Translation memories: OmegaT

OmegaT is an open source translation memory that register equivalences between two languages. Like the translation memories in general, with OmegaT the translators are able to keep a lot of documents that will be very useful in future translations. In the program there are three windows: the first window is where you will see the source text, in the second one the program will show you the possible equivalences and below this one it will be a glossary.

To start to work with OmegaT you have to click on “Projects” and then create a “new project”. You will have to keep a new folder where your work will be kept. In the folder you will have the documents you want to introduce in the translation memory. You can use OmegaT to start without any previous translation or maybe you want to take advantage of other translations you have already had. However, if you want to do this last, you must use before a program, like for example bitext2tmx, that will help you to align the source text and the translated text, because OmegaT doesn't have this option.

You will find bitext2tmx here (bitext2tmx.zip). Once you have installed that program and it is open, you will see the next image:

And now you must follow the next steps:

1. Click on “file” and select the source text, the source language and the target text and the target language.
2. It will appear both texts on the program and you will have to verify if all the sentences in the source text correspond with the sentences in the target text.
3. If the sentences don't correspond, you will have to modify the target text with the buttons “join”, “delete” or “split”. 

It is very important that the texts are in format TXT.

This alignment will be useful in your following translations of texts of the same or similar subject, because OmegaT will show all the coincidences and you will have to select a partial coincidence, a total coincidence or you will have to rewrite all the sentence. In any case, if you work with repetitive texts, this will speed up your work.

We return to OmegaT, and now you will have to open the project and select the language of the original texts and translated texts and all will be stores in the new project and below you have to indicate too the folder where all the files that will be generated in the project will be saved (the original text and the target text that have aligned with bitext2tmx, the translation memory that is generated and stored, the glossaries that you add optionally and the translated text).

To introduce the text you want to translate, you will have to press on "import source files" and select it.

It is important that you check, that the folders you have created in your project contain the texts and memory that was generated in bitext2tmx. 

In the main frame you will see the original text and in the right frame will appear the possible matches from the memory, with the text you want to translate and the percentage of coincidences. If you keep more texts in your memory, it will find more matches in similar texts. 

And now you can start to translate. To go faster, and once you are upon the segment that you want to translate, you can press CTRL + R and it will be replaced by the translation automatically. If there are more than one match, you can choose the most suitable pressing CTRL + the number of the coincidence. 

Don't forget to save your work and finish "creating final documents" from the menu "project".

And now you can translate with OmegaT!

Linux Mint: Wine

Wine it is a program that can open some programs in Linux that originally are made for Windows. That's very useful! Sometimes the Linux user's use another similar programs specifically made for Linux, and they work well. However it is possible that we have to work with a Windows program (for example, the professor in the university have explained only that program because it is what he knows or it is generally used, or our boss or company works with these particular program).

With Wine you will be able to use some Windows programs in your operating system Linux. You will find Wine in Linux Mint Software Manager.

To clarify the use of Wine, I'm going to talk you about programs to subtitle, specially about two examples. In Windows we have Subtitle Workshop, and in Linux Gnome Subtitles. Thanks to Wine, I can work with the first one, that originally is made for Windows. As you can see at the bottom of the picture, the icon of the program is Wine's icon. 

And of course I can open the second one, which is made for Linux.

Linux Mint: Software Manager

Hi!

The software manager of Linux Mint allows the access to different programs that you can install in your computer.

To find programs it is very easy. I click on “all packages” and it will appear all the available packages. Then you will able to see how many programs you have already installed and which ones you don't have installed yet.

Now you only have to look for the programs that you need to work. For example, if you want to install an HTML editor, like Bluefish, you only have to look it for, click to "install", write your password and in a few seconds you will have the program.

It is very easy.

OCR: Optical Character Recognition

Hi!

The OCR process change documents that are an image (for example, PDF, JPG or PNG documents) in texts that we can use with a word processor. That's very useful, because that way you can work on this documents, and translators will be able to see how many words has a document. You will know the approximate time that you can take to translate it and, if you have to give a budget or a bill, you could say to your client how much will cost. I began to investigate OCR because I had to make a bill with a PDF document.

Once you have installed the program for OCR, I use gscan2pdf, you have to open a new document or, if you have the document on paper, you have to scan it before. In this case I will show you the example with a PNG document.

Then you have to open the document in the program. You have to select in “tools”, the option “OCR”. It will appear a window and there you must select the OCR motor, the language of the source document and then “start OCR”. All the words of the document will appear in the program in the window “OCR Results”. At this point you will able to click on the results and copy and paste it in a word processor. After that, you will able to work on the document. 

