Program

Welcome to Wordfast Forward and insights into the future of CAT tools and the industry at large…

Amnesty International has been defending human rights for more than 50 years, all over the world. Conveying the messages of Amnesty International implies huge language needs, as well as people and tools to meet those needs.

After describing Amnest International’s mission and the nature of its work, we will explore the linguistic challenges faced by NGOs and how Wordfast has been deployed to help meet them.

Participants will learn how to best migrate their TMs and glossaries from Wordfast Pro 3 to Wordfast Pro 4. We will also discuss how to take advantage of this migration opportunity to optimize the organization of your linguistic assets.

Aimed at die-hard Classic lovers, the purpose of this session is to show advanced techniques that will allow them to do *all* their translations in Classic, lifting two of the main limitations of Classic: the inability to translate non-Word documents (PowerPoint, Excel, XML, IDML etc.) and the problems inherent in Word documents that have a complex layout (lots of tables, text boxes, footnotes, references etc.). This is achieved using a third-party CAT tool for pre- and post-processing of the files to be translated. Three alternative tools will be presented: Wordfast Pro, Memsource and memoQ, together with their respective pros and cons. This technique has been successfully used by the presenter for the past six years.

During this session, we will explore common mistakes made by users (including me) when implementing and using Wordfast Pro 4. Some mistakes will help us to draft a delivery checklist that can be used as a cheatsheet before delivering every project. We will also look at best practices when outsourcing work or collaborating with a colleague using the import/export package feature.

You learn the lean-principle “5S” and how to implement this in your own office! You will get a far more structured and efficient office & workplace. First, we will discuss the theory and why it makes you more effective. Then, we will look at an implementation strategy to optimize other peoples offices / workplaces. If you bring photos of your own office & desktop we will use them as examples.

* Guests who purchase the "guest conference" ticket can attend this session.

Although Wordfast is widely used for translation between alphabetic and non-alphabetic languages, these pairs present unique challenges. This is true both for translators and proofreaders who work in the non-alphabetic language and project managers who may not be able to read the non-alphabetic language. This session will cover challenges that arise with non-alphabetic languages, such as segmentation, tag placement and false positives in error reports.

Many translators are reluctant to work with "dead" PDFs because formatting them for use with Wordfast after using OCR (optical character recognition) is too inefficient or daunting. But there are ways that translators and project managers can clean up files surprisingly quickly and easily. The information provided in this session will help users streamline the process of cleaning up and formatting files using marcros, advanced search-and-replace, and the free Word add-in TransTools, so they can work on dead PDFs knowing that they won’t waste time or money on prep, and that they can reap the benefits of leveraging TMs and glossaries even for these files. Great for cleaning up editable PDFs and their many mid-sentence hard returns, and for prepping files for alignment too!

Translators, editors, terminologists, interpreters and lexicographers often need to check large numbers of terms on the Internet in the quickest and most efficient way possible. Without a time-saving tool for Windows like IntelliWebSearch, this entails repeatedly copying terms to your PC clipboard, opening your browser, opening the most appropriate on-line resources, pasting terms into search boxes, setting search parameters, clicking search buttons, analysing results, copying the best solutions back to the Clipboard, returning to your working environment and pasting the terms found into the translation you are doing. IntelliWebSearch is a sophisticated free-standing macro that semi-automates the terminology search process so your task can be completed more rapidly and effortlessly in the interest of your sanity. The presentation is divided into two parts. The first takes a look at IntelliWebSearch’s basic features to see how it can be used to speed up and simplify terminology searches on the Internet: direct search shortcut keys, the return shortcut key, GroupSearch, Ad Hoc Plurisearch and setting up new search parameters using the IntelliWebSearch Wizard. The second consists of a live demo of the tool’s main features (connectivity permitting).

Chocolate is the ultimate health food. And by boosting participants’ brain power, our Brain Food for Translators workshop will enrich their learning experience throughout the Wordfast conference. The speaker, a translator and former chocolate-shop owner and judge at the Academy of Chocolate awards in London, will share her expertise on chocolate terminology… and tasting. Cocoa (or cacao), the raw material for chocolate (from “bean-to-bar” to fine truffles and everything in between), is grown in many countries: from South America, to Africa to Vietnam. Cocoa production encompasses issues as diverse as fair trade, plant genetics and commodities markets. Chocolate has a language and vocabulary of its own – just like wine. And, like wine, it’s good for you (in moderation)! The speaker will guide workshop participants through the history, health benefits and language of chocolate and explain some of the terminology used in making and marketing this wonderful product. In the belief that a multi-sensory approach enhances learning, the session will include a chocolate tasting.

