Statistics One: A half-way report

Posted on 26 September 2012 by Emma Goldsmith

Having completed the first half of the Statistics One course, here is an interim report on how I’m getting on. As I mentioned in my post about Statistics for Translators, this is a free, 6-week, on-line course organised by Coursera, a company that partners with universities to offer MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). Read more…

Posted in Medical | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Writing in the Sciences

Posted on 24 September 2012 by Emma Goldsmith

This is a quick post to mention that a new course starts today at Coursera, called Writing in the Sciences. It’s a free, 8-week, online course designed for scientists, but I’m hoping that it will benefit medical translators too.  Read more…

Posted in Medical | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

SDL Trados Studio 2011 SP2: Updated release

Posted on 19 September 2012 by Emma Goldsmith

SDL has just released an update to Studio 2011 SP2. There are several features worth mentioning and a couple of things to be aware of.

Replace function using regular expressions Read more…

Posted in 2. Beyond the Basics, SDL Trados Studio | Tagged , , , , , , | 23 Comments

Zoom, font and display issues in SDL Trados Studio 2011/2014

Posted on 13 September 2012 by Emma Goldsmith

zoom in Trados StudioOne feature that translators look for in SDL Trados Studio is the zoom button. You’re probably used to zooming in and out of Word documents and browsers using Ctrl+Scroll (mouse wheel) or by nipping down to the percentage bar at the bottom of your screen to adjust the zoom level  there, but neither of these methods work in Studio. Read more…

Posted in 1. The Basics, SDL Trados Studio | Tagged , , , , , , , | 29 Comments

Statistics for translators: some resources and a free online course

Posted on 30 August 2012 by Emma Goldsmith

If you’re a medical translator, you’ll be used to coping with subject matter that falls outside the medical field itself. You have to speak some legalese for clinical trial agreements and protocol approvals, write creative marketing copy when a product is advertised on a website, and have a good grip on maths when translating statistical analyses in clinical trial reports. Read more…

Posted in Medical, Terminology | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Spanish – English medical dictionaries: 4 of my favourites

Posted on 16 August 2012 by Emma Goldsmith

dictionariesIn this post I’m going to talk about four medical dictionaries that I use in my daily work.  With the wealth of resources available online you may wonder why I use these cumbersome tomes. Weighing a grand total of just over 12 kg, they don’t just come in handy as bookends. These dictionaries have advantages that are hard to come by when researching terms online.

Read more…

Posted in Book reviews, Medical, Spanish-English translation, Terminology | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Track changes in SDL Trados Studio 2011 SP2: good news for medical translators

Posted on 3 August 2012 by Emma Goldsmith

One of the new features of SDL Trados Studio 2011 SP2 that I mentioned in my previous post is the option to show track changes in source segments.

Is this going to be a useful option or is it just a gimmick? Well, as a medical translator, I’m actually quite excited about it. Read more…

Posted in 2. Beyond the Basics, Regulatory, SDL Trados Studio | Tagged , , , , , | 21 Comments

New features in SDL Trados Studio 2011 SP2

Posted on 18 July 2012 by Emma Goldsmith

Studio 2011 SP2 has just been launched. It has some HUGE NEW FEATURES, a good handful of user enhancements and some bug fixes too. I’ve been beta testing it for the last few months and thought it would be worth highlighting some of the features that I’m really enjoying: Read more…

Posted in 2. Beyond the Basics, SDL Trados Studio | Tagged , , , , , | 12 Comments

EU languages in medical translation

Posted on 25 June 2012 by Emma Goldsmith

If, like me, you’re a medical translator who has two European languages as your working pair, you’ll no doubt be familiar with the constant stream of work that comes from the EU pharma regulatory field. In fact, right now you’re probably snowed under, because there is a pressing deadline. By law*, Marketing Authorisation Holders have until 2 July 2012 to submit electronic information on all their medicinal products for human use authorised in the European Union. According to 2011 figures, we’re talking about a total of 263,444 medicinal products authorised in the different Member States. Read more…

Posted in Medical, Regulatory | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

How to get rid of a tag soup in Trados Studio.

Posted on 15 June 2012 by Emma Goldsmith

If you read CAT tool forums at ProZ, Translators Café, Yahoo Groups and elsewhere, you will have noticed that questions about rogue or junk tags come up most weeks. Of course, if you’ve just opened a file in Studio and are faced with a plague of tags in each segment – even interspersed between characters – you may not have the patience to take a deep breath and search for the answer. A new desperate plea for help is sent out. Read more…

Posted in 1. The Basics, SDL Trados Studio | Tagged , , , | 30 Comments