7 Powerful Supporting Tools for Translators
CAT Tools can be considered as one of the most powerful supporting tools for translators as they help increase translation consistency, reduce the time for translators while saving costs for clients. But using only CAT Tools might not be enough to increase your work efficiency and quality during the whole translation process, especially for translators who work remotely. We have selected 7 supporting tools that we believe are great performance-boosting solutions for freelance translators.
1. Todoist.com – To-do list app
Start your day with making a list of what to do is highly recommended, especially for translators who work on multiple tasks from different clients at the same time. Some people prefer writing down a to-do list in a journal, others use Google Sheets. Another good choice is using a to-do list application. With over 10 million users and 1.5 billion tasks done, todoist.com is currently one of the most popular to-do list applications in the world. You can create a new task, edit or recurring due dates with a few clicks. What’s more, the app allows you to delegate tasks with other people and visualize your productivity trends.
2. Skype & Google Meet – Video conference apps
When working remotely, clear communication between you and other translators or clients plays a key part in the success of a translation project. To make sure the communication is not interrupted, you should choose carefully what video conference apps to use based on the following 4 criteria: (1) The popularity (It should be widely used to save time from installing new apps), (2) Features, (3) Stability, and (4) Price.
Skype and Google Meet are two popular choices for video conferences. They provide group meetings with features like screen sharing, note-taking, built-in chat, etc. For small meetings under 100 participants, you can use both apps for free for up to 60 minutes. Some alternative solutions include Zoom, Jitsi, Google Hangouts, and MyOwnConference.
3. OneNote – Note-taking tool
Note-taking apps are indispensable supporting tools for translators. If you are familiar with taking notes on paper but don’t want to bring them with you everywhere, you should consider using OneNote. Its display mimics paper note-taking. You can start writing on any spot as you want on OneNote. Plus, it allows you to change the background whether it’s a white page, textured or lined paper. You can drag, drop, or move images, sketches, record audio, and any elements anywhere you want with just a click. The best thing is you can share your note with everyone, or invite them to edit the note with you.
4. Google Drive & Dropbox – Cloud storage platforms
With cloud storage apps, you can get access to your files anywhere, anytime, and on every device. Once you create a file on cloud storage and file syncing apps, you can easily share it with all your colleague or clients and allow them to edit directly on the file.
Google Drive is one of the most recommended cloud storage apps for everyone. If you have a Google account, you automatically have Google Drive with 15GB free storage space. Its sync speed from desktop to web is really high, saving you a great deal of time.
Dropbox also owns the mentioned features, however, its free storage is only 2GB. But you can pay $9.99/month for 1 TB storage. Dropbox is best for devices using the same Wi-Fi networks as the syncing speed is cut down significantly.
5. Crunch.co.uk – Invoice-making tool
If you have a great number of monthly invoices, sending, and keeping track of them are no easy task. You should think about using supporting accounting tools for translators like Crunch which offers 4 pricing plans suiting different sizes of business. For individual freelance translators, Crunch Zero is a great option as it’s free with many desirable features. You can easily add a new client, create an invoice, send and keep track of them, all in one cloud-based accounting software.
6. Ocr.space – OCR scanning tools for translators
Not all the time can you receive a ready-to-work-on document from clients. Sometimes, the files are in the PDF format. You have to 2 options to proceed them: manually rewrite everything or use OCR scanning tool to convert the files from PDF to Word format. You can try ocr.space – a free-of-charge online OCR tool. The platform is user-friendly, all you need to do is upload your files, choose the language, and wait for the results.
There are also various other OCR scanning tools for translators you can check out. For computers, it’s worth considering i2OCR, OmniPage Ultimate, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, etc. For mobiles, CamScanner and Office Lens are two good options.
7. Freepik.com – Free photos for your blog
When you start your own blog to build your personal brand in the translation industry and find new clients, don’t just focus on the content to boost SEO. You should pay attention to the display of your blog. An eye-catching blog with good photo quality is likely to keep users on your site longer, just like the adage says a picture is worth a thousand words. So don’t hesitate to invest time in finding the “right” photos for your blog.
Freepik.com is great graphic resources for you. The platform offers free access to thousands of vectors, photos, PSD, and icons – everything you need for a website. The free plan, unfortunately, limits the number of photos you can download every day for an account and ask you to attribute to the authors. With a new-build website, the free plan can definitely meet your demands. But in case your website grows faster, you can always upgrade to a premium plan with only 7.50 euro/month for 3 million premium vectors and 5 million premium stock photos access.
