I am a flexible translator but it doesn't mean I will accept orders from all areas. I believe that no person is versatile enough to translate texts from all areas and to maintain considerable quality.

The areas of my expertise include:

• IT – software and website localization, user guides, instruction manuals, online helps, etc.

• Automotives – workshop manuals, service manuals, user guides, marketing brochures, technical documentation, part catalogues, etc.

• Audio & Video – user guides, parts catalogues, marketing materials, etc.

• Consumer electronics – household appliances user guides, marketing content, etc.

• Tech/engineering – construction equipment/machinery, mechanical engineering, industrial machinery, machines and machine tools, etc.

I would not undertake the translation of legal stuff, literature (prose, poetry, etc.) or transportation or logistics related texts... ;)

Projects range: • brochures • user guides, online help • product data sheets • parts catalogues • websites • software

Main CAT tools I use: • memoQ • SDL Trados Studio • SDL Trados 2007 • Transit • Idiom WorldServer Desktop Workbench • Microsoft Localization Studio • Alchemy Catalyst • RC WinTrans • Sisulizer • Passolo • DejaVu • XTM • Smartling • Coah

Before starting translation I always check completeness of received materials (reference files, terminology database, translation memory, instructions, work files, etc.) and discuss all ambiguities with the client. If the source files are in a format not supported by CAT tools (e.g. PDF, FrameMaker, JPG, etc.), I convert them into a CAT-friendly format. If an “OCR” (optical character recognition) is necessary the input document is prepared with a suitable software (e.g. ABBY FineReader).

During translation I always use Computer Aided Translation Software (CAT). This kind of programs can store previously translated source texts and their equivalent target texts in a database and retrieve related segments during the translation of new texts. The opportunity of reusing the existing translation memory content saves costs, because a translator doesn't have to translate repeated texts (repetitions) and the client doesn’t have to pay for it. Moreover, translating with CATs is faster, because the translator can reuse translations stored e.g. during translating of an older version of the same manual or a user guide. Last but not least, thanks to a concordance search function, the computer aided translation software helps maintain consistency of translated text.

Thanks to 9 years of experience in translation and localization industry and a 3 year professional localization engineer experience I am a CAT tool expert.

After the translation phase all my texts are thoroughly checked with automated translation quality assurance programs like QA Distiller or Xbench. These programs allow to search for inconsistencies, omissions, consecutive spaces, punctuation errors, capitalization errors, inconsistent leading and trailing spaces, number formatting and number values errors and even terminology mistakes.