Now that I have more free time, I’m finally back with a post in English! *hopes her English-speaking readers didn’t miss her*
I should update this site more often, because “Learning by Translating” is a site I created to share my experiences as a student translator (or Translation student, fate voi, like we say in Italian). Unfortunately, I’ve been very busy with my classes and couldn’t update more than I actually did. Classes till 7 p.m. almost every day + homework = very little time for other activities (besides writing, I’ve been neglecting another hobby of mine, scrapbooking).
As some of you may already know from reading my posts on Twitter, I switched to Mac. My MacBook Pro has a 13 inch monitor, OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) installed, a 160 GB hard disk drive, 2 GB of RAM (which are enough for running OS X, but not for using XP as a virtual machine with Parallels. I created a partition for XP using Boot Camp, and if I boot XP at startup, it works perfectly). I needed to install XP on a partition because, as you might already know, Trados doesn’t work on OS X. I’m going to learn how to use it in the second semester, so I have to install it somewhere. I use Subtitle Workshop for subtitles (I’ve been subtitling short films in French class), and there isn’t a Mac version of the software. By the way, I’m happy with my new computer! It hardly crashes, and there’s no need to format your hard drive because of viruses. I’m getting used to the different keyboard shortcuts, and to the fact that there’s no “Del” button on Mac keyboards. I didn’t need to insert a CD when I plugged my printer, OS X recognized and installed it by itself! I still have a lot to learn though. I’ve been told: “You’ll never get back to Windows after you get a Mac”. I hope so.
P.S.: You can even choose which language to use. For example, I’m using it in English. It was in Italian when I bought it, and it took me a while to realize that “Scrivania” is “Desktop” and “Archivio” is “File”. Why were they localized that way, when “File” and “Desktop” are commonly used in Italian? I don’t get it.
Ilaria. 23. Italian. Translator and blogger. Languages: Italian, English, French and a little bit of German.
December 20, 2009 | 1:28 pm
Glad you’re enjoying your new Mac!
The keyboard shortcut for “Del” is the (fn)+<–– (function key + backspace key).
If I'm using my MacBook a lot at home I plug in a keyboard (the extended one, which has a "Del" key). They're not too expensive and I find they make long typing jobs much easier.
December 21, 2009 | 10:03 am
Thanks Marian! I didn’t know that shortcut!
Do you know any OS X online guides (either in English or in Italian) I can download?
December 21, 2009 | 10:12 am
When I switched to Mac 2 years ago, I immediately installed Parallels and Windows XP on it, just to make sure I’d be able to carry on working even if I had trouble with the Mac environment. After about 2 days, it was so painful running Windows on my beautiful Mac that I looked for software that worked on Mac and stopped using Parallels completely. I’ve kept it “just in case”, but I haven’t used it once since.
December 21, 2009 | 10:16 am
Speaking of Parallels, I’m going to uninstall it because when I need to use XP I boot it at startup. Parallels eats too much RAM in my opinion.
Céline, do you use any CAT tools?
December 21, 2009 | 10:50 am
I switched from Trados (which I was unhappy with anyway) to Wordfast (much better). I’ll be looking into OmegaT as soon as I get the chance.
December 21, 2009 | 11:21 am
I have Office 2008 and I heard that Wordfast isn’t compatible with it, but with Office 2004. I’d like to learn how to use OmegaT when the right time comes.
December 21, 2009 | 1:36 pm
I can’t think of any online guides but if any come to mind I’ll let you know.
On CAT – I’ve decided on OmegaT, but not using it yet.
December 23, 2009 | 11:10 am
Thanks again! I took a look at the Peachpit website, and found this: http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1398007 . I hope to find many other useful articles like that one, since I’d like to use free online guides instead of buying books (they’re very expensive).