Besides the OCR programs, there are websites where you can change your PDF, PNG or JPG documents in texts that you can use in a word processor (and if you are a translator, you will able to translate the text more easily).

I have three examples, thanks to a publication of Milica Aćimović in the Translation community:

http://www.i2ocr.com/,

http://www.free-ocr.com/,

and

http://free-online-ocr.com/

Regards.

Libreoffice Writer: Number of pages

Hi!

To insert the number of pages in a text document it is very easy. I will show you step by step how to make this correctly:

1. Insert a default footnote in your document. The footnote will appear in every page of the document.

2. Insert “fields” and then “number of pages”. The number of pages will appear in your footnote. Now you can decide if the number will be right-aligned, left-aligned or in the center of the footnote.

3. On the first page of your document you don't have to write the number of the page. Now you have to use the “Styles and format” like I have explain in other of my entries. You have to select “format”, then “styles and format” and then “page style”. At this moment, you have to be in the first page of your document and select the style “first page”. That way, the footnote and the number of page won't appear in this page.

So easy!

Libreoffice Base: Database

Hello everybody!

I'm going to explain how to create your own database. This entry can be interesting for translators to compile terms and expressions, that possibly can be used in future translations. I personally have created databases for two of my subject in my degree, specifically for technical translation and legal translation from german into spanish.

First of all, in Libreoffice Base you will have to select “table” and then “use the assistant to create a table”. In this way, the program will show you exactly how to make the database step by step and you will able to personalize it.

Depending on your preferencies, you will select the category “business” or “personal”. In this case I will show the personal category. In the frame below, you will see the available fields. I will select three: “IDCount”, “NameCount” and “NumberCount”. Later I will change the name of these fields according to the subject of my database.  

The next step is the change of the field's name and the selection of if the field will contain numbers or text. I personally will make the following modifications:

1. The “IDCount” for “ID”. In this field type I will use numbers, to numer how many terms I have. I select “Number [NUMERIC]” and then in “Required entry”, I say “yes”.

2. In “NameCount”, I write “alemán” (german), because this is the language of my source text. Field type: Text [VARCHAR]. Required entry: yes.

3. In “NumberCount”, I write “español” (spanish), because this is the language of my target text. Field type: Text [VARCHAR]. Required entry: yes

In the steps 2 and 3 you can select too the lenght of the characters. If you are going to keep expressions in your database, you will need more characters than only for one word!  

The next step is the selection of a main key. This is necessary to introduce datums in the database. In this case you can select the option that you want.

Finally, you must give a name to your table.  

Now, you will have a new database!

This is an example of one of my databases:

That's very useful, because you can keep a lot of information and then you can find it quickly. Like in the last picture, you can write the word you want to find and the program will tell you where it is.

Libreoffice Writer: Automatic index

Hello everybody!

Today I'm going to explain easily how to introduce an automatic index (spanish version here) in your documents. Normally we write our index when we have finished the document. That way we can show exactly how many pages we have used and what is the order of the information. However, it is necessary that during the elaboration of our document we use the styles and format that Libreoffice Writer offer to us.

First of all, we have to organize the information pressing “Format” and then, “Styles and format”. It will appear a table with options to change the styles and format in the paragraphs, characters, frame, page and lists.

Then you will have the different parts of the document, more or less like in the example of the next picture.  

To select the paragraphs with numbers and styles, that later will appear in the index, you have to select in the table of styles and format in “paragraph style” the option “heading 1”. Then, to numerate de headings, you have to select in “lists style” the option “numbering 1”. If you want to divide the information of one paragraph inside another, you can modify the styles as you want, to number them correctly.  

Finally, when you have finished your work and you have used the styles, you must press “insert”, “index” and “index” again. And you will have your automatic index. If you add or erase parts of your document, you will only have to update it.  

I hope that will be useful!  

The first one

Hello everybody! 

As a translator, who spend a lot of hours working with the computer, I want to share with you a lot of different things that maybe you can find interesting. In the following entries I want to explain how to improve your translation work or any other work of writing. This will be a collection of the knowledges that I have got during the years that I have studied the art of translation. Maybe you will learn new ways to make your work easier or you will discover simply something new. I will write the entries in english and spanish to put into practice both languages... and the translation, of course. If you have any question, comments or suggestion, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Thanks for reading.