2012-07-27

A plus for translator productivity!

The PlusToyz by German/English to Ukrainian/Russian translator Arkady Vyosotsky are named only half right. They are definitely a plus, but they are not toys.


On a single page in a Microsoft Word document, Arkady has given us thirteen great macros to improve translator productivity. Each macro is activated by double-clicking the relevant blue text and selecting the file to process in the dialog that appears. Personally, I find the format conversion macros most useful.

The first two enable uncleaned bilingual files in the classic Trados format (also WordFast Classic and Anaphraseus) to be reformatted as a table for easier proofreading, then switched back. The second macro - the one for converting tables in Microsoft Word to the classic Trados uncleaned bilingual format - can also be used as a basis for moving tabular data of many kinds into other translation tools for editing or translation or feeding to a translation memory.

Users of leading edge translation environment tools might not need the macros for handling Star Transit projects or Trados TTX (though users of simpler systems often do), but nonetheless gaps in the functionality of high-end tools like SDL Trados Studio or memoQ still make some of these macros very, very useful in certain situations.

So much value for so little money... well, no money to be more precise. The macros are free! Usually I say you get what you pay for, but in this case, there's a lot more to be had. Thank you, Arkady!

The macros can be downloaded here in a zipped Microsoft Word document.