21 Free Tools & Utilities for Translators - Alessandra Martelli

Table of contents Table of contents ............................................................................................................................................... 2 Introduction, or: Why this eBook? .................................................................................................................... 4 About the author ............................................................................................................................................... 5 About this eBook ............................................................................................................................................... 6 Disclaimer .......................................................................................................................................................... 7 Copyright notice ................................................................................................................................................ 7 Special thanks .................................................................................................................................................... 8

Section 1: Budgeting, Invoicing & Administration ............................................................................................. 9 Count Anything ............................................................................................................................................ 10 CATCount ..................................................................................................................................................... 13 Debitoor....................................................................................................................................................... 15 GnuCash....................................................................................................................................................... 18

Section 2: Time Management & Productivity ................................................................................................. 20 EssentialPIM Free ........................................................................................................................................ 21 IFTTT ............................................................................................................................................................ 24 RescueTime Lite ........................................................................................................................................... 26 SlimTimer ..................................................................................................................................................... 29

Section 3: Terminology Search & Quality Assurance ...................................................................................... 32 ApSIC Xbench 2.9 ......................................................................................................................................... 33 IATE Search Widget ..................................................................................................................................... 36 OneLook....................................................................................................................................................... 38 TAUS Search Widget .................................................................................................................................... 40

Section 4: Translation Memory Management ................................................................................................ 42 LF Aligner ..................................................................................................................................................... 43 Notepad++ ................................................................................................................................................... 45 Olifant .......................................................................................................................................................... 47

Section 5: Handy Tools for Everyday Riddles .................................................................................................. 50 AutoUnbreak ............................................................................................................................................... 51 ConvertAll .................................................................................................................................................... 53 Foxit Reader................................................................................................................................................. 55 PDF Creator.................................................................................................................................................. 57 PNotes.NET .................................................................................................................................................. 59 TransTools ................................................................................................................................................... 61

Image credits ................................................................................................................................................... 63

Introduction, or: Why this eBook? Having been a freelance translator for over 12 years now, I’ve had a chance to try and use a variety of software programmes to manage my daily workflow. Over time, my toolbox has grown bigger, and now includes both free and paid tools that help me handle both translation and businessspecific tasks more easily. Also, with the ever-increasing number of tools and utilities that have been made available, the choice can be quite overwhelming – and separating the wheat from the chaff can be tough. I’ve personally experienced the frustration of searching for hours in the pursuit of a programme that could have helped ... just to find out it didn’t work as expected, or well enough. Hence the decision of writing this eBook, which will hopefully save you some time and help you work more effectively, even on a tight budget. Here, you’ll find information and download links to 21 free tools that you can use to manage translation projects with ease, from early quotation stages all the way up to invoicing and overall business management. To help you select the tools that are more relevant to your case and needs, each profile comes with a snack-sized review (approx. 300 to 800 words each) with comments about the tool’s usability, flaws and benefits. I wish you lots of success with your translation business.

Alessandra Martelli

About the author Alessandra Martelli is an Italian native freelance translator and copywriter with over 12 years of experience providing translation, transcreation, and copywriting services to small businesses and international brands alike. A conference speaker and professional trainer for the translation industry, Alessandra is also a lifelong learner. She holds a diploma in Business Studies and Foreign Languages, a diploma in Philosophy, and has completed over 450 hours (and counting) of specialised training and CPD activities in her specialty fields and services. In 2013 Alessandra was awarded the ProZ.com Community Choice Award as Best mentor for the Translation category, and contributed to the best-selling book Diversification in the Language Industry by Nicole Y. Adams. As if all the writing going on in her office wouldn’t be enough, Alessandra also authors two blogs on her business website, MTM Translations. Nevertheless, she still hates writing about herself in the third person, even when she really has to.

About this eBook 21 Free Tools and Utilities for Translators is the result of over 130 hours of work, over 20 litres of coffee, and quite a few sleepless nights. The idea behind it is to provide users with a quick reference guide that can be used to learn more about tools that could make translators’ working lives easier, whilst enjoying a short break in between translation projects. The tools presented have been selected from an initial pool of 68 programmes and services based on three main criteria:  Zero costs for the user;  Convenience of use;  Usability on a daily basis. Each tool profile features a download/lookup link to the tool presented within, plus a brief review of the programme/service, divided into four sections:    

What is the tool about; System requirements and languages; Working with the tool, at a glance; Features, flaws and benefits.

Please note that the reviews are aimed at providing readers with a quick overview of the tool, what you can or could do with it, rather than offering an in-depth review of each utility. Still, where available, reference links to user guides and additional resources have been provided for your convenience. As more and more free tools are made available as time proceeds, similar products are likely to include similar functionalities. In such cases, preference has been accorded to those tools offering more functionalities, and enhanced user-friendliness. In a few cases, the functionalities of tools presented might overlap; specifically, this is true for Debitoor Vs. GnuCash, and for PDF Creator Vs. Foxit Reader. In such cases, a decision to present both tools was made to let you decide whether a basic programme would be a better fit for your needs over a more structured one. Links to external sources are indicated as hypertext links. References to tools presented within this eBook are indicated in bold blue.

Disclaimer All the information included within this eBook are based on the author’s own experiences and are all provided in good faith. The author is not affiliated with any of the tools and services presented in this publication, and the sole purpose of this eBook is to provide fellow translators with an overview on some of the many free tools available that could make their daily workflow management easier and time-effective. All the trademarks, brands and product names cited in this eBook are the propriety of their respective owners. Screenshots and product images are displayed for information purposes only. As of May 15th, 2014 all the websites and download links cited and provided in this eBook are fully functional and virus-free. However, the author cannot guarantee that such websites or download links will be functional and virus-free at any point in the future. For the above mentioned reasons, the author cannot guarantee that the tools included in this collection would still be free in the future, nor can be held responsible for any damage or loss caused by the download, use or misuse of the tools and services presented within. Please also note that the author does not provide any free nor paid support for the tools and services presented in this eBook. Before downloading any software programme or signing-up for a web service, please check the relevant system requirements, privacy policies, and all the small print. Also, don’t forget to use an updated antivirus programme to protect your computers and/or mobile devices.

Copyright notice This eBook, 21 Free Tools and Utilities for Translators, is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Please help me protect my work by abiding to the terms of such license.

Special thanks No man is an island – and translators are no different. Since the very beginning of this eBook project, I have received invaluable help and support from many colleagues, who have contributed to my quest with suggestions, advice and tips, expert proofreading, and the emotional support every adventure requires. The journey has been adventurous indeed, and bad times would have been so much worse without these precious friends, both near and far. 21 Free Tools and Utilities for Translators wouldn’t have been the same without them. Thank you everyone for your help and support throughout the way.

Section 1: Budgeting, Invoicing & Administration

Count Anything Download Count Anything

What is Count Anything? Count Anything is a word count tool supporting both Asian and non-Asian characters.

System requirements and languages Operating systems supported: Windows (98 or higher). Count Anything is available in: English, Japanese.

Working with Count Anything, at a glance Count Anything presents with a clean and intuitive interface, which makes it extremely easy to use. Depending on your preferences, several methods can be used to perform a word count: 1. Go to Files > Wordcount, select the files via the relevant Add file(s), Add folder, or Add URL buttons, then confirm with OK; 2. Press F5 to open the Files selection window, then proceed as in option 1; 3. Drag and drop the files in Count Anything’s main window, then click on Count.

Count Anything - Menu and toolbar

Either ways, the tool generates a results page, which includes the following information:  Number of words;  Characters (with and without spaces);  Number of Asian and non-Asian words. The report also features a Total line, which is very handy if you’re counting multiple files at once. Results reports can be saved (as HTML or tab-delimited txt files) or printed.

