Category Archives: In English

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Use old-style Excel and Word menus in new versions of Office

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A common complaint people make when they install Word 2007 (or Excel 2007) or later is that they don’t like the ribbon and prefer the menus used in Word 2003 (or Excel 2003) and earlier. Microsoft insist that things are easier to find in the new version, but many of us beg to differ. For me, my main qualm with the new version is that it takes me longer to browse through all the options than it did with the old system.

Also, certain options are in illogical places. For example, if you want to insert a row or column in Excel you’ll probably look in the “Insert” tab. But you won’t find it. It’s in the “Home” tab. Why on earth is an “insert” option not in the “Insert” tab?

The Swiss company UBit has produced an add-on that creates a ribbon tab called “Menu”, which contains old-style menus. The add-on can be downloaded from here.

Unfortunately it doesn’t allow you to open the menus with the keyboard. And that’s where I come in! I’ve produced a script to be used with UBitMenu that allows you to open up the menus using the keyboard (i.e. alt+f opens the file menu, etc.) and browse through with the cursor keys. Click here to download the script.

Once you have installed UBitMenu and my script, you can browse through the menus almost as easily as in the old version of Word and Excel.

Please note it currently only works with the English menu shortcuts, and it may not work with certain screen resolutions, as it relies on clicks on the correct part of the screen.

If you test it, please report back whether it works for you.

If you would like a version for your own language, please tell me the shortcut letters for the different menus (File, Edit, View, Format, Tools, Table and Window) in your language.

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Invalid French VAT numbers – how to correct them

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On more than one occasion, I have had issues obtaining a valid intracommunity VAT number (numéro de TVA intracommunautaire) from French clients or service providers. The problems fall into two categories:

16-character or 14-character number instead of an 11-character number

Sometimes I have been given a 16-digit or 14-digit number instead of an 11-digit number. This is because the client or service provider is confusing their VAT number with their SIRET number.

The SIRET number is a 14-digit number consisting of a 9-digit SIREN number (e.g. 123 456 789, although the first two characters may be letters) followed by a five-digit NIC number, which usually starts with at least two zeros. An example SIRET number would be 123 456 789 00123.

French VAT numbers begin with the FR prefix, followed by a two-digit control number, followed by the 9-digit SIREN number. So, the company with the aforementioned SIRET and SIREN numbers might have the VAT number FR 12 123 456 789.

A 16-digit number is the result of the client or service provider adding the “FR ##” prefix to the 14-digit SIRET number, instead of to the 9-digit SIREN number.

So, if the client gives you a 16-digit number, such as FR 12 123 456 789 00123, simply drop the final five digits, and you have the intra-community VAT number (assuming the company has such a number – see below).

If the client gives you a 9-digit SIREN number, you can use an online tool to convert it to the corresponding VAT number.

But beware! The number you generate may only be a theoretical number, i.e. the number the client or service provider would be assigned if they applied for an intracommunity VAT number. But the client might not have applied. Before you can issue a VAT-free invoice under the reverse-charge mechanism you must check that they are registered in the VIES system.

See also Invalid Swedish VAT numbers – how to correct them.

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Automatically move footnotes after punctuation, rather than before, in Word

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Texts in Romance languages usually place footnote markers before punctuation. In English we place them after the punctuation. I usually change this on the fly while translating, but I’ve just received a text I outsourced because it was Italian-English and the translator hasn’t moved the footnote markers. No worries! There’s no need to go through the footnotes one by one, as a quick find-and-replace routine in Word will put the footnote markers in the right place (if you prefer, you’ll find a macro at the bottom of the page). Open up the find/replace box, select “Use wildcards”, and enter the following:

Find: (^2)([.,:;\?\!])
Replace: \2\1

It should be safe to use Replace All, but if you want to play safe you can click the Find button once and then keep clicking Replace.

