Switching from science to translation?

Posted on 6 September 2019 by

I often receive emails from aspiring translators who are switching from a career in the fields of science or healthcare and are seeking advice from someone with the same language combination who made a similar change, albeit several decades ago. This blog post is an expanded version of my response, in the hope that it will save me writing similar emails in the future, while reaching a potentially larger group of career switchers. Read more…

Posted in Medical, Spanish-English translation | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

Counting and extracting track changes in Word

Posted on 20 August 2019 by

Two of my favourite Word macros are counting words inserted with track changes and extracting those words to translate them in SDL Trados Studio (or other CAT tool). I mentioned the first macro in a blog post seven years ago when Studio introduced a new feature to show track changes in source segments. The subject cropped up again on Twitter last week and I promised to share the macros in a new blog post. Read more…

Posted in 1. The Basics, SDL Trados Studio | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

BaccS joins forces with SDL

Posted on 3 June 2019 by

Without a doubt, the most valuable resources on my computer are my translation memories and my business accounting system (BaccS), home to an exhaustive record of clients, jobs, invoices and payments. Over a decade of a thriving freelance business in a single database file. Read more…

Posted in SDL Trados Studio, Tools | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

Handling highlighted Excel cells in Studio

Posted on 15 May 2019 by

Last week I had to translate a long medical questionnaire. The source text was a single column in an Excel file and I was instructed to translate cells with an orange fill, which were the questions addressed to the patient. Processing the file in Studio turned out to be slightly trickier than I expected, so I’m sharing my workaround here. Read more…

Posted in 2. Beyond the Basics, SDL Trados Studio | Tagged , , | 13 Comments

MET workshop day in Pisa

Posted on 16 April 2019 by

A quick heads-up about an event I’m attending in June. MET (Mediterranean Editors and Translators)* is organising a workshop day in Pisa, Italy, on Saturday 8 June with two workshops in the morning and two in the afternoon. Read more…

Posted in Conferences | Tagged , ,

Three terms in clinical trial documentation

Posted on 4 March 2019 by

Three terms have recently cropped up when I’ve been revising clinical trial documentation translated from Spanish to English. They’re not complex terms, but they do have standard or generally-accepted translations. Other solutions tend to jar on the ears. Read more…

Posted in Medical, Spanish-English translation, Terminology | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

METM18: a review by Iria del Río

Posted on 2 November 2018 by

Last year I invited two METM attendees – a newbie and a veteran – to write a review of METM17, the 13th Mediterranean Editors & Translators Meeting. This year, I’m delighted to pass the baton to METM18 keynote speaker, Iria del Río, who has kindly agreed to share her experience with us. Over to you, Iria: Read more…

Posted in Conferences, The Periphery | Tagged , ,