If you ever get stuck with Count Anything, the built-in Help file provides useful information about all the important features of the tool. If things go really bad, you can access the manual online (English only).

Features, flaws and benefits Count Anything is a basic word count tool, which would be especially helpful to translators who don’t work with CAT tool but still need some flexibility to deliver quotations for projects involving a large number of files, or files in multiple formats. What’s great about it is that it supports a large variety of file formats, including:     

Microsoft Office files (*.doc, *.docx, *.rtf, *.ppt, *.xls, *.xlsx, *.csv) Open Office files (*.odt, *.odp, *.ods) HTML (*.html;*.htm;*.shtml;*.mht) and PHP files (*.php) Text (*.txt) and PDF files (*.pdf, text only) XML files (*.xml;*.ftm;*.fgloss)

Moreover, unlike other free word count tools, Count Anything also counts contents from embedded objects (such as PowerPoint notes, built-in graphs and charts, text boxes, etc.), both for offline and online files. However, this means accuracy in the word count can vary according to the complexity of the file formatting and layout, and to the coding and density of on-page features such as the presence of banners, embedded videos etc. for web-based files.

Count Anything - Word count report

In the test phase, results from Count Anything have been checked against results from SDL Trados Studio 2011, and from proprietary programmes (e.g. Microsoft Word’s built-in count tool). The test sample included a total of 128 files (ranging from 253 to 23,804 words) encompassing all supported file formats. Test results showed that Count Anything tends to “miss” a few words and characters for larger files compared both to SDL Trados Studio 2011 and proprietary programmes. Nevertheless,

discrepancies were usually within a reasonable range (from 0.1% to 0.45%), and were likely to be caused by peculiarities in the formatting of the individual files. Specifically, larger discrepancies (from 1.2% to 3.5%, with one single case peaking at 13.4%) were found when counting documents with heavier formatting, and web pages presenting with lots of on-page features (irrespective of the word volume). Considering this, it wouldn’t be safe to deem it appropriate for a binding quote for website translations, nor for documents with a complex structure. Still, the results will come handy to provide customers with a rough estimate of volume, pricing, and timing turnarounds.

CATCount Download CATCount

What is CATCount? CATCount is a small utility designed for straightforward quotations when working on CAT-assisted translation projects.

System requirements and languages Operating systems supported: Windows (98 or higher) CATCount is available in: English.

Working with CATCount, at a glance CATCount is designed to generate a unique value for CAT-assisted translation projects, the socalled weighted word count (or leveraged word count), from a standard pre-translation count with separate volumes for fuzzy matches, 100% matches, new words etcetera. The tool operates based on schemes, i.e. leveraged percentages of your full rate. To create your own scheme:  Open CATCount;  Fill in the Percentage payment of full word rate column with your preferred values (e.g. 100 for no match, 85 for 50-75%, ...);  Select Scheme > Save as ..., add a name for your scheme then click on Save.

CATCount - Leveraging word count in action

Since the tool doesn’t provide word counts per se, you will need to run a standard pre-translation count from your preferred CAT tool, and manually enter the relevant volumes in the Words column of CATCount. The tool instantly converts all the different volumes in an equivalent word count to be paid at full rate; the leveraged total is displayed in the Total CATCount box on the bottom left corner of the tool’s main window. This can then be used to provide a single-value quotation for the translation project, by multiplying the leveraged word count value by your full rate.

Features, flaws and benefits CATCount is a very basic and uncomplicated utility. Still, taking out the burden of multiple calculations it saves time in the quotation process, and also reduces the possibilities of mistakes and miscalculations by providing one single value to process. Translators working with Trados Translator’s Workbench or LogoPort can speed things up a bit by loading the word count analysis log files via the Log menu and letting CATCount do its trick, but that’s pretty much all the tool offers in terms of integration with CAT tools. Results from CATCount can be printed, saved to clipboard or exported in several different file formats (HTML, *.doc, *.xls, *.txt, *.rtf, *.csv) from the Output menu. This is pretty handy when working with customers who might not be familiar with the leveraged word count process, or just to keep track of the quotation details over time. Please note, however, that if you’re using Microsoft Office 2007 or higher you won’t be able to save the data in Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel format directly, as the export function apparently does not support*.docx and *.xlsx files.

Debitoor Check out Debitoor

What is Debitoor? Debitoor is an online invoicing and accounting software.

System requirements and languages Debitoor is an online service. No minimum requirements. Free iPhone & iPad app available (requires iOS 7.0 or higher). Debitoor is available in: English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish.

Working with Debitoor, at a glance Setting up a free account with Debitoor is easy: all you need to do is sign in with your e-mail, a password, and your country of residence - this serves as a basis for the tool to generate an invoice template which is compliant with your local requirements. Once you’ve confirmed your registration, you can log in to your account and start your bookkeeping. The first important step is to fill in your company details under the account Settings, which can be easily accessed via the dashboard. Here, you would also need to adjust your taxes preferences, and to fill in your payment details as you want them to be shown on your invoices. Debitoor’s free plan gives you access to 4 core modules: Invoices, Offers, Purchases, Payments. These can all be easily accessed from the vertical menu in your account’s dashboard, where you also find the quick access buttons to the Customers and Products databases. With Debitoor, creating an invoice is really easy: click on Invoices > New invoice, fill in the client’s details (either manually or by retrieving the information from the Customers database), complete the form, then click on Finalise & Send. You don’t even have to worry about calculating applicable taxes, as the tool automatically loads the correct VAT rate for the customer when you select their country of residence. Invoices created with Debitoor can be also saved as PDF or printed. When you receive a payment, all you need to do is go to Payments > Incoming, fill in the payment details, and match the payment to the invoice by picking the relevant document from the unpaid invoice list.

Debitoor - Incoming payment registration form (Italian)

Features, flaws and benefits Unlike other online invoicing tools such as MakeSomeTime or Zoho Invoice, which set limits to the volumes you can handle with a free account, Debitoor provides its free users with the opportunity to manage an unlimited customer base, and unlimited invoices. Of course the features made available to paid users enhance the functionality of the tool, but if you’re just looking for an uncomplicated way to manage your bookkeeping the free plan works just fine. What’s great about Debitoor is that it takes out the burden of invoicing and administration by providing users with a clear interface granting access all the important information and dashboard areas in just a few clicks. For extra convenience, users can also export data in *.csv format (Settings > Account > Export data) to speed up tax filling operations.

Debitoor - New customer registration form (Italian)

The Customers database can be updated on an ongoing basis to keep your records up-to-date and to smoothen the overall invoicing operations over time. Also, by loading customer data from the

list when creating a new invoice, the tool automatically detects the correct VAT rate and updates the invoice template to meet the legal requirements. The Products database, on the other hand, can be used to save an unlimited number of service items. This means you can e.g. setup an item called “Translation, English to Italian” with net and gross price (e.g. your per word rate), VAT rate etcetera, and then load it when invoicing a customer for the relevant service, thus making the overall invoicing process even quicker. Additionally, Debitoor allows users to customise their invoices by adding their company logo and contact information, toggling VAT and taxes visibility on the invoice, including personal notes and customised messages on the documents, and more. With Debitoor, security of your data is guaranteed by strong encryption plus additional security measures (including 24/7 monitoring, daily scans, and more). Additionally, data is hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS), a leading provider of secure clouds solutions. On the down side, documentation created and sent via the tool features small promotional messages (“Created with www.debitoor.com” or “Sent with www.debitoor.com”). Also, Debitoor is currently only available in selected countries. For a complete list, please check out the country map page on the tool’s website. Overall, Debitoor offers one of the best free plans available for invoicing services. Its superior security, convenience, and versatility makes it the perfect companion for translators who want to streamline their invoicing and administration operations.

