Claudia’s Translation Blog

A blog for Hispanic Languages Translations

Posts Tagged Translation

Time Zone Converter

Apr 21

Posted by Claudia Alvis in Blog | 1 Comment

As translators and freelancers, we have the great opportunity to work with people from all over the world. However, this could be problematic when it comes to setting a deadline or, even worse, scheduling a conference call with several people in different parts of the world: which time? yours, mine, GMT?.

There is a handy, little tool that can easily solve this. Some of you might be aware of it, but for those who have never heard of it: I heartily recommend Time and Date’s Time Zone Converter. This tool works pretty straightforward: enter a time/date and a city, and Time Zone Converter will calculate the time/date for a different city.

For instance, my client in Prague wants me to deliver a translation on April 24 at 8:00. I’m in Chicago. So I enter:

And the result is:

It’s very easy to use and extremely helpful. Time and Date’s Time Zone Converter can be found at this link.

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28% discount for all AIT products (including Translation Office 3000 and Projetex)

Dec 19

Posted by Claudia Alvis in Blog | No Comments

AIT has announced a new-year campaign with a 28% discount on all products, including Translation Office 3000 and Projetex.

I’ve been using Translation Office 3000 for several years and it’s one of the best investments I made. It not only creates invoices and handles payments, but it’s a great and easy-to-use project management tool for translators. It literally saves me hours every month on administrative tasks.

Link

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Free 1-year subscription to Multilingual (Localization Magazine)

Oct 14

Posted by Claudia Alvis in Blog | 1 Comment

MultiLingual offered a one-year subscription at the ProZ Virtual conference last month. I just received an email from them offering the same one-year subscription for the magazine.

It’s not too late to sign up for a free one-year digital subscription. With focuses on such topics as quality assurance, project management, and e-learning, plus such regional focuses as China, Central and Eastern Europe, Japan and Latin America, MultiLingual offers more information than ever. We hope it’s information you won’t want to miss. To subscribe, simply go to  www.multilingual.com/promo and click on “Subscribe here.” Select MultiLingual Digital and enter promotion code D99PRZ in the box.

Multilingual is a Magazine that focuses on Globalization, Internationalization, Localization and Translation. I highly recommend it to anyone that works in the Localization industry. The articles and permanent sections are very useful. They also have a printed edition of the magazine. Additionally, the website has plenty of resources and guides on industry and region-focused localization.

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SDL Trados Studio 2009 Demo

Aug 18

Posted by Claudia Alvis in Blog | No Comments

SDL has released a Demo version of SDL Trados Studio 2009. Those who wanted to know what the big fuzz (good and bad) is about can finally see it for themselves. Also, the Service Pack 1 for SDL Trados Studio 2009 will be released soon; I’ve been using the SP1 Beta for a couple of days, and it seems pretty stable… so far. I did get an error due to my custom Language Resource settings. But resetting the TM’s Language Resource fixed the problem.

From SDL:

NEW! SDL Trados Studio 2009 Demo

Download the new SDL Trados Studio 2009 interactive demo to discover the host of new features, including:

  • How to use the new features in SDL Trados Studio 2009, such as, AutoSuggestTM, Real-time preview, QuickPlaceTM and Context Match.
  • How to customize your new editing environment and set up your short cuts.
  • How to use the project management and SDL package technology
  • How to upgrade your translation memories and use the enhanced concordance search
  • Specific topics for our power users such as, advanced translation memory creation and maintenance.

Request the demo at:
http://www.translationzone.com/en/downloads/demodownloads/sdl-trados-studio-2009-demo.asp

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El gerundio en español: 3 reglas simples para usarlo correctamente

Jul 29

Posted by Claudia Alvis in Blog | No Comments

Uno de los errores más comunes en las traducciones al español es el gerundio mal usado. Como ya se ha dicho bastante sobre la teoría, y hay muchísima información en todas partes, me voy a dedicar solo a la parte práctica: 3 reglas simples para determinar si el gerundio en español es correcto o no.

Regla 1: El sujeto del gerundio tiene que coincidir con el sujeto de la oración principal.

Incorrecto: Los bomberos entraron al edificio ardiendo en llamas. (¡Au!)

Correcto: Los bomberos entraron al edificio que ardía en llamas.

Regla 2. La acción del gerundio tiene que realizarse al mismo tiempo o antes que la acción del verbo principal.

Incorrecto: Los bomberos apagaron el fuego, apareciendo en las primeras páginas de todos los diarios. (Esos son los periódicos más rápidos de toda la historia)

Correcto: Los bomberos apagaron el fuego y aparecieron en las primeras páginas de todos los diarios.

Regla 3: La acción que expresa el gerundio se tiene que interpretar como una circunstancia (de tiempo, de modo, de causa o condición).

Correcto: Los bomberos controlaron el incendio sacrificando sus vidas. (Expresa el ‘cómo’)

El gerundio en español jamás expresa un resultado (regla 2), aunque muchas veces expresa la causa. Los ejemplos anteriores son quizá los más comunes, pero no son los únicos. Quizá el error más común sea usar el gerundio al inicio de la oración o como la oración principal.

Getting Started

Incorrecto: Empezando

Correcto: Para empezar

O aun mejor: Introducción

El gerundio en español puede ser complicado. En caso de dudas lo mejor es no usarlo o preguntar a alguien más. Pero no lo descarten completamente. Si escribo esta entrada es porque el corrector o correctora eliminó todos los gerundios de mi traducción, aun cuando yo los había usado correctamente. (Y el texto era sobre bomberos)

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The Spanish Gerund: 3 simple rules to use it correctly

Jul 29

Posted by Claudia Alvis in Blog | No Comments

One of the most common mistakes in Spanish translations is the incorrect use of the gerund. A lot has already been said about the theory (and there’s plenty of information available everywhere), so I’m going to focus on the practical side: 3 simple rules to decide if the gerund in Spanish is used correctly or not.

