Errors caused by corrupted MS Office installation - Trados and XBench

Sometimes Trados refuses to convert or clean-up a document, displaying error message 50202 "due to a OCE/COM or file name error".

There is an article on SDL's web site explaining how to work around this error converting .doc documents to .rtf within MS Word, instead.

The suggested solution works; however, this error message may actually indicate that there is something wrong not in Trados, but in MS Word: some registry setting may have become corrupted.

It happened to me yesterday (I suspect that the actual culprit was the disinstallation and re-installation of McAfee), and I was able to solve the problem by using MS Office setup disk and launch a repair install.

Note that a corrupted MS Office installation may be difficult to diagnose: MS Word was apparently working fine, but I was getting errors in Trados (error 50202) and in XBench, where the QA functions refused to analyze certain Ms Word files, displaying an error message which indicated that a class was not registered.

That error message suggested the key to the solution: to uninstal McAfee I had run a special utility to clean up all traces of McAfee from the registry; when I saw that an error pointed to an unregistered class I suspected that maybe more had been removed from the registry than strictly the McAfee stuff.

So I run the repair install, and both errors disappeared (XBench and Trados).

New version of XBench adds QA functionality

ApSIC has recently release a new version of XBench, adding very useful QA functionality to the tool, which was previously used mostly as a search tool for Microsoft Glossaries or other text-based reference materials.

You can find a more detailed review of the new version here (from my Translation Quality blog).

IATE, the successor to Eurodicautom , finally available

IATE, or "Inter Active Terminology for Europe" is finally available, and replaces Eurdicautom, which was no longer maintained while IATE was being made ready for use.

It offers twenty-languages (of course not all terms are available in all languages) and the possibility of saving one's own search preferences.

It permits limited wildcard searches (only the asterisk "*" to indicate any character or multiple characters, and the underscore "_" to indicate any single character: no full RegEx search), and also the possibility to restrict the search to specific domains (such as Agriculture, Business, etc.) and types of search (Term, Abbreviation, Phrase, or All).

There are some more features; you can find a full description in the online help to the database.

All in all a useful addition to most translators' collection of reference links.

Microsoft Glossaries Available Again

Microsoft has now released updated versions of the Microsoft Translation Glossaries.

These are now available through the Microsoft Developer Network for MSDN subscribers (and no longer through the free FTP site), and include the terminology for Microsoft Vista.

(Hat tip to Nick, who left the news as a comment in a previous post devoted to the demise of the MS Glossaries)

Foundations of Translation - Lesson 5

(These are the notes for a course on Foundations of Translation I taught at the University College of the University of Denver. A short description of the course cam be found here).

Translation Quality, Ethics and Final Test

Translation Quality

Translation Quality Control

(Procedures to improve the quality of translation during the translation process)

• Quality of the source language
  
• Instructions
  
• Style guides
  
• Project glossaries
  

Translation Quality Assessment

(Procedures to assess the effectiveness of any QC strategy we adopted)

• Translation quality measurement
  
• TranslationQuality.com
  
• Translation Quality Blog
  

Pitfalls for beginning translators

• Knowling the language is not enough
  
• Undertranslation/Overtranslation
  
  • Undertranslation
    
    • Improper terminology
      
    • Using a style that adheres too closely to the original text
      
    • Ignores idiomatic or cultural usage
      
  • Overtranslation
    
    • Tends to read fluently
      
    • May appear masterful
      
    • Questionable accuracy
      (See "The Translator's Tightrope: Recognizing and Avoiding Overtranslation", by John Rock, ATA Chronicle, June 2006)
      

Translation Ethics

Narrow (traditional) definition

• Unethical to [willfully] distort the meaning of the SL text
  
• What about when this is required by the customer?
  
• What about when he/she is asked to translate something he or she finds offensive?
  
  • e.g. Translation of pornography
    
  • Translation of racist texts
    
• What about if it is for a "good" purpose (e.g., in a trial)?
  

Responsibilities of the translator (discussion)

Sundry

Class exercise: project managing a translation

Suggestion on how to improve one's vocabulary

• JMemorize
  
• Flash cards
  

Test

Provide your own answers to the following questions:

1. What's the difference between translation and interpreting?
   
2. What kind of jobs are open to translators?
   
3. In your opinion, for a professional translator, do language skills count more than subject-matter knowledge, or less? Explain the reasons for your choice.
   
4. Provide a description of a translation workflow, including steps to be performed before the actual translation, and after it.
   
5. What kind of knowledge is important for a translator to have, and why?
   
6. If you were to work as a translation project manager, what steps would you perform in order to ensure that the work you receive is of good quality?
   