GnuCash Download GnuCash

What is GnuCash? GnuCash is an open source finances and accounting software, designed for the needs of individuals and small businesses.

System requirements and languages Operating systems supported: Windows (Xp/Vista/7/8); Mac OS X; FreeBSD; Solaris, GNU/Linux (Debian and Debian packages, SuSE, Mandriva, Gentoo, and more). For further specifications, please refer to GnuCash official documentation. GnuCash is available in: Chinese, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish. Localisation into more languages is ongoing.

Working with GnuCash, at a glance GnuCash is an accounting manager software working on the basis of double entry bookkeeping. The tool is designed to meet the needs of individuals and small businesses alike, and its use can be easily scaled to adapt to the changing requirements of your business. To use GnuCash for your business, you first need to create your account structure. This can look a bit complicated at a first glance, but the excellent wizard really helps. To get started:      

Go to Files > New to open the account wizard; Select your account currency; Fill in the Company and Counters tab in the New book options panel; Select your preferred account category from the Categories list; Review your selection, and change account names if required; Click on Apply, and save your account structure.

The whole process shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes. Once you’re done with it, you can start using GnuCash at full speed. With this tool you can manage, amongst others:  Invoices, credit notes, and payments;  Customer and employee information;  Bank accounts and investments.

The user interface is very intuitive, featuring a general menu bar plus custom toolbars for the individual operations. For added convenience, users can also customise several parameters as well as adjust layout preferences and options.

GnuCash - New invoice panel (Italian)

Features, flaws and benefits As it often happens with more structured and comprehensive tools, GnuCash might not be the best option for novices with no notion of traditional accounting systems. In fact, using GnuCash requires you to have at least a basic understanding of the principles of double entry, and a little familiarity with common administration routines. Still, the tool is backed with extensive support documentation, which is designed to help first-time users get around the tool. More specifically, the Tutorial and Concepts Guide provides users with basic information on how things work in accounting, and examples on how to get things to work for you; the Help manual, on the other hand, provides step-by-step instructions on how to perform specific tasks with GnuCash. On the brighter side, the newest version of GnuCash features lots of interesting functionalities, specifically designed for small businesses. Amongst these are:     

Creation of credit notes; Colour sorting of accounts for enhanced visual reference; Invoice and reports export in PDF format; Enhanced rendering of tool-generated graphs; Enhanced customers and vendors overviews.

The tool also offers an option to create detailed reports for personal or small businesses use, including cash flow, expenses, taxes, equity, and more. Additionally, account data can be exported in several formats, or imported from other accounting manager tools to merge entries.

Section 2: Time Management & Productivity

EssentialPIM Free Download Essential PIM Free

What is EssentialPIM? EssentialPIM is a Personal Information Manager, designed to help you stay productive at the office and on the go.

System requirements and languages Operating systems supported: Windows (95 or higher), iOS (5 or higher), Android (2.2 and higher). A portable version is also available (to run EssentialPIM from any USB memory drive) EssentialPIM 5.8 Free edition is available in Belarusian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (simplified), Croatian, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Vietnamese.

Working with EssentialPIM, at a glance EssentialPIM brings several handy task manager utilities under a single, user-friendly interface. The control panel, which is located on the left side of the main window, features quick access buttons to all the modules of the tool, namely:  Calendar;  To do;  Notes;  Contacts;  Mail;  Passwords. Clicking on a module’s quick access button opens the corresponding Action list in the upper part of the control panel; from there, you can add, edit or cancel entries in the relevant module. For extra convenience, clicking on the Calendar module also opens the View options, where users can adjust their preferences for the calendar overview. The tool does not require any prior setup, and it is ready for you when you need it. EssentialPIM general settings can be customised to run the tool on computer startup; additionally, a reminders window can be activated to get notifications on upcoming appointments or events. EssentialPIM Free edition supports synchronisation with Android and iPhone/iPad devices. Contacts data can be exported in several formats, or imported from *.csv and *.vcard files.

Features, flaws and benefits EssentialPIM is a smart tool encompassing a range of utilities which can rarely be found under one roof. Also, the Free version offers the same core modules as the Pro version, and doesn’t come with limitations in terms of contacts / accounts / items you can manage with it.

EssentialPIM - New calendar appointment form

Getting to know how to use the program shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes, i.e. just the time you need to browse through the different modules, or to read the excellent built-in Help guide. Still, if you ever get stuck at some point you can either browse the online support forum or click on the Email support option in the Help tab to get in touch with the support team. With EssentialPIM, information is updated as you type it, and all changes are automatically saved as you close the programme. For extra peace of mind, users can also setup and adjust autosave options to suit (Tools > Options > Autosave). Furthermore, the Options panel gives you access to other useful customisation features (general or module-specific) such as shortcuts setup, layout preferences, spell checker functionalities, and more. EssentialPIM presents with a lot of nice features which make it easier to manage a lot of information securely, at a glance. Amongst the most notable are:  The Calendar module features five different print-ready view options: Day, Week, Month, Year, and Table;  The Notes module supports hierarchical sorting of notes (which can be added as Root, Child, or Sibling), and also features a smart search and replace function;  The Mail module supports an unlimited number of accounts; data can be synchronised with Microsoft Outlook, and the module serves as an e-mail manager with full functionality;

 The built-in spell checker (applies to Notes and Mail) supports over 25 dictionaries, which can be downloaded and installed for free;  All data can be password-protected, and the database file is encrypted with an AES 256-bit key for extra security. For added convenience, To do tasks and Calendar appointments can be also assigned a priority (symbol coded) and a category (colour coded) ranking. These options provide users with a “visual summary” of what needs to be done. Overall, EssentialPIM Free is a great productivity tool bridging together most (if not all) of the important functionalities freelancers need to stay on top of their daily duties. The tool is updated regularly, and there are no major flaws or glitches to report. This, combined with the tool’s superior versatility and the availability of a portable version, makes it the perfect companion for freelancers working on the go, and for those who want to streamline their time management routines.

IFTTT Check out IFTTT

What is IFTTT? IFTTT is a web-based task automation application.

System requirements and languages IFTTT is a web-based application, compatible with all major browsers. IFTTT is available in: English.

Working with IFTTT, at a glance IFTTT stands for “If This, Then That”. The tool is designed to create automated tasks based on socalled channels (input/output sources): when something happens on one channel, a subsequent action occurs somewhere else. Setting up a free account with IFTTT just requires a username, your preferred e-mail address, and a password. Once you’ve confirmed your account request via an e-mail link, you are ready to start cooking your own task automation recipes. To do so, click on Create on your dashboard and follow the step-by-step procedure:  Click on This, then select a Trigger channel;  Choose a trigger from the set of options provided for the selected Trigger channel, fill in additional details (if applicable), click on Create trigger;  Click on That, then select an Action channel;  Choose an action, fill in additional details (if applicable), click on Create action;  Confirm and activate your recipe by clicking on Create recipe.

IFTTT - Creating a recipe, step 4 of 7

The whole recipe creation process takes just over a minute. Once created, your custom recipes are saved in the My recipes tab of your dashboard. From there, you can also access and edit, turn on/off, delete your recipes, as well as sharing your recipes with other ITFFF users, or view the activity log for a specific recipe you created.

