Welcome to the 42nd edition of Translator Tools Newsletter, introducing a new tool in TransTools+ as well as numerous updates in TransTools. Before I continue, I would like to wish you a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year and extend my best wishes to you and your loved ones in 2022!
New tool for counting words in tracked changes quickly
I am sure all of you came across tracked changes while translating Word documents. These are heavily used in just about any field. As translators, we are often asked to transfer tracked changes from a new revision of a source document into the translation of the previous revision while preserving tracked changes, and producing a quote for such work is a difficult task in most cases. The only exception is users of memoQ and Trados Studio who also happen to have a translation memory for the previous revision of the document: in that case they can tweak import options / file type settings to import tracked changes as such and get more accurate statistics for the modified segments. However, if you use another CAT tool (such as Memsource, SmartCAT, Wordfast, Déjà Vu X, etc.) or if are a memoQ or Trados Studio user but there is no translation memory for the previous revision of the document, you will find it very difficult to estimate this work.
Sample of tracked changes in a Word document
Tracked Changes Assistant included in TransTools+ v.1.8 makes it extremely easy to prepare a word count for tracked changes. All you need to do is open a Word document, open Tracked Changes Assistant tool and click Create tracked changes word count report button.
Tracked Changes Assistant tool panel
Tracked Changes Assistant provides word and character counts separately for insertions (additions), deletions and moves. While the insertion word count is the most important ones, the word counts for deletions and moves will also affect the translation effort, especially if small changes were made inside existing sentences. The tool also provides the number of distinct additions, deletions and moves, reflecting your effort for transferring such changes into the existing translation.
To help you understand the amount of translation effort better, the word count report also tells you how much text inside the tracked changes represents full paragraphs, full sentences, multi-word phrases, single words, etc. For example, if the word count tells you that the added text contains full paragraphs and sentences only, you will only need to translate these new paragraphs and sentences without having to modify existing translations. In contrast, if there are many multi-word phrases, single words, etc., previously translated sentences will need to be modified, and the translation effort may be significant in relation to the number of words in such additions or deletions.
Tracked Changes Assistant can export the word count report in two formats: 1) Microsoft Excel and 2) Tab-delimited or semicolon-delimited text format (CSV). This will make it possible for you to produce a quote very quickly. If necessary, you can use custom weight factors in the Excel spreadsheet in order to estimate your rate.
For more information about Tracked Changes Assistant, consult its documentation. Download the recent version of TransTools+ here and start using this new tool in your work.
New features in TransTools
The latest version of TransTools (v.3.29) contains the following new features:
- A number of new features have been added to TransTools for AutoCAD. It is now possible to ignore hidden layers when extracting text or merging translations into a drawing by using a new filter option called “Process text in visible layers only”. A number of other improvements were introduced: warnings about non-translatable proxy entities found in the drawing, better translation table format, improvements in the layer filter, etc. For more information, see full version history here.
- A new add-in called TransTools for BricsCAD has been added. This add-in for BricsCAD allows you to use BricsCAD (application similar to AutoCAD) to translate CAD drawings. This add-in is largely identical to TransTools for AutoCAD add-in.
- It is now possible to insert multiple symbols with Insert Symbol tool (TransTools for Word) without having to open the tool several times: an appropriate option has been added to Insert Symbol dialog. You can also use arrow keys to navigate between symbols in order to insert symbols quicker.
- A couple of small improvements and fixes were introduced into Correctomatic and Document Cleaner’s Autoformat command (TransTools for Word). For more information about these, see full version history here.
Update to the latest version of TransTools here.
Videos on TransTools YouTube channel
If you are just starting out with TransTools and TransTools+ or you occasionally use only 1 or 2 tools, you might be interested in checking out a few how-to videos on TransTools and TransTools+ tools published on TransTools YouTube Channel. Here are the links to individual videos you might find useful:
- How to remove incorrect breaks from Word and PowerPoint files: This video explains why it is important to check source Word and PowerPoint files for incorrect paragraph breaks and line breaks and fix them before importing the files into your CAT tool. It demonstrates how this can be done easily with Unbreaker tool for Word and Unbreaker tool for PowerPoint.
- Improving readability and appearance of final Word documents: This video explains why it is important to check final Word documents for various typography issues: excessive spaces, missing spaces before and after certain punctuation symbols, standard spaces instead of non-breaking spaces before units of measurement and in other cases, incorrect quotation marks that are not suitable for the target language, or usage of typographically incorrect symbols such as three dots (...) instead of ellipsis symbol (…) or superscript zero (0) instead of degree sign (°). The video demonstates how to use Spacing, Punctuation and Symbol Correction Tool (TransTools+) and Quotation Magic (TransTools) to resolve these issues and make final Word documents more pleasant for the reader.
- Creating dual-language documents with Dual Language Document Assistant: this video demonstrates how to use Dual Language Document Assistant to convert a single-language source document to a dual-language document where the source text is side by side with the translated text.
I will appreciate your feedback about the tools which should be covered in future YouTube videos.
New Year discounts for Translator Tools products
Until January 7, you can purchase any number of licenses for TransTools, TransTools+, Forget-me-not, Term Morphology Editor and other software products at a 35% discount. Use the following coupon code: NEWYEAR2022.
I hope you have found this information useful. See you in future newsletters. To stay up to date on TransTools+, TransTools suite and Forget-me-not, don't forget to subscribe to Translator Tools social channels on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.