7. List a few types of translation errors, and what you would do in order to avoid them in your own work.
   
8. In Lesson 5 we briefly discussed some ethical problems a translator might encounter. Can you think of other ethical or moral problems we may have to tackle as translators? Please, briefly describe them.
   

Course evaluation

Notes from the previous lessons in this course:

Foundations of Translation - Course Description
Foundations of Translation - Lesson 1: Difference between translation and interpreting
Foundations of Translation - Lesson 2: Jobs for translators
Foundations of Translation - Lesson 3: Characteristics of a good translator
Foundations of Translation - Lesson 4: Translation in Practice

Course on Translation for the Pharmaceutical Industry

I've just seen an announcement for this course (La Traduzione di Testi Scientifici per la Ricerca e l’Industria Farmaceutica), which will be held in Milan between March and May of this year.

The teacher is a biologist and free-lance translator, and (from what I could learn from their site), has also taught other translation-related subjects.

SDL/Trados Support Looking Up?

"If you have any comments, please email my manager..."

The back cover of the current ATA Chronicle is a big ad from SDL/Trados, with a letter from Keith Laska, Vice President, SDL TRADOS Technologies, announcing new customer service initiatives:

"This year you'll be able to escalate issues directly to my management team, and to me [...] Why not start now? If you have any comments on our level of customer service, please email me [...]"

I have been unhappy with the quality of Trados, and also with the quality of the support, so I thought I might give it a try, and see if this was just a publicity stunt, or if they actually meant it.

So, on Friday I emailed Keith, with a list of complaints. I was not expecting much, but this morning I received a call from Keith, who wanted to get more details on the issues I had. He also said that I would receive a call from a local "Customer Success Manager", and in fact this morning I was also received a long call from David Noiseux, who asked more questions about the details of the issues I have had with Trados.

It is early to tell if things are really improving, but at least they seem to be moving in the right direction.

Foundations of Translation - Lesson 4

(These are the notes for a course on Foundations of Translation I am teaching at the University College of the University of Denver. I'll be publishing the notes for the various lessons during the next few weeks. A short description of the course can be found here).

Translation in Practice

Translation Process

A - SL writing

B - Translation

1. Read SL Text
   
   • Read to understand
     
   • Identify unknown words/terms
     
2. Research terminology
   
   • Online
     
   • Reference works
     
   • Decide on competing usage (Google as large collection of corpora)
     
3. Write translation
   
   Question yourself
   
   • Am I sure this is the best translation?
     
   • Does this sound right and familiar only because I always translated it like that?
     
   Different techniques
   
   • Use CAT tools
     
   • Write directly in word processor
     
   • Overwrite original
     
   • Write first draft with optional wording, to be self-edited later
     
     Example:
     
     • Write first/rough draft using optional/preliminary/candidate terms/words...
       
4. Self-edit translation
   
   Read your translation
   
   • Does it read like a similar document written by a native speaker of the TL would read?
     If it does not make sense, there is a problem (and "but the original did not make sense, either" or "but I used the same words as the original" are not good excuses)
     
   • If possible, set it aside after the first draft, to look at it with fresh eyes
     
   • Send translation to editor
     

C - Quality Control steps

• Editing
  
  Review translation against SL text
  
  • Errors of meaning
    
  • Errors of form
    
  • Errors of compliance
    
  • Preferential changes
    
  Different methods
  
  • Track changes
    
  • Change translation directly
    
• Proofing
  
  • Review only the TL text (checking the SL
    only if necessary)
    
• Other quality control steps (These take place all during the process, from terminology work onwards)
  
  • Verification that translation is complete (all files translated)
    
  • Other QC steps
    

D - QA

Techniques used in order to assess the effectiveness of QC work

• Translation quality measurement
  
  • Translation Quality Blog
    
  • TranslationQuality.com
    

Technology, tools, reference materials and publications

Hardware

Computer: PC or Mac?

• PC environment much more widespread
  
  • Greater availability of CAT tools
    
  • Easier to meet customers' requirements
    
  • Cheaper computers
    
• Mac preferable when working with graphic designers
  

Desktop or laptop?

