Italian dictionaries online

I first wrote about the Italian bilingual and monolingual dictionaries available online some five years ago. Since, however, such links are liable to change, with old sites disappearing and new ones taking their place, here is an up to date list of sites that offer English-Italian, Italian monolingual, and other Italian bilingual dictionaries:

• Picchi's English-Italian dictionary (published by Hoepli) is available for free from La Repubblica website: Dizionari - La Repubblica. The same site also offers the Grande Dizionario di Italiano Hoepli.
• The current incarnation of the excellent Sansoni English-Italian dictionary (published by Rizzoli) is available online at the Corriere della Sera website: Dizionari e Traduttori - Corriere della Sera. The same web page also offers several other Italian monolingual dictionaries and Italian-Spanish, Italian-French and Italian-German bilingual dictionaries.
• The venerable Hazon English-Italian dictionary is available from the Garzanti website: Garzanti Linguistica, where you can also find Garzanti's Italian monolingual dictionary and an Italian-French bilingual dictionary.
• The English-Italian bilingual dictionary I'm currently using most often is Ragazzini's. You can subscribe to it on Zanichelli's site (Dizionari online Zanichelli). From the same site you can subscribe to several other dictionaries, including Zingarelli (Italian monolingual), Tommaseo (a historic Italian monolingual dictionary), several different specialized English-Italian bilingual dictionaries, and other bilingual dictionaries including Italian-Spanish, Italian-French, Italian-German, Italian-Russian and Italian-Albanian.
• Oxford-Paravia Concise English-Italian dictionary is available from the Oxford-Paravia website.
• WordReference.com offers access to two different English-Italian dictionaries: its own and Collins'.
• The eLexico.com website offers a wide range of bilingual and monolingual dictionaries, either via online subscriptions (generally more expensive than those available from Zanichelli), downloadable installable dictionaries, or both things combined. Among the dictionaries downloadable from eLexico.com are Picchi, Sansoni, the excellent Italian monolingual Devoto-Oli, and many others.
• Lexicool.com lets the user search many different dictionaries. You can find Italian-English bilingual dictionaries, as well as Italian and English monolingual resources (Thanks to Carlotta for the suggestion)
• The Treccani website offers access to the Enciclopedia italiana online, to the Italian language Vocabolario, and to a good Italian synonyms dictionary  (Thanks to Licia for the suggestion)

Update

I've added links to the Lexicool and Treccani sites, thanks to suggestions by Carlotta Saconney and Licia Corbolante.

Quick tip: how to avoid the "Attempted to read or write protected memory" error in Studio

Some time a file (usually an MS Word file) causes Studio to display the following error message:

Sometimes, Studio, instead of displaying the error (or in addition to it), shows garbage characters in the Editor:

According to the SDL knowledge base, this is likely due with problems displaying certain specific fonts (and, indeed, this source file did use some unusual fonts).

If this is the reason for the error (I believe it might appear in other instances), the way to overcome it, is to prevent studio to try to display formatting. You do this by going to the Options ( Tools > Options), and change the "Formatting display style" from "Show all formatting and tags"

To "Show all tags but do not show formatting":

When you return to the Editor you'll see that the text now displays correctly:

Warning: the lowest price may actually harm you

Just read this in a translation company's blog:

The quoting of a project is as important as the process in which the work is actually done. Quoting at the lowest price, for example, will attract clients and provides greater sales possibilities.

I find this simplistic, self-serving and misleading. Yes, other things being equal a customer will choose the lower bid.

Things are seldom equal, however, and customers might actually value other things more than saving the last few pennies. They might, for example, value the better quality provided by a better (and more expensive) translator.

But never fear: that same translation company assures us that

At [XX] Translations, we provide our client with the most competitive pricing and the highest quality in the industry.

I could believe they sell at the lowest price (though that would be difficult to prove, with the translation market as fragmented as it is); or maybe I could believe that they are able to offer the best quality (again, a difficult proposition to prove). That they can provide the lowest prices AND the best quality, both at the same time? Sorry: no, I cannot believe that.

The problem with certain agencies is that they seem so terrified by their competitors, that they try everything to lower their prices. But at what heavy cost! this way they are more likely to lose their best translators, and remain with the worst, thus decreasing the quality they can actually offer (no matter what they boast). And the more they are unable to compete on quality, the more they have to compete on price, in a downward spiral that, I believe, will doom many formerly good and viable translation companies.

Unfortunately, in their fall they are probably going to damage many translators, and many unsuspecting clients who believed exaggerated claims of good quality from companies that are no longer able to sustain them.

