Some interesting tools

This weekend, the Colorado Translators Association brought FR>EN translator and translation tools expert Jamie Lucero out from Seattle to present his workshop “Computer Tools and Methods for Great Translation Performance.” It was definitely a day well spent, and I’ve already started applying a few of the tips that Jamie offered. He also clued us in to a variety of useful tools for translators, and I’ll list a few here:

• Werecat, a Word template with two uses: Red Werecat extracts text from PowerPoint to Word and then re-inserts it, and Blue Werecat extracts text from text boxes in Word and then re-inserts it.
• Complete Word Count, a Word add-in that gives a full word count including text boxes, headers, footers, etc.
• Word MVP Macros site, where you can learn about macros, how they can speed up your work, and how to write Word macros for tasks such as changing dates from US to European format, changing the order of first and last name, etc.

Have fun with them!