The way a completed translation has been produced has changed markedly over the decades since my first days as a translator for Imperial Tobacco in Bedminster, Bristol.<\/p>\n
In those days I’d write out the translation in longhand from printed source material and take my manuscript to the typing pool where it would be transformed into typescript.<\/p>\n
The next big change came with my learning how to touch-type. By this time I was a freelance with no more access to a typing pool.<\/p>\n
In my early freelance days, it was rare to get editable copy that one could overkey with one’s usual word processor, spreadsheet or presentation package. The standard way of working was still from hard copy propped up in a copyholder alongside one’s keyboard.<\/p>\n
Then there came a large surge in the use of formats such as PDF – Portable Document Format<\/a>. This format enables documents, including text formatting and images, to be presented in a manner independent of application software, hardware and operating systems.<\/p>\n