Due
to Déjà Vu and Windows' limitations, many of us
recommend the use of a Keyboard Macro software. A Keyboard Macro
software allows you to easily type non-English or non-common characters,
or to perform a more complex task using one or a couple of keys,
working pretty much like a shortcut key.
Some
people even recommend the use of programmable keyboards, e.g.
Cherry
or Kinesis keyboards.
Tip
from Lawrence Häcker:
This is far from being a Keyboard macro program, but I made
very good experiences recently with StrokeIt, a free software
for (freely configurable) mouse gestures.
As my last action after translating a segment is to use the
mouse to highlight words and phrases in order to send them to
TDB and Lexicon, I found it disturbing to change back to the
Keyboard to press F10, F11, Shift+F11 or even Ctrl+Down (I know
there are options in the pop up menu, but not for the latter).
Now I have mouse gestures defined for all these options and
find myself more happier than before.
My approach to backup/storage is very comprehensive (or neurotic).
I have 2 hard drives for backup. Today, I would have bought USB
ones; mine are still the "drawer"
type.
I keep one hard drive (e.g., #2) in a safe deposit box and one
(#1) at home. Every night all my work of the day, Déjà
Vu's memories and terminology, accounting data, etc. is copied
to hard drive #1. If you would rather mirror your disk, check
Acronis (Migrateasy) or
Norton
(Ghost).
Every 10 days, I switch hard drives—get # 2 in the bank
to keep it in house for 10 days; get #1 and keep it in the bank.
This means I have everything backed up everyday, but in a worst
case scenario (thieves, fire, etc.) I have everything kept in
my safe deposit box (10 days old at the most).
Additionally, I keep old projects in the backup hard drive, projects
that I have deleted in my working drive. So, it is very easy to
access them all, as they are not zipped and the backup is shared.
Once in a while, when working on very big projects, I switch
hard drives more frequently—the safe deposit box is in a
bank a couple of blocks away. Knowing that everything is safe
gives me a great peace of mind.
I found that burning CDs/DVDs-zipping, unzipping, changing proprieties,
etc. was too much of a hassle, and did not solve the problem appropriately.
Today, other than going to the bank, everything is done automatically
and everything is always access-ready.
I have found a very good tool to rename many
files at once. It allows you to see the name of the files before
changing them and it is very flexible (e.g.: autonumbers, changes
extension, inserts text before or after the name, replaces text,
changes case, etc.).
Interesting. I do similar things with PowerPro.
But with a "macro key". My "macro key" is
the semicolon. Everything after
the semicolon is parsed and checked against the list of macros.
For example:
;m2 becomes <my secondary e-mail address>
;sig becomes the signature I use in my Web-based posts.
I had to be careful to type these ";xyz" characters
out of order here, because they are triggered instantly if typed
in the right order.
It's very good because:
- I don't need the mouse to click anything.
- The macro names are very mnemonic.
- The macros can not only type text, but also send any sequence
of key strokes to the current application. That includes
commands buried under several menus.
- Actually, they can run ANY command instead of just sending key
strokes. How about that?
Boy, I PINE for something like that in Linux. :-(
I also made a very simple 10-clipboard script inspired by a program
I used a very long time ago, aptly called "ten clipboards".
Eh, it's still around! http://ansis.folklora.lv/tenclip/
So, in my script, Win+1 copies selected text to the 1st slot.
Win+2 copies selected text to the 2nd slot. Shift+Win+1 pastes
whatever is stored in the 1st slot. Shift+Win+2 pastes whatever
is stored in the 2nd slot.
I wonder how the rest of the world lives without these things.
Nevertheless, the most reliable way to transfer
files I have found is an FTP site. To set up an FTP site in your
computer, you need an FTP server. Cerberus
is an FTP server that is pretty easy to setup. For security reasons,
I run Cerberus just when we need to transfer files. Once you are
running it, all you have to do is to give your IP address to the
other party.
For the other party to access your FTP site using Internet Explorer
as a client:
- They have to type the address ftp://<yourIPaddress>
- IE will show an error message. Go to File > Login As...
and type the correct Username and Password.
If using Firefox, please install FireFTP.
Close Firefox and open it again.
- Go to Tools > FireFTP and type the appropriate info
(FTP address, username and password).
And of course, you can use Skype.
