Plunet, Beetext,and Worx), and even online-based tools like search engines or online dictionaries:

While SaaS may make sense for corporate users, freelance translators and smaller companies may be severely disadvantaged by the concept on several fronts. Apart from the speed and customizability issues (...) there's the question of privacy: With SaaS, it would be easy, for example, to monitor the time a translator spends on a job and use this info to force down prices.

But my biggest concern is the immediate dependency on a whole chain of providers and hardware: Any fault or problem between PC and SaaS provider's installation can cause the translator's work to come to an immediate and complete halt. British Telecom can take a week or more to repair local storm or water damage to phone lines. No need to spell out what that would mean in terms of lost income and missed deadlines.

If the SaaS publisher ceased operating completely for whatever reason, the software may be gone forever - complete with the remotely hosted data, unless the user has taken the precaution of making local backups in a generic format. No chance for a gradual transition to a new product.

But it doesn't take financial or national crisis to stop a translator in their tracks: if a newly installed service patch causes problems on a local installation, you just return to the previous release until the bug is fixed or you've had a chance to find out where the problem lies. With SaaS you are -- again -- dependent on other people to sort it out.

I think that his points are well taken, but I would still like to add a couple of things.

First, the privacy issue: While it may be possible to monitor time better, there are a number of ways to do this even now (think of MS Office's time tracking features in Properties, or time stamps on comments and tracked changes), and I doubt that they are used very much. I hope that we are mature enough as an industry to understand how much time on average (!) it takes to translate, edit, proofread, format, etc. Plus, I have worked as a project manager myself, and I gotta tell you, there is no time for the typical PM to track the minutes that individual translators spend on their assignments.

Interruption of service: This is a very valid concern and sadly points to one of the few areas where there is a real discrepancy between urban and rural areas -- when otherwise it's no problem for many of us to live in the boonies. I would always advise having a backup service provider. This is no problem in a city where you have a choice between many different ISPs, many of whom use different data highways. In rural areas, however, you may have only one or two providers that often use the same data access routes, which could mean simultaneous loss of access.

Disappearance of a SaaS provider: Also a good concern, and so the first thing you need to ask is in which formats you can download data backups. When Lingotek first came on the market, it offered neither TMX nor XLIFF (exchange formats) to download translation data, which was like an automatic no-go. Many protested, including this newsletter, and those formats were quickly introduced. Realistically speaking, a certain feeling of uncertainty about the service could end up making a user a better data-backer-upper than the user of a PC-based service. With PCs the danger is less that a program may suddenly not be available, but if your PC goes kaput, your data may also be in the can.

Messy patching services: Also a good point and that is why it's important to "court" your tool provider for some time to understand whether they have the technical expertise and appreciation necessary to quickly do a rollback if needed.

All this said, most of the tools that I use myself are not SaaS tools, but I still believe that this is where we are headed. And I don't think that this will take 10 or 15 years to become a mainstream solution. Instead, expect it to be standard in the next couple of years.

This one is not even a character in itself, though it's composed of characters. This is a symbol, and certainly nothing that needs to be translated. But it's celebrating its 50^th birthday, and that is enough reason to make it part of the love story. Peace!

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

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© 2008 International Writers' Group