* Guests who purchase the "guest conference" ticket can attend this session.

After this session you will know 3 to 5 tips, tricks and suggested methods on how to achieve a much more efficient, satisfying, and productive working day. The session covers how to use, organize, and prioritize time and tasks based on a variety of tested techniques and modern principles.

* Guests who purchase the "guest conference" ticket can attend this session.

Wordfast Anywhere recently got a makeover, including a new ribbon navigation to make the user experience more intuitive and friendly. This session will cover where common features have moved within the new look, reveal powerful features that were previously buried in the old interface, and introduce recently added features. There’s something for everyone, including Classic and Pro users!

This workshop is for any translator or interpreter who has ever wondered:

• What exactly is web-writing? 
• What makes web-writing different from other types of writing?
• What exactly is SEO? 
• Can web-copy help my search-engine ranking? How?
• How does web-copy relate to design in creating an effective website?
• Accessibility, usability, readability, navigation, alt text, meta-data, infinite scrolling, accordions, penguins and pandas… Help! What do these terms mean?
• How is web-writing relevant to me as a translator?

The speaker will answer these and other questions by cutting through the jargon and explaining the basic principles involved in writing – and translating – good web copy. With the workshop including plenty of screenshots and examples of good and bad practice, attendees will learn how to apply these principles to their translations for clients’ websites. And, most importantly, to their own sites, whether already published or at the crucial planning stage. After this workshop, the language(s) of the web (and conversations with webmasters and developers) should be a bit less daunting!

Learn how to use Wordfast Pro 4 efficiently and effectively. Knowing how to use keyboard shortcuts and other tricks can reduce time spent on extraneous steps during a typical translation session. Users will find that understanding the meanings of colors, scores and other functions speeds up the translation process.  

In this session attendees will have the opportunity to see the same translation session carried out in Wordfast Classic, Wordfast Pro 3 and Wordfast Pro 4. The presenter will compare how the three programs work in terms of how to start a session and make initial settings, and how to use features like translation memories, glossaries, concordance searches, analysis, and others. The main purpose is to help users migrating from Wordfast Classic or Pro 3 to Wordfast Pro 4 find how to do what they used to do in the program they used previously. It may also be an opportunity to understand the differences between Classic and Pro versions in order to find out which one better fits one’s own needs and preferences.

Negotiation is often portrayed as a winner-take-all sum-zero game; but trained negotiators know there is nothing farther from the truth. In this one-hour presentation, I propose looking at the four key elements in business negotiations that range from planning your negotiation to evaluating your agreement before closing translation deals.

The idea of the implementation of standardized websites in the process of translation is of high importance in the 21st century. According to the UE Agenda 2020, everyone has the right to information without any language barriers and regardless of disability. What is more, innovative lanaguage technologies and globalization enhance society in the "Information Age". Unfortunately, there is still a lack of rules covering the inclusive areas in a thorough and comprehensive way, so that every web user is able not only to read documents in a range of foreign languages, but also find documents which are accessible and well designed. During this session, we will discuss a set of translator activities that focus on technological competences which should not be only limited to the set of competences proposed by EMT expert group in 2009, but they are expected to cover practical examples of the efficient integration of accessible documents and CAT tool solutions. What is more, the learning objectives will be focused on presenting Wordfast Anywhere as a good OCR tool that can support the other CAT tools as well as a tool that raises the translators awareness to produce accessible web-based services and products.

An alignment is the best option to create a translation memory when the source and the target files are provided to the translator. Leveraging of complete segments, concordance lookup, preferred styles, are some of the advantages of using an alignment tool. WF offer us three tools: Wordfast Pro Aligner, Wordfast Auto-Aligner (Online), and PlusTools. In this session we will talk about those tools, and show how to use them. Besides, we will provide some tips for preparing the source/target files before the alignment in order to provide a seamless translation memory.

You are probably aware that all Wordfast applications can leverage various MT services. Nonetheless, perhaps you weren’t sure which services to choose, were stalled setting them up, or were just nervous about using MT general. If so, this session is for you as it will look at the various available services, how to set them up in each Wordfast application, and discuss briefly whether and in what way you can make use of MT.

You've made the quantum leap from PC to Mac? What tools are there that I can use to replace my PC toolset? In this session, we will look at Mac-compatible software used in pre- and post-translation processes or that can be helpful for running your business. This speaker will show you how you can get rid of your virtual PC machine… forever!