|
tranfree issue 36 - 23 July 2001
Word XP - the End of the World is Nigh (or is it?)
Alex Eames
http://www.translatortips.net/ubb/Forum1/
HTML/000078.html
Someone just sent me this posting from a discussion list which is
obviously scaring a lot of people. Sorry if you already saw it.
Some think that this will destroy the rates US based translators
can ask. I put my comments at the end...
> Reposted from FLEFO:
>
> Message: #1224760, S/11 Transl/Interpr MISC
> Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2001 19:34:03
> Subject: Gates bites the hand...
> From: Robert A. Croese
> To: All
<<
Well, it had to happen. The next version of Bill Gates'
principal word processing software (Word XP, aka Word 2002, aka
Word 10, of which i have a beta copy) will provide some easy
links to three levels of translation:
* basic vocabulary
* express translation
* and premium translation
Go to Tools/Language/Translate and you can:
1) Look up a word in the built- in bilingual dictionaries - the
US program comes with Span
2) Go to Express Translation with a selected text
for "instant machine translation to generate gist level
translations. We provide state-of-the-art translation in a
multitude of languages." Or you can go to
3) Premium Translation - "professional human translation,
automatic free quote, pay by credit card and let our team of more
than 5,000 translators in 19 countries to [sic] deliver high-
quality documents to you."
Level 2 is advertised as "Mendez and Microsoft bring you free
translation services. This is the service you have been waiting
for. Translate your email and documents quickly. Just copy and
paste the text! We provide computer translation in a multitude of
languages."
Level 3 takes you to the website of Mendez iTranslator(TM) Online
(itanslatoronline.mendez.com), where you must subscribe, after
which you can submit a file and receive a quote within about a
minute. To try the system, I sent them a fairly difficult 8000-
word medical text to be translated from English to Spanish and
the quote came out (not sure I should mention the rate here)
right in the low to medium US TC rate. I have forgotten the
turnaround time they quoted me, but it was less than a week.
>>
Personally, I think that the kind of people who will use this are
not the clients we should be marketing to anyway.
Admittedly it's more likely to hurt US translators than anywhere
else because of the high rates in the US.
Most people use only a tiny fraction of the features available in
Word. Why would they find this one?
If it is successful, what makes you think that the company
contracted to do the work will be able to satisfy the demand in a
timely manner? If they can't, it won't work in the long-term.
What about the trust factor? Are clients going to trust
Microsoft's choice of supplier? This is a large-scale affiliate
program. Most people with substantial documents to translate
would want to get them done by someone of their own choice.
I don't reckon this is going to have as big an impact as people
might think. Feel free to come and discuss it at our forums...
http://www.translatortips.net/ubb/Forum1/
HTML/000078.html
If you've lost or forgotten your password for the
translatortips® forums,
you can get a password reminder emailed to you at...
http://tranfree.com/t/t.pl?pw
...come and join in the fun 
Click here to return to
tranfree 36 main page
| 