Skype is a VoIP software that allows you to call/chat to any
other Skype member for free. Additionally, while in the call/chat
you can tranfer files. The sound quality of its calls is impressive.
Cannot delete file: Access is denied
There has been a sharing violation.
The source or destination file may be in use.
The file is in use by another program or user.
Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the
file is not currently in use.
2. Extract the website to your HD.
This may not give you everything (e.g. dynamically created database
content, text in graphics, files not downloaded due to system
quirk etc.), but it may give you more than the client bargained
for. Rule of thumb: if the client
says it's only a small website, it probably consists of 200-300
files.
3. Import into DV3 or DVX and do the word count. Base your estimate
on this (rounded up rather than down), but with a note to say
that this is not the
end of the road (i.e. what it includes and what may not be included).
A couple of times this has produced an estimate which was far
more than the client wanted or needed (in one case it would have
kept me in caviar for
more than a year!!!!).
Note that the word count may well include the "meta tags" which
are not visible on the screen but are used for indexing by Google
and Co. Probably they are identical in every single HTML file
(check the "duplicates" in
the
DV count). If the client is being reasonable, you may want to
adjust your
estimate downwards to allow for this.
(If you use PractiCount you can count the website with and without
these tags and compare notes. Probably most word count programs
allow this.)
4. Client screams "Are you joking?"
5. You calmly return to square one ("Send me what you want
translating").
6. Client screams at webmaster that some action is needed.
7a. Webmaster finally agrees to arise from backside and produce
a reasonable portfolio of source files (and save it to CD or
zip file).
7b. Client/webmaster say "Stuff the translation, we don't
need it after
all", and you have one thing less to worry about.
7c. Client finds a novice translator who will undercut you by
a long way and
do the job on the cheap (but eventually be hopelessly out of
his/her depth,
so that the project eventually comes a cropper, but that is no
longer your problem).
Note on file formats:
The stuff you download with HTTrack will consist of many file
formats. A few examples that you may come across:
.html or .htm - the main website texts. The easiest way to handle
them is
with your favourite CAT tool (my favourite is DVX)
.jpg, .gif, .tif, .bmp - graphic formats. Most of these contain
no text.
Where they do contain text (e.g. buttons), you will probably
have to copy
type it and then translate it from there. My favourite format
for this is a
Word table (source text on the left, target text on the right).
The client's
webmaster or artist will need to convert this into the graphic
format.
.css - format information, not for translation. If the translated
files have
the wrong appearance, try putting the .css files in the same
place in your
directory that they were in in the original.
Other web formats (mostly they import well into DVX)
Files in Word, Excel or PowerPoint: Check whether the client
really wants them; if so, process them as normal.
PDF: Check whether the client wants them. You will need to extract
the text to an editable format (e.g. Word) before
processing them.
If the website has a mixture of file formats (which it usually
does), it is
an ideal candidate for DVX, which can import the whole directory
tree and
all editable files into a single project.
ADDITIONALY:
Pablo Bouvier
WebBudget allows
to download a whole site too, but
maps it instead to translate the links. This allows to translate
the
site and to take a 'realistic word count.'
After having looked more or less carefully at many of the compare
programs below,
and having used DeltaView PE from Workshare for 14 days (trial),
I decided that
it was worth $239.00 for me to be able to make comparisons between
Word files in
a non-side-by-side layout with a program that also compares withint
tables
without a hickup.
A disk image software builds an image (snapshot) of everything
you have in a disk. The image can be saved in another HD, CD, DVD,
etc.
The image contains your OS, applications, and data. As I keep my
data in a different drive, my image contains the OS and applications.
When you have a problem with your OS, all you have to do is to
retrieve your image... and not reinstall your OS and every application
again.
You should build an image when your OS is running
fine, and then update it once in a while to reflect new software
installed, etc.
If you know how to deal with Linux, you can use: Partimage;
System Rescue
CD (contains Partimage) -- Linux applications are generally
free.
There are many applications to convert PDF files into something
more palatable, that is, editable—e.g.—Word, Excel, etc. Results
are mixed, and many times unexpected. They are not free.
This is not a big deal, as Adobe offers a free Acrobat to read
PDF files, but it is nice to have some alternatives, e.g.,
if you have trouble installing Adobe's. Do not expect a full-featured
software, but a small and agile tool quickly view a PDF file.