This is post #4 in my ongoing series of questions from the webinar on "Getting Started as a Freelance Translator" that I presented for the American Translators Association in December. A participant asks: For a translator who doesn't use CAT tools, what is the average turnaround/output in words per … [Read more...] about Webinar question: how many words per day?
Technology
Why you need good web hosting: a cautionary tale
This post could also be titled "Making web hosting easy versus making web hosting cheap" (to follow up on a previous post) and it's mainly intended to express my undying gratitude to the people at Front Range Internet (FRII). Ever since I launched my new professional website about a month ago, I've … [Read more...] about Why you need good web hosting: a cautionary tale
Why netbooks are better than smartphones
Back in the summer of 2009, I wrote about my decision to purchase a netbook. Over a year later, my Asus Eee is still going strong and I still love it. I paid around $300 via Newegg and I haven't had any software or hardware problems with my netbook despite some heavy use. And it's really, really … [Read more...] about Why netbooks are better than smartphones
The drawbacks of translation memory tools
This summer, I've had a number of conversations with fellow freelance translators about some of the negative aspects of translation memory tools (CAT tools, TenTs, you know what I mean!). While I use and enjoy OmegaT and Wordfast, I agree that TM tools are not right for every translator or for every … [Read more...] about The drawbacks of translation memory tools
Tech tip: wrapping text around a table in OpenOffice
This is a small tip but it really helped me on a recent project. Normally, OpenOffice Writer doesn't allow you to wrap text around a table. So if you have a table on the left side of the page and text on the right side, it ends up looking like this: This can be a problem when you're translating … [Read more...] about Tech tip: wrapping text around a table in OpenOffice