Software for translators

August 31, 2009 4:44 AM

Are you a translator? What software do you use or recommend?

I have always done inline translations as most of the jobs I do are no more than a few paragraphs or so. However, I now have a very long text to translate, and want to use software to make my life easier.

What software for translators have you used that you would recommend? Ideally I would like something that won't take long to get the hang of. Mac-compatible would be better, but Windows is also ok. Free is best, cheap is ok, but more expensive could also be considered.

posted by ask me please to computers & internet (7 comments total)

There is the open-source OmegaT that is free and OS X compatible.
posted by Baud at 5:07 AM on August 31

Wordfast (Classic) - totally free in a full-feature demo version for jobs up to 500 segments, relatively cheap for a full licence (and even that is discounted if you are in a not-filthy-rich country, which is sweet). Wordfast is all you need for jobs in, well, Word, but is not that unfiddly with Powerpoint and XML formats etc.
There's a good support forum on the manufacturer's site, and at proz
posted by runincircles at 5:19 AM on August 31

I have used Transana at work. It is open source.
posted by nestor_makhno at 9:41 AM on August 31

Perhaps the Google Translator Toolkit might be useful?
posted by Theloupgarou at 9:42 AM on August 31

At the risk of sounding dumb, what does this type of translation software do?
posted by Iteki at 12:18 PM on August 31

CAT (computer aided translation) tools basically save the translation you are doing chunk by chunk, and if a similar chunk comes up later it shows you the chunk and the similarity so you can reuse the previous chunk, without having to search back through all your text(s) if something sounds familiar. Basically a way of ensuring your terminology and usage remains consistent, incl. for more than one translator at a time/over time, and saving time. Tools also support glossaries that you can quickly/automatically insert terms from and into, and help you retain/adapt the formatting of the original document and so on
posted by runincircles at 4:25 PM on August 31

Thank you all, especially runincircles for a great explanation of what translation tools do.
posted by ask me please at 2:48 AM on September 2