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In the 1990s, the boom of the DotCom enterprises gave rise to a large number of translation companies. Influenced by the high market price of its clients, these companies could charge absurdly high rates for their services. As time went on, the bubble burst and the scenario began to change drastically.Translation companies were forced to find a way to lower costs and so they started to push the translators to lower their prices. While this happened, there was a good cushioning for this price reduction for agencies and freelance translators alike due to the unfavorable parity of the Brazilian Real in relation to stronger currencies (the British pound and US Dollar, and later, the Euro).

Once again, time went by and the Brazilian currency grew stronger. When we renegotiated our translation fees, we were dealing with a 5:1 Brazilian Real to GBP ratio. Today, this ratio has dropped to 3:1 and the scenario is not expected to change in the near future…

The problem does not stop there! Clients keep pushing us to lower our prices even further, whether by lowering them permanently or demanding more tasks at a lower fare. Fixed costs like rent, electricity, telephone and salaries have risen. The only option is to increase the work volume to counterbalance all of these losses.

This brings us to a riddle that not even in 1001 nights Sherazade dreamt of asking the Sultan. How will it be possible to produce more in less time while paying our vendors less without risking quality?

 No English translation for this post. This is not the Mrs. Hart you know…

Such a classic: when opening a window, most people automatically click the button to maximize the window. This bad habit, which at first seems to be a healthy one, usually causes more problems than benefits for the user. Especially when working with localization, when the translator often needs to have opened the file to be translated, Trados and at least a glossary, all at the same time.

The sense of space given by the maximized window is what most contributes for this. Everything becomes larger, but this is exactly the problem – it is far too large! On the other hand, I don;t even have to say that if you use a 800×600 resolution, you will be obliged to maximize all the windows. If that is the case, I strongly recommend you to buy a 21″ or larger screen!

Maximized windows means loss of space. Take a look at the toolbar of your browser. How much unused space you see there? Plenty, huh? Now take a look at this blog post and check out the great deal of unused space on the left and on the right of the text. Why would you not use it?

How many “Windows” fit in your Mac?

Resizing a window to the minimum necessary size helps you view more than one program at the same time. This means having Trados, the translated file and the glossary visible, without having to go from one window to the other in search of something.

And this tip is not useful only for translators. Managers, engineers, salespeople and any other professional may benefit from it. Think of the possibilities! Information about the project on the bottom right corner, some program to convert timetables on the upper right corner, an opened spreadsheet at the center of the window, or the remaining space shared with a list of files… While I write this post, I am checking the progress of a process on the window next to this one. By doing this, I don’t need to use the (usually useful) Alt + Tab shortcut to find out whether the process is over or to check whether there is a problem that needs my decision.

Needless to say, every rule has its exception. Even I sometimes need to use a maximized window. However, all in all, the larger the resolution and the more I can display the windows, the more information I have in front of me at the same time. And this certainly makes my life a lot easier.

Sailing through still uncharted seas, I found myself reading a chronicle by Luiz Fernando Veríssimo that had been published by Jornal do Brasil in November 1997 entitled “Insolência” (Insolence). Just like everything he writes, it was wonderful. It talks about word processing software, automatic translators and the sorrows of those obliged to deal with them. I highly recommend this text.

The chronicle was found on the opening page of a thesis about machine translation written by Carolina Alfaro. And to make it more interesting, she placed a “translated” version by Altavista Translation Service below the chronicle. I have not read the entire thesis, but it looks interesting and provides a general overview of the available translation tools.

It’s a shame that I didn’t have this chronicle with me over the weekend when someone asked whether we used automatic translators here at the office. This text would have been much more effective than the explanation I gave… =)