Daily Archives: Wednesday, March 12, 2014

  • OmegaT, the basics

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Open Source, Tech

    OmegaT is a free and open source translation memory application written in Java. It’s a tool intended for professional translators.

    OmegaT has the following features:

    • Fuzzy matching
    • Match propagation
    • Simultaneous processing of multiple-file projects
    • Simultaneous use of multiple translation memories
    • User glossaries with recognition of inflected forms
    • Document file formats include:
      Open Document Format (the native format of the LibreOffice, OpenOffice and Calligra office suites)
      Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx)
      XHTML and HTML
      MediaWiki (Wikipedia)
      Plain text
      …plus about 30 other file formats
    • Unicode (UTF-8) support: can be used with non-Latin alphabets
    • Support for right-to-left languages
    • Integral spelling checker
    • Compatible with other translation memory applications (TMX, TTX, TXML, XLIFF, SDLXLIFF)

    OmegaT is cross-platform: it will run on any system on which the JRE (Java Runtime Environment) has been or can be installed.

    Over on YouTube, user weasel75 has produced a short (10 minutes) tutorial on the basics of OmegaT. Hopefully you’ll find it as useful as I did.

  • 2 weeks to Document Freedom Day

    Steve WoodsOpen Standards, Tech

    logo for Document Freedom Day 2014Document Freedom Day is a day for celebrating and raising awareness of open standards and formats; it takes place on the last Wednesday in March each year. On this day people who believe in fair access to communications technology teach, perform and demonstrate.

    Document freedom means documents that are free can be used in any way that the author intends. They can be read, transmitted, edited, and transformed using a variety of tools. Documents that aren’t free – like Microsoft Office’s .docx, .xlsx, .pptx, etc. – are locked to some particular software or company. Their author cannot choose how to use them because they are controlled by technical restrictions. This is akin to having a racehorse and never letting get above a trot.

    However, document freedom is about more than spreadsheets, presentations and word processing documents. Document freedom embraces all forms of data, including artwork, sheet and recorded music, emails and statistics. These can all be stored in ways which empower users, but they can also be stored in formats which constrain and manipulate us at enormous cost.

    Open standards are formats which everybody can use free of charge and restriction. They come with compatibility “built-in” – the way they work is shared publicly and any organisation can use them in their products and services without asking for permission. Open Standards are the foundation of cooperation and modern society. Today we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the world wide web – a vital resource that relies on open standards to work. Read more on open standards.

    You can get involved in Document Freedom Day by organising local activities, distributing fliers, adding a banner on your blog, donating money, and much more. See the Document Freedom Day site for more ideas and information.