Our translation and editing tools

We have always sought to stay at the forefront of modern translation techniques. We believe they are an essential support to quality and that the time savings achieved has consistently enabled us to remain competitive in the marketplace.

• Translation memory
We always have the latest version of TRADOS Professional (including SDL Trados Studio 2009 Professional) but we actually prefer TRADOS Version 8, wich allows us to use MS Word as a powerful text editor. All our translations are kept in separate memories per language pair and per domain. The Professional version allows us to cover up to 185 languages, but in practice, we prefer to specialize in the mainstream European languages (En, Fr, Es, De, Pt,It, Pl, etc.).


• Miscellaneous software
We use all the standard software tools of the trade, including:
ABBY FineReader 9 Pro
Adobe Acrobat 9
Adobe InDesign CS4
Adobe Photoshop CS4
AnyCount 7 Enterprise version
AutoCAD 2010
MS Access 2007
MS Excel 2007
MS Office Proofing Tools
MS Outlook 2007
MS Power Point 2007
MS Publisher 2007
MS Word 2007
MS Visio Standard 2007
SDL Tag Editor 8.0
SDL Win-Align 8.0
SDL Multi-Term 2007
SDL Multi-Term Extract 7.5
SDL PhraseFinder 1.1
Windows 7 Professional
etc.
Translation sofware
We use SYSTRAN Premium 6.0 (World Pack), which allows us, when texts are relatively simple and well written, to carry out an initial rough translation in any of our working languages.

Unfortunately, documents for translation are often too complicated for the translation software; additional customized and subject-specific electronic dictionaries have to be created. These specialized electronic dictionaries cover a whole range of domains and the are mixed and matched by a special SYSTRAN Dictionary Manager tool to come up with the combination that provides the most accurate results.

As one might expect, translation software can only suggest translations to the translator, who remains fully responsible for the final translation. It is nevertheless a very good time saver (in the case of simple and well written texts) because it can eliminate a lot of typing.

Used simultaneously with TRADOS and customized electronic dictionaries, SYSTRAN helps provide high quality, consistent translations while maximizing translator's efficiency.


• Computer Assisted Drafting translation software
We use AutoCAD 2010, which enables us to translate or modify the vast majority of industrial drawings. AutoCAD is used in conjunction with a custom LISP application which extracts the drawing text to a TXT file, which is then translated with Trados, ensuring translation quality, consistency and efficiency; the same application then pastes the text back into the drawing and final sizing and positioning of the text is made in AutoCAD to ensure optimal readability.

If required, we can also convert a single language AutoCAD drawing into a multilingual drawing where each of the layouts is a copy of the original drawing, but in a different language.

Visio drawings also benefit from the same process, using a commercial text extraction tool that allows the use of Trados as well.

Our drawing translation process ensures that no part of the drawing text is forgotten and that the translator benefits from the full power of Trados and Systran to ensure the highest possible translation quality.

Please note that all our software is original and that we safeguard all the CD-ROMs and related licenses.


• Reference Library
We keep a collection of reference handbooks connected to our fields of specialization, inter alia:

The International Electrotechnical Commission Multilingual Dictionary (6th Edition) - L'Électrotechnique by T. Wildi - ABB Steam dictionnary (En – Fr – Sp - Ger) - Dictionnaire d'automatique, de génie électrique et de productique (BORNE Pierre, QUAYLE Nigel, Éditions TECHNIP 1998) - Le Multidictionnaire de la langue française - Dictionnaire de la traduction (En –Fr) - Larousse Encyclopaedia and multilingual dictionaries - Le Guide du rédacteur - Le prépositionnaire, etc.

• On-line terminology data banks
We consistently use Termium Plus (now free!), the Canadian government terminology bank; it is probably the most complete terminology resource available with regards to English and French usage in Canada.

We also consult regularly the Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique (Quebec Government) and Eurodicautom, two very large terminology data banks which, by the way, are free.

Lastly, when everything else fails, IntelliWebSearch is our friend. This powerful search tool enables us to:


• use up to 10 major search engines at once
  
• find out if a term exists (i.e. was previously used somewhere)
  
• know the number of times it appears on Internet
  
• determine if one term is more appropriate than another, according to their respective occurrences, etc.

While there is an incredible quantity of on-line glossaries, dictionaries, lexicons, etc., there is practically no public glossary that covers our specialization domains to the extent we require. Consequently, we develop our own proprietary glossaries and share them as needed with our translators in order to achieve the highest possible quality level.



• Trade Associations
BERLUKAS is an active member of


• Ailia (www.ailia.ca),
• ProZ (www.proz.com),
• Translators Cafe (www.translatorcafe.com) and
• GoTranslators (www.gotranslators.com)

They are excellent sources of all kinds of contacts and information for translators.

If you have access to the member pages of these sites, we suggest you look up the comments made about BERLUKAS by freelance translators we have hired for various translation projects.