Features, flaws and benefits IFTTT is a smart free service you can use to manage your workflows more effectively, and to reduce the overall burden of repetitive activities. The service currently supports 106 channels, ranging from e-mail managers to blogging platforms, and from feed readers to other productivity tools (such as Toodledo or Evernote, to name just a few). Moreover, IFTTT channels include services for iOS and Android devices, thus making it even more valuable for translators working on the go, and for professionals looking for a smart way to enhance cross-device interactivity and synchronisation. It is important to note that once you setup a recipe you can’t apply restrictions nor exceptions to it (unless you turn it off completely); this means that if you create a recipe like “Post a Facebook status update when you upload a new picture on Instagram”, this will happen every single time you upload a picture on Instagram. Considering this, using IFTTT to automate social media automation is not recommended, as it can result in an awful amount of unnecessary actions and in a spammy online behaviour. Still, with 106 channels to choose from, using this tool to create productivity-oriented automated tasks is easy. As an example, with IFTTT you can:  Add an event to Google Calendar when you receive an e-mail mentioning a date in the subject line;  Send an e-mail to self (or to others) every Tuesday at 3 pm (or at any other day/time);  Save Gmail attachments in your Dropbox account (or to Google Drive, Evernote etc.);  Schedule a call-back when you miss a call on your Android/iOS mobile device;  Copy your favourite tweets to Evernote. Finally, if you are looking for creative ways to automate your tasks further, you can look at recipes other users shared with the IFTTT community. To do so, click on Browse on your dashboard to access the recipe repository; if you’re looking for automation options for a specific service/action, the search feature will help you refine the results according to your needs.

RescueTime Lite Check out RescueTime

What is RescueTime? RescueTime is a productivity tool that tracks your activities while on a computer or a mobile device.

System requirements and languages Operating systems supported: Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8); Mac OS X (10.6 or higher); Linux (Ubuntu, Fedora); Android (2.1 or higher). RescueTime is available in: English.

Working with RescueTime, at a glance RescueTime is a web-based time tracking and productivity tool. To run it properly, you will need to sign up for a free account (called Lite), and then download the desktop application. The website should automatically recognise your OS; if it doesn’t, just visit the Get RescueTime page and browse to find the relevant installer. Once you’ve done with the installation, type in your e-mail address to trigger the desktop widget application, and a confirmation web page will open. To start configuring your RescueTime, click on the Next Step link at the end of the confirmation message; on the following page, fill in your default productivity levels (which will be used to generate the Productivity Pulse), check your Privacy settings and click on Finish up.

RescueTime Lite - Setting default productivity levels

Please note that by default RescueTime tracks all the time you spend on a computer or mobile device. To adjust your preferences visit your online Dashboard, click on Account Settings > Privacy, change the preferences under Logging schedule and click on Save Schedule. Also, if you want to track all websites you would need to download a browser add-on.

Features, flaws and benefits RescueTime is a very intuitive tool that will help you manage your daily and overall productivity. The reporting function and the weekly summary allow users to understand where their time goes, and how to improve that ratio. Once you set up your account, you will get access to the Dashboard. The Productivity Pulse displayed provides a visual overview of your productivity for the day (blue = productive; red: unproductive), whilst the graphs below provide further details. RescueTime also helps you to stay on track by automatically suggesting productivity goals. Users also have an option to create their own goals in terms of “more or less time spent on” (Reports > Your goals > Set a new goal), and track their progress on the go. As an added bonus, users can activate RescueTime on as many computers or mobile devices as you like. To keep all of your data under one roof, you will just need to activate the relevant widget with the same e-mail address linked to your free account. To refine RescueTime results, users can add, edit and adjust categories to adjust the individual productivity level of the activities listed (Tools > Categorize activities > Manage categories). This is especially useful for those looking for a more sophisticated reporting of their time, and for those who might need to “filter out” certain activities. As an example, you might have marked the category Reference & Learning as productive because you need to do lots of research for translation purposes, but might want to mark the subcategory Home and Garden as very distracting.

RescueTime Lite - Advanced logging schedule options

In addition to the productivity information displayed on the web dashboard, RescueTime gives you a weekly report via e-mail which details up how you’ve performed over the week, and provides additional information on your activities. More specifically, the weekly report features:     

Total time logged; Productivity score; Most common activities by category; Most common activities by applications or websites; Summary of week goals and performance.

This is especially useful to assess how you perform over time, as reports can be saved and compared at your convenience. The weekly report also makes it easier to spot typical sources of distraction (or new sources of distraction that may have been discovered over the past week), and to operate corrective actions to keep your schedule back on track. One final note: even though the RescueTime premium plan offers some nice additional features such as the block site function for distracting websites, the same results can be achieved by combining RescueTime Lite with other free tools and utilities (e.g. the Strict Workflow or StayFocusd extensions for Chrome, or LeechBlock for Firefox).

SlimTimer Check out SlimTimer

What is SlimTimer? SlimTimer is a web-based time tracking and productivity tool.

System requirements and languages SlimTimer is an online application, compatible with all main browsers (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Opera). Requires Javascript. SlimTimer is available in: English.

Working with SlimTimer, at a glance Setting up an account with SlimTimer is easy. Basic information for registration includes full name, e-mail address and a password. Additionally, users can set up their preferred date/time format and time zone right at signup, or adjust them later via the Settings tab. Please bear in mind that the program is web-based, so you’ll need to login to your account and keep a popup window open to track your tasks. Here’s how to get started with SlimTimer:  Log in to your account, select the Home tab, then click on Open Timer (this will open a popup window);  In the popup window, click on Add Task (or press Alt+a), enter a name for the task, press Enter to confirm;  Click on the task ... and the clock will start ticking. When you’re done with the task, click on the task name to stop the timer, and tick the box next to the task name to close it. Alternatively, you can just close the popup window: the data will be saved and you will have an option to close the file manually later on. Reports can be generated via the Run Reports tab on the account’s main interface, and can also be exported as a .csv file or printed.

Features, flaws and benefits Being a web-based service, SlimTimer runs on virtually any browser (requires Javascript). This makes is particularly valuable for translators on the go, and for those working on multiple computers. The account interface is clear, with a classic tab menu on top that gives you access to all the features of SlimTimer in just one click. SlimTimer is an uncomplicated tool, but still provides user with a few nice options, such as:  Pause and resume task tracking;  Add tags to tasks to categorise them;  Create targeted reports based on several criteria. Specifically, the Add tags feature is extremely useful to create broader task categories (such as translation, administration, customers, social media, ...). When creating a report, users can filter tasks by tags also, thus providing a clearer overview of how you actually invest your working hours.

SlimTimer - Report generation panel

If you close the pop-up window, the time tracking function stops and you would need to load it again to get it back on track. In such cases, you might lose a few minutes - however, SlimTimer backs up time tracking data every 10 minutes, so you won’t lose that much. Also, it is important to note that if you pause and resume a task, the new session will be tracked separately – still, you will still have an option to totalise all the sessions for a task by using the most suitable filters in the report generation.

Regarding privacy of the data stored, not much information is provided. To keep your customers’ data safe, you can create descriptive task names without including any personal reference (e.g. “EN-IT translation, 856 words”. This will help you identify jobs and tasks without risking a thing. An API tab is also available for the techies out there. On the down side, the Help section only provides a small amount of general information, and e-mail support is available exclusively for paid users. Still, you will probably never need advanced support to use SlimTimer, so this is just a minor glitch. Despite its relative simplicity, SlimTimer is a flexible tool you can use to keep track of time spent on projects or to monitor your overall productivity. Its uncomplicated structure combined with the smart reporting feature make it a good option for translators charging by the hour, and for those who want to see how they perform over time.

Section 3: Terminology Search & Quality Assurance

ApSIC Xbench 2.9 Download ApSIC Xbench 2.9

What is ApSIC Xbench? ApSIC Xbench is a terminology management and quality assurance tool.

System requirements and languages Operating systems supported: Windows (2003/2008/XP/Vista/7/8/8.1). Additional requirements: Microsoft Word (2003 or higher) for support of unclean files originating from MS Word; SDLX for support of *.itd files. ApSIC Xbench 2.9 is available in: English.

