Handy time-saving, efficiency-increasing tools are not as out of reach as we may think. Some of these tools are freely available. Or they’re so good that, once we’ve tried them, we’ll want to use them all the time, even if that means paying for them to have access to their more advanced features.
During my current staycation, I finally got around to checking out a number of tools which I know several translators regularly use and highly recommend. I’ll list my favourites (in random order) below:
NaturalReader – a smart text-to-speech reader that will read texts to you in natural sounding voices (free to use for 20 minutes per day). Choose your favourite voice amongst several options for English (US), English (UK), German, French, Italian, Swedish or a few other languages.
LockHunter – a useful file unlocking programme, which allows you to identify, unlock, delete, copy or rename a locked file and to kill any locking processes on your computer.
Count Anything – a handy word-count utility for Windows, which supports the following file types: MS Word (.docx, .rtf), MS Excel (.xls, .csv), MS PowerPoint (.ppt); OpenOffice Writer (.odt), OpenOffice Impress (.odp), OpenOffice Calc (.ods); and HTML, XML, Text and PDF.
Everything Search Engine – a sophisticated file name search engine for Windows, which rapidly and reliably finds files and folders by name. For example, search for dm:today to locate any files and folders that were modified on your computer today.
Google Keep – a versatile note-taking app for photo notes, voice notes and checklists. It syncs between, e.g., your PC and your smartphone. It is possible to set up audible reminders or colour code notes.
Canva – a fantastic graphic design tool for creating customised graphics for social media or blog posts, posters or other visual content. Its basic features are free to use, although paid subscription options offering additional features are also available.
Flipboard – a convenient news aggregation site for the curation of articles, blog posts, videos and other pieces of content according to topics of your choice. A great site that’ll make it easy for me to quickly find articles on topics I often translate about, such as autonomous driving or AI!
Noisli – a fascinating programme for listening to background sounds that will help you focus while you’re working and that can even be mixed. I was intrigued by the sounds imitating the background noises of a coffee shop! Its nature sounds are similar to the nature sounds I regularly listen to on iTunes.
KeePass – a secure and proven password manager. Passwords are stored in an encrypted database, which can be unlocked with one master key. I’ve been using KeePass for managing my passwords for a while now, but was thrilled to find it was mentioned by a colleague in Alina’s article.
IntelliWebSearch – a must-have internet search tool for Windows which is designed to save translators, interpreters, editors and terminologists time when using the web in their work. Not new to me either, but I’m mentioning it because I, too, highly recommend it.
This blog post lists 10 handy, proven tools for translators. Some are freely available, and some are so good that, once you’ve tried them, you’ll likely be happy to pay for them.
(A German translation of this blog article is available here.)
