{"id":66,"date":"2012-08-30T12:09:32","date_gmt":"2012-08-30T12:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xislblogs.xtreamlab.net\/slwoods\/?page_id=66"},"modified":"2022-11-04T14:16:19","modified_gmt":"2022-11-04T14:16:19","slug":"freeopen-source-software-for-translation","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/?page_id=66","title":{"rendered":"Free & open source software for translation"},"content":{"rendered":"

I now work exclusively using free and open source software, mostly running on the Debian\/GNU Linux<\/a> distribution. This means I have to spend less time – and money – fixing computers and securing systems from intrusion, fighting malware, viruses and the like. Furthermore, it means I can therefore turn around your translation more quickly.<\/p>\n

Although I work on Linux boxes, all the software mentioned below is also available for other platforms, such as Mac OSX and Windows.<\/p>\n

Office suite<\/h4>\n

Naturally, the first requirement is an office suite as a replacement for the ubiquitous MS Office.<\/p>\n

My preference is LibreOffice<\/a> that gives you six feature-rich applications for all your document production and data processing needs: Writer (word processing), Calc (spreadsheet), Impress (presentation), Draw, Math and Base (database). LibreOffice’s native file format is ODF<\/a> (Open Document Format), although it can read and write MS Office formats.<\/p>\n

Another alternative: Apache OpenOffice<\/a>, whose native file format is likewise ODF; it can also read and write MS Office formats. However, it is not updated as frequently as LibreOffice<\/p>\n

Both LibreOffice and OpenOffice can have their functionality increased by third party plug-ins known as extensions. Although both Libre and Open are from a common root, their extensions are not always mutually compatible: follow the links for LibreOffice extensions<\/a> and OpenOffice extensions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Graphics<\/h4>\n

Occasionally some simple graphics work is required (e.g. translating the text in images, diagrams, etc.) and for this GIMP<\/a> is ideal. GIMP is an acronym of GNU Image Manipulation Program.<\/p>\n

OCR<\/abbr><\/h4>\n

For converting text-based files (particularly PDFs) into editable text, I recommend GImageReader<\/a>, which uses the Tesseract OCR engine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Web browser<\/h4>\n

Essential for consulting search engines, databases, etc., one’s spoilt for choice with free\/open source web browsers. My favourites are:<\/p>\n