Working with ApSIC Xbench, at a glance ApSIC Xbench is CAT-independent terminology and quality assurance tool you can use to check bilingual documents, glossaries, and TMs for inconsistencies and errors. More specifically, with ApSIC Xbench you can:     

Double-check terminology against custom glossaries; Create QA reports (e.g. for a proofreading project); Detect punctuation inconsistencies, and double spacing; Spot and fix inconsistencies in source and target texts; Detect mismatches in numbers, key terms, and more.

ApSIC Xbench - File type selection panel

Amongst its most notable features, the tool supports the creation of project-based or personal checklists, which can be used to keep an eye on common pitfalls in translation, such as the use of undesired terms or expressions, or those sneaky undetectable typos you make from time to time. The overall process of creating a checklist can be confusing at a first glance. Still, checklists can be a powerful QA tool, so getting to know how to use them is highly recommended. To get started:  Click on Tools > Manage checklists. This opens the checklist manager panel;  In the tree structure, select whether the checklist is personal or project based;  Select Checklist > New, and name your new checklist, confirm with OK. The checklist now appears in the tree structure, under the relevant category. To add a new entry, just right-click in the right panel, and select Add. When you’re done adding, click on Apply, and save the checklist. To check your text against the new checklist, click on Check Ongoing Translation.

ASIC Xbench - Menu, toolbar, QA panel

Features, flaws and benefits ApSIC Xbench supports over 35 file formats, thus making it compatible with most if not all computer assisted translation environments. Compared to proprietary software product, ApSIC Xbench provides users with a smaller level of detail in terms of QA checks; still, it is a valuable tool that dramatically reduces the incidence of errors in translation, with the added benefit of enhancing terminology consistency. With regard to quality assurance, ApSIC Xbench provides great results in:     

Omissions; Numerical mismatches; Tags mismatches; Double spaces; Inconsistencies in source and target.

On the down side, the tool doesn’t detect partially translated segments, which need to be searched and edited manually. Also, language-specific punctuation checks need to be handled via checklists to get better results. On a more positive note, ApSIC Xbench is extremely valuable for terminology validation and check purposes. Users can include any number of files, in several formats, as reference material. More notably, references can be prioritised to distinguish amongst different levels of reference reliability, for extra peace of mind. The term search function is very quick and accurate, and even though the tool does not support regular expressions, its power search options would ideally suit most if not all your searching needs. Another notable search-related function is the internet search, where users can define their preferred web links to search for terms and expressions. The tool presents with a small embedded browser, but the search can also be initiated on your preferred browser via a shortcut (Ctrl + W). Finally, the QA report feature of ApSIC Xbench is well-worth mentioning. In fact, the tool generates feature-rich reports showing both the error category (such as numeric mismatch, source same as target, repeated word, etc.) and the segments with errors marked red for extra convenience.

Important note: The review refers to ApSIC Xbench 2.9, which is the last freeware version of the tool. Back in March 2013 the developer released XBench 3.0, which is currently available for purchase at 99.00 €/year. However, the free ApSIC Xbench 2.9 is still available for download on the Xbench website.

IATE Search Widget Check out the IATE widget

What is the IATE search widget? The IATE search widget is a terminology lookup tool, designed to give you quick access to the IATE multilingual terminology database.

System requirements and languages The IATE search widget is an online utility, compatible with all main browsers. The IATE search widget is available in: Bulgarian, Czech, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish.

Working with the IATE search widget, at a glance The IATE widget is designed to provide quick access to IATE (InterActive Terminology for Europe), the cross-institutional terminology database of the European Union. The database covers all official European languages, and searches can be performed to find corresponding terminology in one or more target languages. To perform a basic search, users just need to fill in the Search criteria section of the terminology search interface, then click on Search. This generates a search results page including results for all domains covered by the database, and displaying a preview of the full entry. The preview includes the following information:  Reference domain (e.g. Communications, Labour Market, Energy policy, etc.);  Search item in source language (with link to item details);  Search item in target language (with link to item details);  A link to the full entry;  Reliability ranking for each term;  Context lookup for the term (where available). In most cases, this is more than enough to come up with the correct equivalent for your search item. If more context is needed, the full entry provides a formal definition of the term in all selected languages, and more detailed context information.

Features, flaws and benefits IATE is the amongst the terminology reference sources of choice for EU-specific terminology, and for a large variety of specialised fields, ranging from agriculture to trade. The IATE database includes more than 8 million entries, including terms as well as abbreviations and phrases. Moreover, the database covers all EU official languages, thus greatly enhancing the value of your searches.

IATE - Terminology search interface

What’s great about IATE is that you can search for more than one language at once, thus making it easier to cross-check reliability of the term in the context of choice. Also, the reliability ranking system provides a preview of information and the appropriateness of each term, which is extremely useful when multiple options in one language come up (a.k.a. pretty frequently). Since the basic search can provide you with quite an amount of results, filling in the Optional criteria section of the terminology search interface is quite useful to get more refined results for your search. Here, you can specify a domain for your search, and whether you’re looking for a term or an abbreviation (the standard search will give results for both). On the down side, if you go for a basic search at first, you can’t refine search results afterwards. Finally, frequent users can set their search preferences (in terms of source and target languages) and load them in future sessions. No search customisation option is provided in terms of preferred domains.

OneLook Check out OneLook

What is OneLook? OneLook is a web-based dictionary lookup tool.

System requirements and languages OneLook is an online search engine, compatible with all main browsers. OneLook is available in: English

Working with OneLook, at a glance OneLook is a dictionary search service indexing over 1,000 terminology sources (dictionaries, glossaries, ...). To start searching, you just need to type your query (you can also use wildcards) in the Word, phrase, or pattern box and click on Search. Results are delivered instantly; the results page displays all occurrences found within your chosen criteria. This means that if you set your default search as restricted to dictionaries with English definitions, you will only get those. For extra convenience, results are sorted by dictionary category (e.g. General, Medicine, Technology, etcetera). To view the results, you just need to click on your chosen source, and you will be transferred to the relevant lemma on your preferred online dictionary. To customise your search (e.g. to restrict your search to specific sources, or refine wildcards matches), you can edit your site preferences (Help > Customise the site) and click on the Click here to save your settings link provided at the bottom of the page (requires JavaScript, cookies enabled).

Features, flaws and benefits OneLook is extremely easy to use, fast and reliable. Its search engine indexes 1,061 glossary, dictionaries and terminology sources selected by rigorous inclusion criteria. Monolingual dictionaries indexed include sources with definitions in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Chinese; bilingual and translating dictionaries include other languages and language combinations.

OneLook - Wildcards suggestions

For extra convenience, the FAQ section of the site offers some advanced help for wildcards use. Another interesting feature worth mentioning is the Reverse dictionary function, which lets you type out a concept and search for definitions related to it. Overall, OneLook is a great dictionary lookup tool that can help you solve terminology issues in just a few clicks. The superior versatility of wildcards-enabled search combined with the customisation options make it a great productivity tool to speed up term searches.

TAUS Search Widget Download the TAUS search widget

What is the TAUS search widget? The TAUS search widget is a terminology lookup tool, designed to provide quick access to the TAUS Data translation memory repository.

System requirements and languages Operating systems supported: Windows (2000/XP/Vista/7); Mac OS (10.5.7 or higher); Linux (Debian, Redhat). Requires Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 6: 1.6.0_x or higher. The TAUS search widget is available in: English.