Quick tip: how to make text easier to read in Studio

Sometimes when you work in Studio, the color of the text makes it either difficult or even impossible to read...

There is a simple solution: from the Editor, select Options, then Editor, and then Font Adaptarion:

Adjust the Text color contrast slider, if necessary, all the way to the right:

The result is much easier to read:

And bear in mind that changing how the text is displayed in Studio won't affect how it appears in your translation.

New book: "Role of Translation in Nation Building"

Ravi Kumar, president of the Indian Translators Association, and editor of a new book on translation, has just sent me the following announcement about an interesting new book: "Role of Translation in Nation Building".

The book has been jointly published by Modlingua and the Indian Translators Association.

The book talks about how translators have always played a pivotal role in social and cultural change in society and how they continue to play a major role in dissemination of the ever expanding knowledge and information available today. In this globalized world the demand for translation and language related services has increased many times and that translation is not only needed for the creation of national identity but it has also become an essential tool for keeping pace with the processes of globalization and localization. Many times we take for granted the translator's crucial role at the (intra) national level and we are less aware of their equally pivotal place as mediators at the international level and, potentially, in the creation of the even larger and comprehensive global supra national identities which seem destined to follow in the future.

The book also covers how translation has played crucial role in shaping up nations not only in Indian/Asian context but also in the context of Europe, Canada, Africa, Australia and Arab world. Hence, in a way, the extent/range of thoughts/issues discussed in the book, encompass the entire globe. The book is also an attempt to find answers to issues like:

• What role has translation played in Nation Building in the Indian as well as global context?
• How easy or difficult is it to view Translation and Nation Building as a well-gelling couple?
• Did translation play a role in Turkish modernism movements and its accession to European Union?
• What about Translation and Nation Building in the African, Arabian and Australian contexts?
• Do national conflicts and language politics actually impact literary works and translations?
• How can media play an effective part in bringing social changes by means of translations?
• How has translation impacted the discourse on nationalism and globalization in the Arab World?

The book can be utilized as a guiding base/reference tool/textbook by:

• Students of language learning and its theory; translation studies; literature.
• Research scholars working in areas related to translation, nationalism, globalization, international studies, etc.
• Professors, teachers involved in teaching the above mentioned subjects/topics.

Digital as well as Printed version available at Modlingua, K-5B, Lower Ground Floor, Kalkaji, New Delhi -110019
SMS: +91-8287636881 E-mail: sales@modlingua.com

ISBN Printed Version: 978-81-926798-0-8; ISBN Digital Version: 978-81-926798-1-5. Price within India INR 395, outside India US $ 24.95. Payment option available through Paypal. Contact:
Modlingua Learning
K-5B, Lower Ground Floor
Kalkaji, New Delhi -110019
Web: www.modlingua.comSMS: +91-8287636881 Skype: ravikumar.net
Facebook Link: https://www.facebook.com/modlingua

Unfair business practices

I received an e-mail asking me to join a new phone-interpreting service. Phone interpreting is not a service I would normally consider, but I went to the site, just to have a look. Then I read their "general terms and conditions", and found these two egregious conditions:

5.1 Translin will invoice and make all commercially reasonable efforts to collect payment from the Client. At the end of each month, the Interpreter will receive an e-mail listing the work for that month and the amount that can be invoiced. The Interpreter is responsible for invoicing Translin. Translin applies a 14 Business Day payment term after receipt of invoice.
5.2 In the event that the Client has complained about the quality of the service provided by you, Translin has the right to reduce or cancel payment to the Interpreter if and to the extent Translin in its sole discretion considers the Client’s complaint to have merit. 

Now, "will invoice and make all commercially reasonable efforts to collect payment from the Client" sure seems to imply that if they do not collect from their Client, you are out of luck, and you won't be able to invoice Translin.
Worse yet, they can always decide to dock your pay or not to pay you at all if they decide their client's complaint is justified... and they get to decide that at their "sole discretion".

My advice: stay away from this service.

Bottom line: always read the fine print, and don't be afraid to reject conditions it they are not fair.

Xbench 3.0 – Making good on my promise

Well before ApSIC announced the pro version of Xbench – when the program was still just freeware – I said (and wrote) several times that I would be ready to pay for the program whenever ApSIC decided to turn it into a commercial product.

I've just made good on my promise by pre-paying for two subscriptions to Xbench.

If you are interested in Xbench, and want to obtain it at a steep discount, tomorrow is the last day you can get it at the special € 19 early pre-release rate.

After January 10, you'll still be able pre-pay the subscription at a (decreasing) discount:

• €19/year until January 10
• €39/year until January 17
• €59/year until January 24
• €79/year until BETA officially ends
• €99/year after the official release of the program.

