USEFUL LINKS FOR TRANSLATORS
Below is a list of links to resources with must-have software, dictionaries, glossaries, and other interesting stuff for translators. We have also posted a list of translators’ forums, which may be helpful for those who can’t find translations for some terms in other resources. Links are not intended as advertisements for any particular product or website. The aim of this list is to share helpful information with translators. The list will be regularly updated. But be sure that we offer something that can’t be found in the above-mentioned resources. For example, you can find a useful tool for multiple search of terms on our Term Search Page.
Software for translators
Translation Project Management
http://www.projetex.com – Projetex is project management software for Translation Agencies. Designed to simplify the task of corporate and freelance workflow management, Projetex provides multiple benefits for translation industry business, be it a large translation agency team, or compact one-man translation business. There is a demo version on their site. Freelance translators can take advantage of Translation Office since Projetex is good for companies: http://www.to3000.com
We have been using Projetex successfully for our project management during several years, before we have developed our own online project management system . The drawback of Projetex is the price, so it may be more cost-efficient to use Excel and Word to do the accounting (of course, if you do not have many clients, projects, and outsourcers).
Terminology Management
http://www.anylexic.com – Terminology Management Software.
Good for downloading Microsoft glossaries and searching for translations in them. However, it may be superfluous if you have glossaries in the translation memory or terminology base of the CAT tool you are using.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-assisted_translation – Description and comparison of many CAT tools. Links to the website of each CAT tool.
We use many different tools to automate the translation and editing/QA processes. The most popular is undoubtedly Trados. Unfortunately, there are too many CAT tools on the market and not all are compatible with each other.
http://www.lingvo.ru – ABBYY Lingvo is one the most popular electronic collection of dictionaries in Russian-speaking countries. It can be used online, but the offline version is more convenient and complete.
We use it in our everyday work. Plenty of additional dictionaries is also available for download via the Internet, namely http://www.lingvoda.ru/dictionaries/ , http://lingvodics.com/ and other sites.
Even though Lingvo dictionaries are very large, some terms cannot be found there (but can be found, for example, in Multitran. However, Multitran also lacks some terms which are available in Lingvo). Therefore, Russian translators have to use at least two dictionaries: Lingvo and Multitran. In addition, some translations require more reference materials, such as specialised dictionaries, websites and related articles, translator forums, etc.
Quality Assurance
http://www.xbench.net/– integrated reference tool aimed to provide a clear and structured view of the terminology of any translation project. It used to be a freeware, but now you have to pay for it.
We use it mainly for QA purposes because it has rather powerful Quality Assurance features, checking for consistency, numeric values, spelling, and more.
Dictionaries, term search, glossaries
http://www.multitran.ru/ – large, powerful online dictionary with more than 4 million words in its English-Russian dictionary alone.
The most widely used dictionary by Russian translators. One should remember that the dictionary is updated by users, so it may contain errors.
Google.com – of course, you know what it is. Some helpful tips for translators on how to use Google in their work: http://www.google.ru/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=136861
Nowadays, the translation for any term can be found. But you have to be a professional translator to choose the best option among hundreds of translations.
http://www.prolingoffice.com – online and offline Russian-Ukrainian and vice versa dictionary and machine translator.
Rather efficient machine translator and helpful dictionary. Nevertheless, its translations require thorough editing by a human.
http://www.microsoft.com/language/en-us/default.aspx – Microsoft Language Portal – Online Terminology and Glossary Search Online collection of Microsoft glossaries that is vital for any Microsoft translation project and helpful for most software localisation projects.
We always use it within our team translating IT texts.
http://www.industrystock.com – industry portal with intelligent search engines for products and services as well as manufacturers, dealers, suppliers and service providers in Business to Business.
Useful for searching for translations of terms related to different areas of industry and business. Some of the terms (initially in German) are very difficult to find in Russian dictionaries. Each language has its own search results, which makes it difficult to find the translation in the required language.
Our team translated a lot of terms from German into Russian for this website through a translation agency.
www.dictionarylink.com – search many dictionaries, search engines, and glossaries from one page.
There are so many dictionaries on the Internet that it is difficult to choose the best one. No need to choose just one; try many with “multisearch.” However, all of these multisearch sites contain an insufficient number of places to search.
A more advanced multisearch with more searchable links is presented on our website.
http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/ – a 100 million word collection of samples of written and spoken language from a wide range of sources, designed to represent a wide cross-section of current British English, both spoken and written.
Good online context search for many words. However, the texts are only in English.
http://www.acronymfinder.com/ – world’s largest and most comprehensive dictionary of acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms.
Very useful online search for abbreviation meanings. It’s a pity it is monolingual.
Thesaurus and Encyclopedia:
http://www.britannica.com
http://www.yourdictionary.com
http://thesaurus.reference.com/
http://www.merriam-webster.com/
http://www.wordsmyth.net/
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/
http://dictionary.reference.com/
http://www.dictionarylink.com/
http://lookwayup.com/free/
http://www.encyclopedia.ru/
http://www.encyclopedia.com/
http://www.krugosvet.ru/
ttp://bse.sci-lib.com/
Dictionaries and glossaries by subjects
Online dictionaries and search engines for IT translators:
http://whatis.techtarget.com
http://www.webopedia.com
http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia
http://www.techterms.com/
http://www.sharpened.net/glossary/
http://foldoc.org/
http://www.fileinfo.net/
http://home.mcafee.com/VirusInfo/Glossary.aspx
Online dictionaries and search engines for Medical translators:
http://www.stedmans.com
http://www.medilexicon.com/medicaldictionary.php
http://www.dorlands.com/wsearch.jsp
http://www.online-medical-dictionary.org/
http://www.mondofacto.com/facts/dictionary/
Online Electronics Dictionaries:
http://www.electropedia.org/
http://www.the12volt.com/glossary/glossary.asp?l=A
Military glossaries and search engines:
http://www.feldgrau.com/glossary.html
http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/
Online dictionaries and glossaries for Oil and Gas translators:
http://www.noria.com/dictionary/
http://www.alken-murray.com/fuel-glossary.htm
Marketing Glossaries:
http://www.marketingterms.com/
http://www.buseco.monash.edu.au/mkt/dictionary/
Translation Forums
(good place to ask for help of colleagues in case of difficult terminology)
http://www.multitran.ru/c/m.exe?a=DisplayForum&HL=2&L1=1&L2=2 (only Russian)
http://forum.lingvo.ru/actualforum.aspx/ (only Russian)
http://www.trworkshop.net/forum (only Russian)
http://www.proz.com/forum (multilingual)
http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/MegaBBS/category-view.asp?catlock=1 (English)
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