Working with the TAUS search widget, at a glance In order to use the TAUS search widget you need to register to TAUS Data. Registration is free, and the only information required are your complete name, e-mail address, and a password. This will give you access to the free TAUS search widget as well to the data upload and data download features of the TAUS website (paid). Searches on TAUS Data can be performed either via the web interface or via the desktop application, which is very convenient, free, and requires less than 1 MB. To perform a basic search, you just need to type in a search item, select source and target language, then click on Search.

TAUS Search desktop widget - Search form

As TAUS Data is a translation memory repository, results come in the form of source and target segments, like other TM lookup tools such as Linguee or MyMemory, with the searched item in bold in the source language.

Features, flaws and benefits The TAUS search widget is designed to search the TAUS Data database, which currently includes over 22,000 sources, and covers over 50 languages. To refine the basic search, users of the desktop widget can limit the search to a specific industry (with seven macro-areas to choose from), to specific content types, or to a specific TM owner; the web interface also gives you a chance to include or exclude all word forms, and to specify if the search item is a noun, a verb, an adjective (the default setting is Any). Compared to IATE, the TAUS search widget presents with the extra convenience of a desktop application that users can benefit from any time (requires login information). Also, the sourcetarget structure makes sure that context for the searched item is always available, with a mouseover information link providing details about the reference source. Another advantage of the TAUS search widget is that the repository also includes sources referencing very specific topics, thus improving the chances of getting quality results also for jargon and field-specific terminology.

Section 4: Translation Memory Management

LF Aligner Download LF Aligner

What is LF Aligner? LF Aligner is a powerful alignment tool which makes it easy for translators to create translation memories from bilingual files and previously translated documents.

System requirements and languages Operating systems supported: Windows (XP or higher), Linux/Unix, Mac. LF Aligner is available in: English.

Working with LF Aligner, at a glance Using LF Aligner is extremely easy, as the interface is designed to guide the user step-by-step throughout the process. To align files, you just need to:    

Launch LF Aligner to open the wizard; Select the relevant input file type from the options list; Select the number of languages, and the source/language combination; Select the source and target files from your hard drive, and confirm.

After LF Aligner has done its magic, users can choose to accept the sentence segmentation or revert back to the paragraph segmentation; then they can review the aligned file to fix any incorrect pairings. The reviewing step can be either performed using the built-in graphical editor or generating an xls file (which comes with instructions for extra peace of mind). After reviewing the aligned file, users can choose to generate a TMX file to import the translation memory in a CAT tool environment, or just get the tabbed txt for the project.

Features, flaws and benefits LF Aligner provides quick and effective alignment for several file formats (*.txt, *.rtf, *.pdf, *.doc, *.docx, *.html, *.odt, *.tmx). The tool supports simultaneous alignment in up to 100 languages, which makes it suitable for handling large-scale projects for the most sophisticated customers.

Furthermore, the tool supports automatic download and alignment of EU legislation, European Parliament reports, and European commission proposals, thus making it an excellent solution to build large-scale corpora.

LF Aligner - Alignment wizard: selecting TM languages

LF Aligner also lets you align web pages directly from the web (users just need to provide source and target URLs). This feature has proven to be very effective with plain text web pages with fewer graphical features, whilst aligning web pages with strong formatting might need a bit more work when checking the aligned file. Still, even in such cases, this Hunalign-powered tool is more efficient than the good old “copy, paste, sort” process. The installation process is quick and easy, and the tool does not require any additional software to run smoothly. The complete software package also features some additional conversion and filtering tools, which can be used independently at your convenience. The general LF Aligner Readme file includes information on how to prepare input files and use the tool, as well as information about OS compatibility, troubleshooting and more. For further information on the individual features and additional tools provided, users can refer to the relevant readme files provided. Overall, LF Aligner’s superior capabilities rank it amongst the best free alignment tool, and a musthave for translators who want to take full advantage of the possibilities offered by CAT tools.

Notepad++ Download Notepad++

What is Notepad++? Notepad++ is a source code editor and Notepad replacement, perfectly suited to perform TM management routines quickly.

System requirements and languages Operating systems supported: Windows (2000/XP/Vista/7/8). Notepad++ is available in: Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Aranese, Aragonese, Azerbaijani, Basque, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Chinese (simplified), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Extremaduran, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Farsi, Finnish, French, Friulian, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Korean, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Ligurian, Latvia, Malay, Macedonian, Marathi, Nynorsk, Norwegian, Occitan, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Samogitian, Sardinian, Telugu, Turkish, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish (Argentina), Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Tamil, Thai, Ukrainian, Uzbek, Uyghur.

Working with Notepad++, at a glance Notepad++ is a source code editor which was designed for software programmers – still, you won’t need to know about coding and programming to use it for translation memory management purposes. More specifically, Notepad++ is especially useful for its powerful search and replace function, which supports simultaneous search within multiple files. This is extremely helpful in case of last minute changes – in just a few clicks you can replace words and phrases, fix missing tags or edit capitalisation in a single document or even multiple TMs at once. To use Notepad++ to edit your TMs or documents, all you need to do is click on File > Open. Files load very quickly and you can immediately start working on them. The user interface has a clean layout, featuring a menu bar, a toolbar and a write-in edit area. Also, the toolbox features Microsoft Word-style icons, thus making it user-friendly and intuitive even for the non-techies out there.

Features, flaws and benefits Despite not being prominently designed for translators, Notepad++ has shown to be very effective when tasked with projects requiring frequent last-minute changes and updates. Specifically, its superior search capabilities make it a good fit both for quickly editing TMs as well as to spot specific coding errors within a TM. Amongst its most notable features, the tool supports:  Drag ‘n’ drop, also across multiple files;  Syntax highlighting and syntax folding, for easier document search;  Tabbed documents and multi-view, for easier fitting of multiple documents on a single screen;  Search and replace using regular expressions;  Document bookmarking. Notepad++ supports over 50 languages – still, at times specific languages might glitch and would be displayed incorrectly. If this is your case, you can fix the bug by changing the language settings of the file (Language > Define languages). Another smaller but annoying glitch: opening larger files might freeze the programme for a few minutes, or might result in unexpected behaviour of the file during the session. Apart from these known bugs, the tool presents with high compatibility with a variety of programming languages, thus making it fit for virtually any basic translation-related needs.

Notepad++ - Menu and toolbar

For advanced users, the tool also offers an option to record and playback macros (via the dedicated Macro menu), and to add custom plugins (Setting > Import > Import plugin). Notepad++ also offers a large variety of free additional plugins, which are downloadable via the Plugin Central. On this note, I recommend Text FX, which presents with quite a few nice language-specific commands including, amongst others,  Deletion of blank lines;  Capitalisation options;  Trim trail for spaces. If you ever get stuck using Notepad++, user guides are available for download on the Notepad++ Wiki (in English and Russian). There are also dedicated fora in different languages that are open for discussion and general support.

Olifant Download Olifant

What is Olifant? Olifant is an open source translation memory (TM) editor.

System requirements and languages Operating systems supported: Windows (98 or higher). Requires Microsoft .NET Framework v2.0 or higher. Olifant is available in: English.

Working with Olifant, at a glance With Olifant you can create or edit translation memories in *.txt or *.tmx format, thus making the tool compatible with all CAT tools supporting TM export in such file formats. The user interface can look a bit old fashioned, yet it is extremely functional and intuitive. In addition to a classic menu bar and a convenient toolbar, the main window features the edit area (where you can manually edit source and target segments) and the so-called grid, displaying the complete list of entries of the TM you are working on. For extra versatility, users can customise the layout of the main window (View > Layout) as well as colours and fonts for the edit area (File > User preferences > Display). Changes can be made at database level or at translation unit (TU) level, and include:       

Manual addition of new entries; Deletion of duplicated or irrelevant entries; Manual editing of the individual TUs; Deletion of unnecessary tags; TM merging; Search and replace; Change general TM settings.