• Laptop permits to work anywhere
  
• Desktops
  
  • More powerful
    
  • Cheaper
    
  • More robust
    

Peripherals

• Scanner (Necessary if much work is received as hardcopy)
  
• Printer (Desktop lasers are the most economical choice)
  
• External hard disk (For removable back-ups)
  
• UPS (Uninterruptible power supply)
  

Fast Internet connection

• Essential when working with large files
  
• Useful when surfing the web for research purposes
  

Software

• Normal software tools (Office software)
  
  • MS Office
    
    • Specialized search techniques using wildcards (Regular Expressions)
      
    • Using Excel to create "ad hoc" translation tools for the translation of software strings (especially when there are size limitations and such)
      
    • Using Excel to create translation memories from text glossaries
      
  • Open Office
  • Star Office
    
• CAT (Computer-Aided Translation) tools
  
  • SDL
    
    Trados
    
    • Currently the market leader
      
    • Buggy
      
    • No free "lite" version
      
    SDLX
    
    • "Lite" version available (Works only with projects created by customer)
      
  • Déjà Vu
    
  • Omega T
    
    • Freeware
      
  • Wordfast
    
    • Mostly compatible with Trados
      
    • Cheaper than most other CAT tools
      
    • Works with the Mac
      
  • Transit
    
  • Other translation memory tools
    
• Terminology management tools
  
  • Terminology management tools, such as MultiTerm (SDL)
    
  • Terminology extraction tools
    
    • Various different tools to aid in term extraction and terminology management, including expensive Trados and SDL programs
      
  • Concordancers
    
    • TextSTAT
      
    • aConCorde (Arabic and English concordance software)
      
• Additional software tools
  
  • Localization tools
    
    • Catalyst
      
    • Multilizer
      
    • Other localization tools
      
  • Specialized search tools
    
    • Search and Replace
      
    • Grep
      
    • XBench
      
  • Adobe Acrobat
    
    • Professional (Permits editing, annotating, etc.)
      
    • Reader (Freeware)
      
  • Text editors
    
    • Windows' Note Pad is free
      
    • TextPad
      
    • Ultra Edit
      
  • DTP programs
    
    • Framemaker (Text-intensive documents)
      
    • Quark
      
    • InDesign
      
  • HTML editors
    
    • Front Page
      
    • DreamWeaver
      
    • Etc.
  • Graphic editing tools
    • Photoshop
      
    • Photoshop Elements (Cheaper alternative, permits editing text in Photoshop files)
      
    • Illustrator
      
  • OCR (Optical Character Recognition) tools, such as Omnipage (Useful when one receives documents to translate in hardcopy or pdf, and needs to transform them into editable files)
    
  • Word counting software
    
  • Translation project management tools (e.g., Translation Office 3000
    
  • Clipboard utilities (e.g., ClipMate)
    
  • Screen capture tools (e.g., Gadwin PrintScreen
    
• Google and other online search aids
  
• MT (Machine Translation)
  
  • Babelfish
    
  • Systran
    

Reference materials

• Jost Zetzche's Translator's Tool Box
  
• Dictionaries
  
  • Printed dictionaries
    
  • Dictionaries on CD-ROM
    
    • Differences v. paper dictionaries
      
    • More powerful searches
      
    • WordWeb Pro
      
  • Online dictionaries
    
    • Visual Thesaurus
      
    • Diccionario de la Real Academia
      
• Glossaries
  
  • Do-it-yourself (See above, "Software for terminology management")
    
  • Online glossaries (WARNING: separate the wheat from the chaff!)
    
  • WikiWords
    
• Other reference materials
  
  • Microsoft Terminology Translations
    
  • Wikipedia
    

Assignments for next class

Assignment: read chapters 6 and 7 in "Becoming a Translator", and Chapter 4 of "How To Succeed As A Freelance Translator"

Notes from the previous lessons in this course:

Foundations of Translation - Course Description
Foundations of Translation - Lesson 1: Difference between translation and interpreting
Foundations of Translation - Lesson 2: Jobs for translators
Foundations of Translation - Lesson 3: Characteristics of a good translator

Principles of translation

It is now pretty generally agreed, that translating the writings of the ancients is, if not the sole, at least the plainest, the shortest, and the surest means of becoming well acquainted with them and their language. It is also agreed, that a translation ought exactly to express the original; that it should neither be too free nor to servile; that it should neither deviate into long circumlocutions, which weaken the ideas, nor adhere to strictly to the letter, which debases the sentiment.

(M. Batteux, Principles of Translation, Edimburgh, 1760 - Originally written in French)

This is from a small digitized book you can download for free from Google books.

An advertising company gets it: Hispanic Marketing 101

Killian Advertising, a small advertising company from Chicago, has recently posted on their web site a white paper on marketing for the hispanic marker, Just Translate It? Hispanic Marketing 101.

According to Killian, rule number 1 is:

Advertising intended for Hispanic consumers should be written in Spanish, not translated to Spanish from English

By extension, this is true or advertising in other languages as well.

I believe this is substantially right: although it is possible to provide useful translations for advertising, these translations should only be used as a starting point for a good copywriter to re-create and adapt the campaign for the selected target market.