Author: Nadia Hlebowitsh (Spanish & English Literary Translator)
Creative translations are among the most difficult types of translations to complete. Whether a social media post, an e-cookbook or a romance novel, creative translation is a unique challenge.
Translators mistakenly think that CAT tools are only useful for technical or repetitive texts. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, a CAT tool like Termsoup is the perfect match for completing longer creative works and maintaining high quality throughout the translation.
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Challenges of creative translation
Generally speaking, creative translators are concerned about...
- Long length: Guides or books, for example, can be hundreds of pages and take months to complete.
- Word choice: Deciding on the right vocabulary to recreate the tone and style of the original text can require hefty research.
- Flow between sections: Maintaining the voice across paragraphs and chapters can be tricky to get right.
- “Text recreation”: Prioritizing the natural feel of the text over literal accuracy. Getting the right “text recreation” can require multiple attempts and versions.
- Editing and resolving client feedback: With projects of this length and depth, creative translators will edit and re-edit their translations numerous times, as well as resolve client feedback during the process.
Let’s now get into the nitty-gritty of how a CAT tool like Termsoup can address the challenges of creative translation.
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1. Document upload
First of all, Termsoup lets you upload long Word docs or files. You’ll have no trouble taking your work onto the CAT platform to translate. Termsoup also simplifies formatting. After you add your translation, you can export the finished version and it will maintain all the original formatting.
With longer creative projects, this document upload and formatting feature could be exactly what you need. Need help figuring out how to use it? Check out our onboarding post for details!
2. Dictionary integration
If you’re stewing over the just right word, Termsoup’s dictionary integration feature could be a lifesaver. With it, you can:
- Highlight to lookup terms
- One-click to use lookup result
- One-click to add term to glossary
- Apply auto-suggestion (if desired)
These types of word choice features will make your life easier. You’ll find the right words, scour the dictionary results and add phrases to your glossary. On Termsoup, you’ll have everything at your fingertips!
3. Paragraph mode & column adjustment
Keeping a careful eye on flow between sections is key. Termsoup is one-of-a-kind in offering both sentence and paragraph mode. With it, you can toggle between seeing just the sentence to looking at paragraphs and checking the general transition between them. This reflects the experience of working in a Word doc, while enjoying the benefits of a CAT tool.
In addition, Termsoup lets you adjust the column widths within paragraph mode. This makes it easier to translate when the length of the source and target texts are distinct. For example, this happens often when translating to/from character-based languages like Chinese. You can adjust this column width for maximum comfort.
4. Edit history
As a part of text recreation, you’ll be editing and creating multiple versions. Termsoup can help back up your changes because it provides a complete edit history. This way you can easily reverse a decision or check how you translated a word earlier.
Your translation is also fully backed up by cloud storage, so your edits will be properly saved and stored worry-free.
5. Collaboration with clients
With creative translations, you’re usually working closely with the client over a period of time. Often clients will send feedback on every new section of the translation. Creative translators must collaborate to edit their work and resolve client feedback.
Luckily, Termsoup helps facilitate that translator-client collaboration by providing document sharing. Like Google docs, translators can add clients to projects or share their documents so they can access, edit or comment on them.
At the end of the day, Termsoup gives creative translators peace of mind. It’s especially designed for creative translation, so that you can handle long length, choose the right words, get a natural flow, recreate texts with multiple edits and resolve client feedback along the way.
We believe Termsoup is unique in offering a CAT tool oriented towards creative translators who need features beyond the typical translation memory. Get creative and sign up for Termsoup today!
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