Top Essential Translation Tools

Top Essential Translation Tools More often than not, translators face a multitude of challenges in their profession, one of which is related to the handling of various formats of source text provided by clients. There are formats ready for translation, such as plain text (.txt) or Microsoft Word files (.doc/docx, .ppt/.pptx, .xls/.xlsx)., which can be translated using a common text editor or word processor. For more specific formats, such as PO files, Infix files, Windows Resource files, XLIFF files, etc., translators need to utilize specific translation tools. Some of these are freeware while some others require a purchase or a subscription. Here you may find some of the most essential translation tools that you can get for free from the internet. 1. OmegaT OmegaT is a stand-alone, multi-platform Computer Aided Translation (CAT) tool developed on an open source code. It is mainly used by freelance translators who only need a simple yet effective software program to aid them in their translation work. OmegaT can handle plain text and Microsoft Word files as well as other files in their native formats. Its latest release offers translators the option to remove tags, a feature that was not previously made available in previous releases. With this feature, you only need to focus on translating the text. Although it lacks more advanced features and only has a bland GUI, it provides translators the ease of translating at no cost at all. 2. FreeOCR There are times when your trusted companion Adobe Acrobat Pro application fails to convert PDF files, mostly scanned documents, into text formats, such as .txt or .doc. Despite its small size, FreeOCR can handle and process scanned documents that cannot be handled by Adobe Acrobat Pro. You can either scan the document through its interface or import PDF directly and then start the OCR process. The result will be displayed on the right pane and you can save the text or export it into Microsoft Word. However, since the text can sometimes be a bit messy, you need to edit it prior to use. 3. Copernic Agent Personal For those craving for better and more search results, you can rely on Copernic Agent Personal. It is a sort of search engine aggregator where you type in a search word or phrase and then this application will process it using a number of search engines, such as Ask.com, Yahoo.com, etc. You can then view and compare the results generated by these search engines. However, for some reason or other, the most popular search engine on Earth, Google, is not included in the default list of search engines. 4. Xbench Sometimes translators are required to translate a specific format of source text that cannot be handled by their preferred CAT tools. For example, a client provides a translator with a Trados TTX file for translation. Unfortunately, the translator uses a different CAT tool that is incompatible with said file format. In order to address this issue, the translator may resort to Xbench, a multi-format converter. It is capable of converting several popular translation file formats, such as Trados TTX file, Wordfast TMX, etc. into other formats compatible with your CAT tool. 5. Agent Ransack Searching past translation jobs in your hard drives can be a tedious task. Agent Ransack offers you the ability to search specific words or phrases in numerous files or folders in your computer. The results are highlighted and have links that, when clicked, will open the file containing the words or phrases. This is useful when you need to find those difficult words or phrases in specific files but you cannot remember where you have stored them.