Olifant - Menu and toolbar

Features, flaws and benefits Olifant is a handy tool you can use to keep your translation memories up-to-date and uncluttered. Searching for duplicated entries and other common errors (such as empty source or target, or segments with identical text in source and target) is not complicated, and the convenient entry flagging systems makes it easy to fix said problems in just a few clicks. Amongst its many valuable features, Olifant has a powerful find and replace function supporting the use of regular expressions. Please note however that the tool only searches from top to bottom, so if you want to search a whole TM you would need to make sure that the cursor on the grid is on entry no. 1 of your TM.

Olifant - Flag entries panel

One rare but notable bug is that sometimes Olifant doesn’t work on computers running a version of .NET Framework higher than 2.0. Even though the project is continuously maintained and updated by the development team, such an inconvenience still occurs from time to time. If this is the case, you might need to downgrade your version of .NET Framework to be able to use Olifant. Apart from such minor glitch, Olifant has proven to be extremely flexible, usable, and reliable. In the test phase, a total of 12 TMs (ranging from 1,754 to 34,987 TUs) were analysed and edited, performing both batch tasks as well as manual editing operations. Results were extremely good, with only one case where changes to the TM weren’t saved as expected, and saving the TM as a new file resulted in massive corruption of the database. Considering the average volume of such TM, and that similar TMs from the same source worked smoothly after that, the error was likely caused by some internal errors in the source file rather than from misbehaviour of the tool itself.

As an added bonus, Olifant comes with a thorough help guide, which also features a few How to tutorials with step-by-step instructions for performing useful tasks such as removing duplicated entries, reversing source and target language in a TM, and more. Overall, Olifant is probably the best translation memory editor you can get for free. Its convenience of use, combined with the completeness of the batch check criteria and the advanced functionalities, makes it a perfect companion for translation looking for a smart TM editor they can use with little to no previous experience.

Section 5: Handy Tools for Everyday Riddles

AutoUnbreak Download AutoUnbreak

What is AutoUnbreak? AutoUnbreak is a utility designed to remove unnecessary breaks within a text.

System requirements and languages Operating systems supported: Windows (98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/7) AutoUnbreak is available in English, French, Spanish.

Working with AutoUnbreak, at a glance AutoUnbreak is designed for one task only. To remove any unwanted line breaks from heavily formatted text, you just need to:      

Copy the text from the original file; Open AutoUnbreak and click on Paste; Click on UnBreak!; Check the result in the main window, and amend if needed; Click on Copy results; Paste the text in a new file.

Once you’re done with this, you can edit the layout of your “new” text as you see fit, and proceed with your translation project.

AutoUnbreak - Sample text "before"

Features, flaws and benefits AutoUnbreak is a very basic tool, but still comes with a few customisation options to make your life easier:  In the merge.set file, you can specify characters that should be merged with previous line (i.e. files that shouldn’t belong to the beginning of a new line);  In the exceptions.set file, you can set exceptions to the merge.set rules to prevent numbered/bulleted lists from being merged, or include any punctuation marks that should result in a line break. To customise these files, you just need to edit them with Windows Notepad or any other plain text editor, and save the file with their original extension.

AutoUnbreak - Sample text "after"

Please note that AutoUnbreak supports a maximum of 65,500 characters per operation. Still, in the test phase (15 different texts, ranging from 584 to 59,047 characters) the tool has proven to be very fast and extremely accurate, with only a quick check and a few amendments needed to bring the text up to the desired formatting. Despite its simplicity, AutoUnbreak can be very useful if you ever get stuck with heavily formatted PDF files as source: by improving the segmentation of the text before translation, users can enhance the overall quality and usability of their translation memories, and increase their chances of finding quality fuzzy matches when working with CAT tools.

ConvertAll Download ConvertAll

What is ConvertAll? ConvertAll is a powerful unit conversion tool supporting over 500 scale units.

System requirements and languages Operating systems supported: Windows (XP/Vista/7/8); Linux (requires specific libraries; please refer to the requirements page on ConvertAll’s website). ConvertAll is available in: French, English, German, Spanish.

Working with ConvertAll, at a glance ConvertAll presents with a clear two-column interface that makes it easy to find and match conversion parameters to get instant results. To run a basic conversion with ConvertAll, you just need to:  Select the source in the From Unit column);  Select the target unit in the To Unit column;  Type in the source value in the source amount field. Units can be either typed in the relevant field (auto-completion is enabled), or selected from the built-in units lists. The conversion operation is instant, and the result is immediately displayed in the relevant box featured in the To Unit column.

ConvertAll – Conversion from Kelvin to Celsius

Features, flaws and benefits ConvertAll combines an extremely intuitive interface with an extensive unit database (over 500 units listed to date), unparalleled calculus speed, and convenience of use. What’s great about ConvertAll is that it provides users with enhanced versatility over similar products and services. Amongst the most notable features, ConvertAll supports:     

conversion for basic mathematical expressions; combination of units (e.g. from km/h to m/s); use of positive and negative exponents; conversion to/from units with non-linear scales (plain numbers only); automatic compatibility check for the selected units.

These features make it especially useful for translators working in the sciences, who might need some extra speed of calculus every now and then, and for those who don’t have a sweet tooth for maths but still need to localise values across different measure systems. For enhanced versatility, amounts to be converted can be enter in either column, as the tool supports two-way conversion. Also, the tool features a smart Unit Finder to search for units, or to filter them by type. As an added bonus, ConvertAll features a great built-in help file (which is also available online) with detailed instructions on how to install, use and customise the tool to taste. On the down side, the user interface customisation options present with a small bug, which might result in poorer readability of the edit windows when selecting a dark/light colour contrast. In fact, changes to the background colour apply to the drop-down lists only, whilst changes to text colour apply to the edit windows as well. Still, it is just a minor glitch that doesn’t compromise the overall usability and effectiveness of ConvertAll, which is by far the best free conversion tool you can find online.

Foxit Reader Download Foxit Reader

What is Foxit Reader? Foxit Reader is a free PDF editor.

System requirements and languages Operating systems supported: Windows (XP or higher). Microsoft Office 2003 or higher is also required for specific PDF creation features. Foxit Reader is available in: Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish. Additionally, community-sourced localisation files are available in Arabic, Bulgarian, Korean, simplified Chinese, Hebrew and Greek amongst others.

Working with Foxit Reader, at a glance Foxit Reader is a feature-rich PDF editor, which is free to use for non-commercial use. With this tool, you can easily create, edit, mark, sign, and share PDF files in just a few clicks, and with the added convenience of an intuitive interface that takes the burden out of more complex programmes offering similar functionalities. To edit an existing PDF file, you just need to select File > Open. Documents load almost instantly and open directly in the work area of the user interface. For added convenience, the tool also has a powerful search function, which can be directly accessed by the search box located in the top right corner of such interface.

Foxit Reader - Ribbon toolbar (Italian)

The user interface is widely customisable: users can choose between Classic mode and Ribbon mode (Help > UI options > Change toolbar mode), as well as adjust their viewing preferences by selecting one of the 5 different colour combination options (Help > UI options > Change interface).

Features, flaws and benefits Foxit Reader provides users with a complete suite to create, edit, sign and share PDF files. Users can choose among a variety of basic and advanced features, and take advantage of the tool as it suits them best. PDF creation features lets users create PDF files from scratch or from Clipboard content, scanned pages or other files. Advanced verification options include creation, management and validation of digital signatures; Foxit Reader also supports integration with existing Docusign accounts.