So, if you find Xbench useful (I find it indispensable) it's a good idea to prepay for it while it is offered at a reduced price. To download Xbench, and to pre-pay the subscriptions, go to www.Xbench.net.

Xbench 3.0 – Now in public beta with some major new features

ApSIC have announced today the public beta of Xbench, their terminology management and translation QA program.

I’ll write a review of the new version of Xbench after working with it for a while, but there are some major improvements that should please many translators:

• Full unicode support
• Separate 32-bit and 64-bit versions
• Support of MemoQ 6 XLIFF files
• Support of Wordfast 3.1 Pro
• Integration of the spell checkers in the program itself (you no longer need to download and install the dictionaries separately). 

The QA functions are also improved, with two new tests that will certainly interest those of us who often translate software: checks for CamelCase and for ALL UPPERCASE string mismatches.

Unlike most other beta programs, Xbench 3.0 comes with good documentation: an excellent help system and a new 70-page manual.

You can read about all the new and improved features in ApSIC's blog, but if you want an introduction to Xbench, see my old presentation: it is no longer up to date, now that 3.0 is out, but should give you a good idea about what this program can do to help your translations.

A big change is that version 3.0, when it is finally released, will be available through a paid subscription; those who pre-order before the end of the beta period will enjoy a discount  (up to 80% if you subscribe by December 27, less so if you wait). Version 2.9, however, will remain free and will still be available for download. I believe that charging for the program will be good for the translation community: the program's priorities will no longer depend on ApSIC's internal use only, so they should match even more closely the needs of other translators.

To download the public beta you can go to xbench.net (if you are in a hurry, the link for the download is here). If you want to pre-order a subscription to take advantage of the discounts (and I strongly recommend you do so), the link is here.

Update

There was some confusion about the pricing scheme for Xbench licenses - ApSIC have now clarified things in a new post on their own blog.

750 Words - A simple but surprisingly good idea to get you in the habit of writing

There is plenty of advice given to writers - but most of it boils down to "get in the habit of writing - and the best way to do so, is by writing every single day". For some, this may be easy, for others not so much: there are too many distractions, and sometimes (make it often) we may not feel like writing. In fact, I believe most of us are always ready with some excuse not to.

Enter 750words.com, a simple site that encourages you to write every day: not for publication (what you write remains private - this is not a blogging platform), but to get you in the habit of writing something (at least 750 words, in fact) every single day. The site encourages you in a number of ways, most of which may appear cheesy: the badge of an egg when you start out becomes a turkey after three days in which you have achieved your 750 words goal, and on to a penguin (five days), a flamingo (ten), and so on. There are badges for continuous days of writing without distraction (doing the 750 words without an interruption), badges for continuous days of writing fast (750 words within 20 minutes) - badges for night owls (sorry, for "night bats" according to the site), and for morning roosters for those who complete their writing either late at night or very early in the morning.

If all this seems silly, it most certainly is... but it also works, at least for some of us: it provides that little extra encouragement to write every day, and make a habit of it.

Since you know your writing is private, you don't get stressed out by the pressure of producing well-finished prose, and since each day's writing is no longer editable after the end of the day, you are encouraged to go on and write something new, instead of fiddling with your previous output. (Even if your writing is no longer editable on the site, however, it does not disappear, and you can always download it for later use elsewhere).

You can use the site for different purposes: to write morning pages and to freewrite are two obvious examples, but I find it also works to help you write the first draft of something you may then post in your blog or publish elsewhere (this post, in fact, was started as a draft in 750words.com).

The site is free (although if you find it useful donations are welcome), and very simple to use. Try it: you may like it and find it helps you develop the habit of writing every day.

Trados Studio Manual - now with its own blog and Facebook page

I mentioned before that there is now a Trados Studio manual, available for purchase from SDL's Open Exchange. I've not as yet reviewed the manual thoroughly, but I've used it for reference several times already, and I highly recommend it: it's useful, well organized and well written - a far cry from the mess that is SDL's own documentation. Now that  Mats Linder has written two editions of the Studio manual (one for Studio 2009, one for 2011), and that he has updated them to also cover the latest SDL's upgrades (including Stdio 2001 SP2) I urge him to write a good manual for MultiTerm - the need there is even more pressing, considering how badly the MultiTerm help system is written.

Mats has recently also launched a blog dedicated to the manual and a Facebook page where he links to useful sites and blog entries by other knowledgeable people, with the purpose to give practical tips on translation matters.

I recommend both the blog and the Facebook page - they are certain to be useful to SDL Trados studio users.