Explanation:
^2 = Footnote reference (same as ^f without wildcards)
[ ] = Look for any character contained in the square brackets. The ? and ! are preceded by a backslash because they normally have special meanings. The backslash tells Word to ignore the special meaning and look for a literal ? or !.
\2 = Replace with the contents of the second parenthesis
\1 = Replace with the contents of the first parenthesis

If you wish to do the opposite conversion, to convert the English format to that used by the Romance languages, run the following procedure, also with wildcards:

Find: ([.,:;\?\!])(^2)
Replace: \2\1

If you have to perform either of these regularly you may want to create a macro. Here’s the code for converting to the English format:

Sub MoveFootnotesForEnglish()
'
' Macro by www.anglopremier.com (thanks to Simon Turner for converting to macro format)
' Moves footnote markers to after punctuation
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "(^2)([.,:;\?\!])"
.Replacement.Text = "\2\1"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchWildcards = True
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End Sub

For those of you working from English to Romance languages, here’s the macro for you:

Sub MoveFootnotesFromEnglish()
'
' Macro by www.anglopremier.com (thanks to Simon Turner for converting to macro format)
' Moves footnote markers to before punctuation
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "([.,:;\?\!])(^2)"
.Replacement.Text = "\2\1"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchWildcards = True
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End Sub

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2014: a busy year

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The blog has been quiet for a while; the last post was six months ago. It’s been a busy year so far for Anglo Premier Translations.

In January I translated (Spanish>English) an OECD report on e-learning and higher education in Latin America. The report looked in particular at how distance learning has evolved thanks to new technologies and how this is enabling the provision of higher education to isolated, rural parts of Latin America.

In February and March I was part of the translation and editing team for the OECD’s African Economic Outlook for the sixth consecutive year. For the 2014 edition, entitled Measuring the pulse of Africa, I translated the country reports for Comoros, Cameroon, Burundi and Algeria and proofread the translations done by other team members of the reports for Côte d’Ivoire, Mauritania, Togo, Guinea and Equatorial Guinea.

April was a somewhat quieter month, during which I was able to take a much-needed break, but I also began working with a new client, McCann Erickson, translating commercial material.

In May and June I began working with another University of Barcelona author. The professor is coordinating a book comparing the EU concept of services of general economic interest (SGEIs) and domestic legislation on public services in France, Spain and Italy. I translated chapters from French and Spanish to English and edited chapters translated from Italian to English.

At the end of May I had the pleasure of attending the International Conference on Economic, Business, Finance and Institutional Translation, held at the University of Alicante. The conference was of particular interest to me because I regularly provide economic translations to the OECD.

Also in June, I reached an agreement with the French sailing team SAS Spindrift to translate articles (French>English) related to their upcoming attempt at breaking the world record for the North Atlantic Crossing. My collaboration will involve being on stand-by 24 hours a day during the record attempt, as news items may come in at any time.

Finally, in July, after completing a test, I was accepted as a provider of translation services for the Inter-American Investment Corporation, and have already had the pleasure of working on two very interesting projects. I look forward to continuing our business relationship.

Anglo Premier Translations will continue operating throughout August, when I expect to receive academic papers from university lecturers taking advantage of the end of their semester to finish off articles. And in September and October I will be providing translation and revision services (Spanish>English) for Latin American Economic Outlook for the third consecutive year. Finally, in November I will attend the Mediterranean Editors and Translators conference for the eighth consecutive year.

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Bookmarklet tweaks

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I’ve corrected some of the bookmarklets I made available on my main website. All the bookmarklets now lead to the correct site, and the Oxford English Dictionary one now works with all words. There is also a link to a site explaining how to disable speed dial in Firefox, since the bookmarklets don’t work if you are on the speed dial page.

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AHK scripts to change status in MemoQ

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These Autohotkey scripts allow MemoQ users to switch between the Confirmed, Reviewed and Proofread user statuses using the keyboard. The shortcuts are shift-ctrl-z, shift-ctrl-x and shift-ctrl-c. Users of keyboards that don’t have the z, x and c next to each other may wish to change the shortcuts in the code.

