TRANSLATION TOOLS

 MultiTerm

Tools

I don't like the way you have to add terms to MultiTerm database, so I've written a macro which you can use for adding terms "on the fly", i.e. while working, to a file which is in MTW-compatible format, which can easily be imported to existing MTW database. OTOH, you can use this solution without MTW, as a "poor man's" version of MultiTerm. :-)

New! There's a new version of MT97 macro: MT97new.zip - improved, now also handles RTF files.

That means that this solution can also be used as a handy glossary while working in Word (Word95 or Word97 version can be downloaded).

There's also a new addition - a CSV to TXT converter, done in VB (so it has a nice graphic interface), courtesy of Olaf Boldt!
From the documentation:
CSV2TXT is a very simple program, which lets you convert CSV files with up to 20 entries into a MultiTerm-style text file suitable for import into a MultiTerm database.

Alignment

Tools

There's a little-known solution for alignment, which costs only a fraction of the price of Trados' WinAlign or Atril's DejaVu - it's called WordSmith Tools, and does the task of aligning wonderfully! Current price is approx. GBP 52!
In the meantime, other free tools have appeared (don't know exactly about DejaVu aligner, but Cypresoft offers their aligner for free.

I also have a small Perl script which prepares the WSmith aligned file for import into Trados Workbench, adding the necessary formatting.

Spell.pl is a script that can be used either as (poor) spellchecker, or (more interesting) for pre-processing new texts for translation and for extracting "unknown" words. You'll also need a "dictionary" (in simple ASCII format) for the language you use. It's rather crude, but might be of use. You can download it - it's only about 3 KB.

See my Perl scripts download section.

I'm currently working on a stand-alone version of freeware glossary/terminology software, which runs directly from Word97, and uses VBA for accessing directly a *.MDB (MS Access) database. The "bare bones" version works like a charm! You can download it and try it out. It's called GlossDict (see below, Download section). It's free, and you can modify the VBA code anyway you like!

Warning: You'll need to tweak it a bit, so a basic knowledge of editing VBA macros in Word97 is required.

Workbench too slow?
- Turn off "Term Recognition" under "Options"!

You can always try to find an aswer to your problem, or share a solution or a tip on Trados Workbench users list.

MultiTerm macros:

for Word 95 (approx. 4 KB) or
for Word 97 (approx. 4 KB) (older version, not recommended)
NEW version for Word 97 (approx. 6 KB)

New addition: CSV to TXT converter (approx. 230 KB)

GlossDict for

Word97

Yeah, I know it's a silly name, and I'll welcome any better suggestion. :-)

GlossDict for Word 97 (approx. 90 KB)

PERL v.5 and

Perl scripts

Perl is a very powerful programming language, and it's completely free. You can find more info on Perl here: The Perl Institute
For most of my scripts to work, you can download a small (approx. 410 KB) and compact version of Perl 5.003 from my site, here. Of course, if you already have another version of Perl on your computer, you won't need this one (it's a bit outdated, but gets the job done, anyway). In order to use Perl, you have to put both binaries (EXEs) into a directory which is in your PATH (Windows directory is a good choice :-). Perl scripts are invoked either by double-clicking the *.pl script, after you've associated the *.pl extension with perl.exe, or by typing (e.g. in the DOS box, provided you're in the directory where the script resides):

    perl script_name.pl

However, I would recommend getting a full-fledged Perl distribution for Windows. You'll find it on this site: ActiveState's Web: Download Area.

And here are the scripts. Open them in any editor (Notepad will do), and see the comments to find out what each one does. Spell.pl comes in separate package.
You'll probably need to modify them slightly, by changing the language designations, etc.
New! wlist.pl is a script which lists all words in a TXT (or other readable) file, and outputs them either by frequency or alphabetically. Nice to get a frequency list from a large file :-)