The GeekSpeak column has two goals: to inform the commu- GeekSpeak Jost Zetzsche nity about technological advances and at the same time [email protected] encourage the use and appreciation of technology among translation professionals. One Tool You Should Have

Arguably, the most important Other important reasons for using editor or, even better, in a translation utility you need in your tool box is a compression programs? They allow environment tool). Then place the compression program. you to send one file instead of many translated *.xml files into their orig- Its primary use, of course, is to (this also makes it easier for your inal folder, zip the whole folder struc- enable you to receive and send files clients). Compressed files can be sent ture up again, rename it from *.zip to properly. Nothing will frustrate a client as password-protected files for safety whatever the original extension was, more than receiving a file of several reasons. And you can split large ZIP and you are done. megabytes that could have been a tenth files into smaller chunks so they fit in Even more interesting is the fact of the size or even less if it had been an e-mail, on a CD, or a USB stick. that many of the TEnT-specific pack- sent in a compressed format. (When you want to use the file(s), the ages (files that contain the translation Some file formats—such as text- tools allow you to reassemble them files, the translation memory, and the based files or bitmaps—are particu- into the original file[s] again.) termbases) that you receive from your larly well suited for compression Of course, all of this is old news. clients may also be ZIP files, even because they can be minimized sig- But here is the bonus if you have made though their extensions do not indi- nificantly; others—such as JPG, GIF, it this far without turning the page or cate that. or PDF—shrink very little because falling asleep: tools such as WinRAR, Tools such as Trados (2007 and they are already compressed. ZipGenius, and 7-Zip are particularly Studio), Transit, Déjà Vu, memoQ, An Internet search reveals that helpful for translators because they and others can produce these files. there may very well be as many dif- can help you “crack” certain files and Obviously, the tool vendors would ferent programs in existence as there get to translatable content. This like you to stay in their environments, are word combinations containing the enables you to process the file more but you can circumvent this by fol- word “zip”—ZipMagic, PowerZip, easily in translation environment tools lowing the same process I described Quick Zip, ZipGenius, BitZipper, (TEnTs) without the need to purchase above. Naturally you will need to ALZip, and TurboZip form only the the often expensive program in which know which are translatable files and tip of the iceberg. Add to that PKZIP the file was originally created. what you should be doing with the from the “inventor” of the zip format, The compressed format that follows other files, but, hey, if you can trans- and the market leader WinZip, which the commonly used ZIP algorithms is late rocket science manuals, you can is now owned by Corel. And, yes, widely used by a broad range of file surely figure this out as well. there is still a plethora of compression formats, including files in Office 2007 How do you know whether a file is programs that do not contain the word and above (DOCX, XLSX, etc.), the a ZIP file? With one of my favorite “zip.” OpenOffice/LibreOffice formats, Flash tricks—open any file in a text editor I recently replaced my long-time FLA files, InfoPath files, and many, (such as Notepad) to see the under- personal choice, ZipGenius, with the many more. These compressed files lying code. If the first two characters powerful 7-Zip (see www.7-zip.org), often contain complex folder structures in the code are “PK” (standing for a utility that works with a much larger with files that are easily translated. Philip Katz, who developed the zip number of compressed file formats Simply rename the originating file format), it is a ZIP file. Now, please and has other advanced features that I to a *.zip file and unzip it (leaving the do not save that file in your text like (along with the price tag—it is folder structure intact), locate the editor. Instead, exit without saving, free!). As with most other programs of *.xml files (they could also have rename the extension to ZIP, unzip it, its kind, it is closely integrated with other extensions) with the translat- and you will see what I mean. Windows/File Explorer: a right-click able text, and translate them (in a text on any file, group of files, or folder(s) gives you access to the program. (Both Windows and Mac computers also come with a compression pro- Jost is the co-author of Found in Translation: How Language Shapes Our Lives and gram, but in each case it is very lim- Transforms the World, a perfect source for replenishing your arsenal of information on how human translation and machine translation each play important parts in the ited, so you should not rely on it broader world of translation. completely.)

28 The ATA Chronicle n June 2013