Rule 1. The subject of the gerund must be the subject of the main clause.

Incorrect: Los bomberos entraron al edificio ardiendo en llamas. (Ouch!)

Correct: Los bomberos entraron al edificio que ardía en llamas.

Rule 2. The action of the gerund must occurr at the same time or before the action expressed by the main clause. Never after.

Incorrect: Los bomberos apagaron el fuego, apareciendo en las primeras páginas de todos los diarios. (Those must be the fastest newspapers ever)

Correct: Los bomberos apagaron el fuego y aparecieron en las primeras páginas de todos los diarios.

Rule 3. The action expressed by the gerund must have an adverbial function (when, how, why, etc.)

Correct: Los bomberos controlaron el incendio sacrificando sus vidas. (How)

The Spanish gerund never, ever, expresses a result (rule 2), but it can often express the cause. The above are very common uses of the Spanish gerund, but they’re not the only ones. Probably the most common mistake is to use the Spanish gerund at the beggining of the sentence and/or as the main clause:

Getting Started

Incorrect: Empezando

Correct: Para empezar

Or better yet: Introducción

The Spanish Gerund can be very tricky sometimes. In case of doubt, don’t use it or ask somebody else. Just don’t discard it altogether. I’m writing this post because a proofreader removed all the Spanish gerunds in my translation, even though they all were used correctly. (Oh, and the text was about firefighters.)

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Tip for translators: SDL Trados Studio – Merging terms without Multiterm

Jul 2

Posted by Claudia Alvis in Blog | No Comments

In case I’m not the last one to find out about this (it didn’t occur to me until 10 seconds ago), merging terms without Multiterm, i.e. directly from Editor, is very easy. From the Termbase Viewer list, highlight the existing term, click on Edit this Entry (F2) and add it as a new Term from the Source or Target drop-down menu:

Merging terms

You will be prompted to merge the terms or not. Then press F12 to save the changes and that’s it.

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Tip for translators: SDL Trados Studio. Take screenshots of your settings

Jul 2

Posted by admin in Blog | No Comments

Taking screenshots of your settings (Alt+PrtScn) is always a good idea, regardless of the software and not only for translators. Yesterday Studio was acting up, so this morning I had to reset my settings. I wanted to start fresh so I didn’t want to import my profile. The problem was that I had completely modified the color scheme, having a screenshot of my color settings was really helpful. The settings can also be exported in Tools>Manage User Profiles.

Colors settings

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Tip for translators: Using TO3000 to keep all databases in one single place

Jun 29

Posted by Claudia Alvis in Blog | 2 Comments

One of my favorite applications for translators is Translation Office 3000. It’s much more than just an invoice tool or a project management application, the built-in browser can keep all the relevant translation files just one-click away.

For instance, using TO3000 and shortcuts, I keep all my databases (glossaries, TMs, termbases, project references, etc) in one single place, regardless of their physical location. I just add shortcuts of their folders in a Client-specific folder automatically created by TO3000 at the moment the client is added. The next time I want to access any of those files, I just go to the Project>Folders tab and find it in the Clients Folder, right by the Project Folder.

This is particularly useful for those translators who use a separate Translation Memory or Glossary for each client or topic. There’s no need to spend any time trying to find the client’s files, they’re all available from one single location.

For a detailed explanation, click on the link: Read the rest of this entry »

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Translation: SDL Trados Studio Shortcuts (Editor only)

Jun 9

Posted by admin in Blog | No Comments

This happens to be my first blog entry! Yay!

I’ve been using SDL Trados Studio for a while now and so far, I really liked it. The release candidate still has plenty of bugs, but overall it’s very usable. It’s a shame because, in my opinion, it’s the best product SDL has launched and it fixes many of the productivity issues of previous versions.

Anyway, since many of the commands are new, I compiled a list of all the shortcuts in the Editor view. I find it very useful; I hope somebody else will too. I uploaded two lists: one with all the Editor shortcuts and the other one has the most common shortcuts highlighted.

Download: Studio 2009 – Editor Shortcuts.pdf
Download: Studio 2009 – Editor Shortcuts (highlighted).pdf

FYI, these are the shortcuts I have highlighted:

Action Shortcut
Check Spelling F7
Concordance Search F3
Confirm and Move to Next Segment Ctrl+Alt+Enter
Confirm and Move to Next Unconfirmed Segment Alt+Add
Copy Source to Target Ctrl+lns, Alt+lns
Delete to End of Row Ctrl+D
Lock Segment Ctrl+L
Lookup Translations Ctrl+Shift+T
Move to Next Segment Ctrl+Down
Move to Previous Segment Ctrl+Up
Perform Concordance Search Enter
Repeat Go To Ctrl+J
Restore Tags Ctrl+Shift+G
Select Row Alt+Space
Show Translated Terms Ctrl+Shift+L
Source Concordance Search Ctrl+F3
Split Segment Alt+Shift+T
Target Concordance Search Ctrl+Shift+F3
Toggle formatting tag display Ctrl+Shift+H
Verify F8

Edit: SDL has released a Show Shortcut list plugin that can be added to the toolbar. I haven’t tried it yet but sounds really helpful.

Also, SDL acknowledged that their policy about SDL Trados 2007 and SDL Trados 2007 Suite was a mistake and they have corrected the course, so I removed my comment about not upgrading.

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