Foxit Reader - Markups and annotations

The advance editing options make this tool particularly valuable for proofreading and editing projects, as the tools offers a wider set of markup and annotation options over similar products. Additionally, users can also attach files to the PDF document, create hyperlinks or bookmarks, include call-outs or text boxes, add multimedia content to the PDF, and more. PDF documents or smaller portions thereof can be shared via e-mail, Evernote, and Facebook. This is very useful for collaborative projects and for transferring data and contents between different owned accounts. The tool also features a great user manual which covers basic and advanced features and tasks, keyboard shortcuts and other useful tips & tricks. Users can also set automatic update checks to make sure Foxit Reader is always up-to-date and ready when they need it. Finally, Foxit Reader comes with integrated browser and Microsoft Office plugins to integrate the wide range of basic and advanced PDF creation, editing, validation and sharing options in a variety of environments. Free add-ons are also available for download to enhance the functionalities of the tool as needed.

PDF Creator Download PDF Creator

What is PDF Creator? PDF Creator is an open source utility designed to let you create PDF files from any Windows programme that can print.

System requirements and languages Operating systems supported: Windows (2000 or higher). PDF Creator is available in: Bosnian, Catalan, Catalan (Valencia), Chinese, Chinese (simplified), Corsican, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Ligurian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian.

Working with PDF Creator, at a glance PDF Creator is a smart utility you can download and put to work in just over two minutes. Basically, what PDF Creator does is adding an option to create a PDF file from within a browser or Windows programme’s print menu. This makes it easier to save important documents in digital format, which you can later edit, record, or print at your convenience. The tool does not have a user interface per se, but rather adds on to existing Windows printer menus.

PDF Creator - Saving a web page as PDF

Features, flaws and benefits PDF Creator is a very basic utility, and doesn’t offer much more than already mentioned. Still, it does its job pretty well, and compared to similar tools it has proven to be quicker and more accurate. In the test phase, 35 different files were created from different sources, in all the different output format options available. Sources were selecting according to the complexity of the original document layout, ranging from basic text-only documents up to larger documents (40+ pages) including images, tables, graphs, and other visual elements. Results were completely satisfying, both in term of processing time (from just over 30 seconds up to 3 minutes, depending on the overall document volume) and of correspondence of layout. Still, it is common knowledge that smaller glitches may occur in case of documents including larger tables with complex formatting. In such cases, PDF Creator might occasionally “miss” a row on the top or at the bottom of the table, or scramble up table border parameters a bit.

PDF Creator - Metadata panel

One final note: when you install PDF Creator, the installation wizard offers an option to also install PDF Architect, a pay-per-module PDF editor. The free version you get comes with the View module only; however, if you subscribe (free of charge) to the developer’s website and newsletter you can get a free license key for the Create module too. Having reviewed the tool, my opinion is that the free version for PDF Architect doesn’t offer anything you can’t achieve with Foxit Reader which also provides users with the added benefit of enhanced document mark-up functionalities.

PNotes.NET Download PNotes.NET

What is PNotes.Net? PNotes.Net is a desktop post-it note manager.

System requirements and languages Operating systems supported: Windows (XP or higher). Requires NET.Framework 4.0 or higher. PNotes.NET is available in: Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (simplified), Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Turkish.

Working with PNotes.NET, at a glance PNotes.NET is a feature-rich post-it notes editor and manager, which is designed to cater for more than just quick shopping lists. Its comprehensive text editor combined with the powerful search, sorting, interoperability and synchronisation functions make it a natural choice for translators who use notes extensively but don’t need a more structured content management system. The tool doesn’t require much explanation, as both the command menu and the control panel are very intuitive and user-friendly. Still, PNotes.NET presents with some advanced functionalities that are definitely worth mentioning. Most notably, the tool supports:     

scheduling options to set reminders; password protection and data encryption; adding images to notes; backup and cross-device synchronisation; sending notes via e-mail or sharing on social networks.

Features, flaws and benefits Amongst other features, the tool is absolutely portable, so you can run it from any USB flash drive. This makes it easier to bring all of your important notes with you, even when working on multiple computers; also, the tool is perfectly suited for working in teams, as its advanced sharing and sending option allow you to instantly forward notes to colleagues, either via e-mail or social networks.

PNotes.NET - Creating a new note

What I especially like about PNotes.NET is that its feature-rich customisation options can make it as “imposing” or as “transparent” as you see fit. In fact, with PNotes.NET you don’t really need to display all of your post-it notes on your desktop at a given time, as the tool automatically files them under categories you can later browse at your convenience. the tool supports search by tag, search by content string, and more search options that will surely make your life easier. Compared to other notes managers (such as the Essential PIM Free built-in notes editor), PNotes.NET offers more functionalities in terms of search and sorting, and enhanced performance in terms of text editing and notes marking for quick reference checks. Unlike similar solutions, the tool also features a clever backup function, and an excellent user manual with step-by-step instructions for all the different functionalities. For added convenience, PNotes.NET has a built-in spell checker. The default package includes an English dictionary only, but more languages are available and downloadable on-demand in the OpenOffice extensions archive, free of charge.

PNotes.NET - User preferences panel

TransTools Download TransTools

What is TransTools? TransTools is a suite of utilities designed to speed up typical pre-translation and quality assurance operations.

System requirements and languages Operating systems supported: Windows (2000/XP/Vista/7/8). Please refer to the detailed requirements information for the individual modules. TransTools Suite is available in: English.

Working with TransTools, at a glance The TransTools Suite includes specific productivity modules for Microsoft Office components (Word, Excel, Visio) and for Autocad; additionally, the suite features a programme (TransTools Utilities) that allows users to perform common and useful tasks quickly.

TransTools for Microsoft Excel - Menu

Once installed, the individual modules load as add-ons of the relevant programme, so commands can be directly accessed from by the standard programme interface. Tasks are logically sorted in menus providing quick access to the different options, and task operation times are generally short. Each productivity module is designed to speed up typical pre-translation, cleaning, and quality assurance tasks. As an example, the TransTools for Word features, amongst others:  a non-breaking space checker;  the option to hide/unhide parts of text;

 checks for detecting untranslated text;  a conversion tool to create bilingual documents;  an option to search for common mistakes in the translation. Getting to know the individual modules is really uncomplicated, and users can start taking advantage of the suite’s functionalities in no time. The tool has a strong focus on functionality rather than design, so processes are just as straightforward as they could be, with the added bonus of quick reference information within each panel and dialogue window.

Features, flaws and benefits TransTools is a very valuable tool, and a must-have for all translators who want to save time on repetitive tasks whilst improving the accuracy of their translation projects. In fact, the tool brings together a large set of automation options for standard routine operations, thus speeding up and streamlining the overall translation process.

TransTools for Word - Hide/unhide text panel

As an example, the hide/unhide text function allows users to prepare files for translation by excluding whole paragraphs or just a few words from the source text. This is extremely helpful when source documents present with mixed language, or with large portions of text that do not need translation, which would result in cluttering TM segments with source same as target. With this function, unwanted text is “hidden” before translation, thus avoiding the creation of “noise” segments in the TM. The most notable feature of the tool is its superior effectiveness in streamlining pre-translation and document cleaning operations. On the down side, quality assurance options provided by TransTools are quite basic, so integration with more sophisticated checks is recommended.

Image credits

Page 9. Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko in Wall Street (O. Stone, 1987). Page 20. John Hurt, Matt Smith, and David Tennant as the Doctor in Doctor Who (The Day of the Doctor, N. Hurran, 2013). Page 32. Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (S. Spielberg, 1989). Page 42. Keanu Reeves as Johnny Mnemonic in Johnny Mnemonic (R. Longo, 1995). Page 50. Richard Dean Anderson as Angus McGyver in McGyver (Pilot, J. Freedman, 1985).

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