Using Spreadsheets For Translation
A friend of mine -not a translator- was accurately commenting about my previous post, that few people really know how to use spreadsheets.
So why should professional translators be savvier than the rest of the population?
Professionals, be they translators or other, do not get much of a say in this. When your client determines that it’s more productive or cost-effective for them to use spreadsheets instead of word processing files for their copy, if you want to retain that client, there isn’t much you can do, but to learn to use a spreadsheet. Hence my surprise, and the post. The good news is that you don’t even have to learn the rich features of the spreadsheet, since you are using the tool to do something that it isn’t even meant for: word processing.
One of the downsides with that policy is that a spreadsheet has none of the comfort of a word processor. When other factors allow it, I export columns and translate them in a word processor, then re-export the translated copy. This is still quicker than applying my translation memory procedures to the original spreadsheet file.
Another major problem I see is that by cutting up copy such as a marketing pitch, into cell-size bits (one or two sentences long), you run the risk of breaking the flow of ideas and end up translating in a very mechanical way, losing sight of the forest (the overall pitch) for the trees (each separate cell). That entails even more post-editing, since you want to adapt your client’s content to the feel of the foreign language and market.
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Tags: spreadsheet, Translation
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:12 pm
I think that this behaviour (not knowing how to use a software product in the right way) applies to all kinds of file formats. I very often get Word documents that are messy, over and over, because clients do not apply styles but change the formatting of single words or sentences. And I am not going to start my rant about presentations. Boy, those can be messy!
What you mention about breaking the flow of ideas while working in spreadsheets, I can only add that this is very often the case for translation memory (or CAT) tools too. I think that Trados and others are highly overrated, and very often they can be a source of mistakes and mistranslations. I wouldn’t therefore blame it all on spreadsheets or other software applications that weren’t designed for a particular purpose.
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June 4th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
I appreciate your comment, and I agree with you completely. But I’m not in the market for fast automated translation. So I leave it to agencies to face their responsibilities in terms of quality control.