Doing memSource better in memoQ with @wasaty!

This post has been updated. The good two-template solution has been improved to make a one-template solution. This is user engagement at its best in the world of memoQ.

Marek Pawelec (aka @wasaty), one of my favorite technical solution finders in translation, has published an effective improvement for those who prefer to do memSource projects in memoQ. I have done a good bit of this in the past, as I greatly dislike the limitations of the memSource local editor and dislike browser environments (from any firm) even more for translation, but the funky interpretation of XLIFF used by that tool requires some custom filter configuration to enable work to proceed without the risk to unrecognized tags. Even so, the inability to transfer match percentage information and locked status for segments gave me more than a few headaches with these projects.

Someone at Kilgray mentioned a while ago that a proper memSource filter had been considered, but that resources were, alas, focused on other priorities, like 8.x "fixes" to features that weren't broken so that life would become more interesting for legal and financial translators whose work was becoming too easy with memoQ 7.8. No matter: once again, Marek has come through with an excellent professional solution for doing memSource better in memoQ.

Some highlights of the template provided:

• memSource match rates are visible in memoQ
• locked segments stay locked!
• "translated" status will be kept
• machine pseudo-translated garbage is marked with "MT" status in memoQ
• memSource tags can be converted to memoQ tags
• populated segments can be given "edited" status

Currently, this template is the best technical solution for working more efficiently and accurately with memSource MXLIFF files in memoQ and will probably remain so until Kilgray does get around to creating a properly integrated filter with configurable options. So if you have valued customers who use memSource but you want to leverage all your memoQ resources to do the work better, Marek's template is for you. Check out the detailed description and instructions on his blog!

Contract Language Explained for Translation - with Paula Arturo

On February 5th at 5:00 pm GMT (noon EST, 9 am PST, 6 pm CET), translating attorney Paula Arturo will be presenting a webinar for the American Translators Association on the application of language categories in contract translation. This should be an interesting and useful session for persons working into or out of English.

For more information, have a look at the presenter's announcement - and check out the rest of her interesting legal translation blog, Language with a Pinch of Law.

Call for proposals: 2018 Mediterranean Editors & Translators Meeting in Girona, Spain

The submission deadline for presentation abstracts is February 28, 2018.

The Mediterranean Editors and Translators annual meeting is an opportunity for professional education and exchange which has been on my radar for quite a few years. It was a publication by a few of its members which got me started more than a decade ago with corpus linguistics and better approaches to terminology identification and management, and the group's workshops are among the best value-for-money CPD programs I've seen. When I attended the meeting near Madrid a few years ago, I was deeply impressed by the way in which highly experienced, top-notch colleagues mixed well with rank beginners. This year, I'll be extending my time in Spain after the IAPTI conference in Valencia and go a bit farther up the coast to learn from and share ideas with the excellent professional peers there. Why don't you join me?

The 2018 METM in Girona, Spain offers a day and a half of presentations and keynotes, two half-days of pre-conference workshops, and a program of additional events. The city is located about 440 km from Valencia and 100 km from Barcelona and has good local air and train connections. The venue, Centre Cultural La Mercè, is in the heart of the old town, on the site of a 14th-century convent, which is now a municipal cultural center.

Come to METM 2018 for the professional atmosphere and enrichment, stay to enjoy the beautiful Spanish culture and cuisine.

memoQfest 2018 call for papers and the memoQ Trend Report

The tenth annual conference for memoQ technology will be held by Kilgray in Budapest on May 30 to June 1, 2018. Even though the programs for these events sometimes seems overly skewed toward the bulk market, there is no better opportunity for anyone interested in the productive use of translation technology to meet and consult with experts on how to get the most out of memoQ as an individual translator, a language services broker, a corporate translation manager or someone in another technical or managerial role related to translation.

Presentation proposals for memoQfest 2018 are now being accepted; the final deadline for submissions is February 5, 2018. Why not share your expertise and help move the discussions for product development and use in a direction you feel they should go?

Today, Kilgray also published a new site discussing "trends" in translation technology and the thoughts and opinions of key personnel and memoQ users in that regard. The memoQ Trend Report isn't really a report; I'm not sure what to call it or what its purpose is, but many of the points discussed are interesting and worth thinking about. More than the content, I particularly liked the technical implementation of the new site, particularly how it works on a smartphone. The success of adaptive design here gives me something to aspire to when I get around to remaking my personal business web site one of these days. Have a look on both mobile devices and large screens, and add your thoughts to the discussions!