Studio usually does a good job localising source language dates in the correct target format. But sometimes the source text uses an incorrect date format or language variants cause problems. Here’s a quick look at how date auto-substitution should work out of the box, and how to tweak it if it doesn’t. Read more…
What’s the best way to get up to speed in a field outside your comfort zone? Learn from the experts, confer with colleagues and build a good corpus. Last month I had the chance to do all three, thanks to an ITI MedNet workshop on diabetes. This is an account of what I learnt that day and, more importantly, how I learnt it. Read more…
When Kilgray’s Peter Reynolds asked me a couple of months ago if I’d take part in a panel at memoQfest, I was in two minds. Would I feel like a fish out of water among so many memoQ geeks? Peter assured me that they were a friendly crowd, so I decided to give it a go. Read more…
The long and the short of CPD
Nowadays, there’s a huge choice of continuing professional development (CPD) for translators. We have one-hour webinars at one end of the scale, and courses with long hours of study, at the other. One-hour sessions inevitably skim the surface of a subject, but they’re useful for introductory purposes or as a refresher. Longer courses are much richer in content, but keeping up with so many hours of study is challenging. Read more…
When a medical report lands in my inbox I know it’s going to be a challenge. The format might be a scanned PDF or even a photo. It’ll be written in technical jargon, from one doctor to another, teeming with abbreviations, none of which will be glossed. In addition, the potential client may be hiring a translator for the first time ever and will need to be guided through the translation, invoicing and payment workflow. Read more…
Last week I looked at fuzzy matches, Trados grids and how to run an analysis in SDL Trados Studio. This week I’m going to explain how to export the Studio analysis and then create a detailed quote for your project or simply work out a total final price. Read more…
Has an agency ever asked you for your rates and Trados grid? Or your rates for fuzzy matches? If you don’t use a CAT tool, this post isn’t for you. You can’t give a discount for fuzzy matches in Word. If you do use a CAT tool and need to come up with a fuzzy match rate, read on. Read more…
I’d like to share a World Health Organization (WHO) glossary I stumbled across a while back when I was translating an article on infertility. The International Committee for Monitoring Assisted Reproductive Technology (ICMART) and the WHO compiled this Revised Glossary on Assisted Reproductive Technology in 2009, and since then it has been translated into Dutch, Russian and Spanish. Read more…
After reading my Studio 2014 and memoQ side-by-side comparison last year, David Turner (the developer behind CodeZapper and a keen Déjà Vu user) kindly offered to add a column for DVX3. Read more…
I’ve just finished reading Winter in Madrid by C. J. Sansom. It’s not about medical translation or Trados, so I’ll have to label it “uncategorised” in this blog, but elsewhere it could be classified as a thriller, political or historical novel. If you haven’t read it yet, put it on your reading list for 2015. Read more…
Spanish to English medical translator
Signs & Symptoms of Translation 