; Set "Confirmed"
SetTitleMatchMode, 2
#IfWinActive, memoQ
+^z::
setkeydelay, 20
send, !v{down 6}

sleep 100
send {Enter}
sleep 100
send, +{TAB 6}
send, c

;return to document
send +^{tab}
sleep 100
return

; Set "Reviewer"
SetTitleMatchMode, 2
#IfWinActive, memoQ
+^x::

;from Translations pane
setkeydelay, 10
send, !v{down 6}

sleep 100
send {Enter}
sleep 100
send, +{TAB 6}
send, r

;return to document
send +^{tab}
sleep 100
return

; Set "Proofreader"
SetTitleMatchMode, 2
#IfWinActive, memoQ
+^c::

;from Translations pane
setkeydelay, 10
send, !v{down 6}

sleep 100
send {Enter}
sleep 100
send, +{TAB 6}
send, p

;return to document
send +^{tab}
sleep 100
return

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Website testing

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When translating a website one important aspect translators should include in their budget is website testing. It is the equivalent of reading the proofs of a book before it goes to print. In the publishing industry, translators can spot errors introduced by typesetters who are unfamiliar with conventions in a certain language, such as decimal commas in French, Spanish and other languages vs. decimal points in English.

On a website, clients often overlook menu items when sending website content to the translator for translation. Since the menu items are seemingly simple words, web designers and webmasters may decide to translate the items themselves. Unfortunately things can go wrong, as exemplified below in a screenshot from a website that, otherwise, has a good French translation.

française

The French word for “French” is “français”, not “française”. The latter is the feminine form of the adjective, as in “une entreprise française” (a French company). When used as a noun to refer to the language it should always be spelt “français”, pronounced with a silent s.

Similar mistakes often encountered on websites, but also on hotels and signposts, include “wellcome” instead of “welcome” and “bienvenu” or “bienvenus” instead of “bienvenue”. In Spanish the word “bienvenido” when used as exclamation agrees with the gender and number of the people being addressed, but in French the exclamation is invariable.

However tempting it may be to translate small words yourself, always check with a professional translator to avoid embarrassing mistakes that spoil your company’s image.

Try to work with a translator who is experienced in translating and localising websites. A good website translator can save you time and money by working with the source code, rather than in a Word document that you then have to reconvert to the format of your website, and will thus ensure that all the menu items and headers and footers are also correctly translated. I would recommend arranging a meeting between the person responsible for the web content, the web designer and the translator to discuss the best strategy.

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Research articles

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One of the areas in which Anglo Premier Translations has specialised is in research articles for academic staff. My translation and editing services have resulted in nine academic papers being published in journals and four conference papers or working papers. This is in addition to books I have published with academic articles in them. For more information, including links to the articles, see the new Research articles page of my website.

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Football, fútbol, futbol, calcio II: terminology

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In Part I of this series I discussed the expression the beautiful game used to refer to association football (which I will simply call football in the rest of this post). In this part I will look at the terminology mentioned by Joseph Lambert in his own blog post, The Terminology of the Beautiful Game.

The first half of the following table shows the terminology mentioned by Joseph Lambert in English, French and Italian, to which I have included the equivalents in Spanish and Catalan and English definitions.

Entries marked with an asterisk are not specific terms, but are ordinary words that could be used to describe the same situation.

The second half of the table contains additional interesting terms, and are discussed further below.

FrenchItalianSpanishCatalanEnglishDefinition
petit ponttunneltúneltúnelnutmegWhen the ball is played between the legs of an opposing player.
caviar*peach, *gemAn exceptionally good pass.
doppietadobletedobletbrace, double, pairTwo goals by the same player.
coup du chapeautriplettahat-trick, tripletehat-trick, triplethat-trickThree goals by the same player.
pokerpókerpòkerFour goals by the same player.
pokerissimo, manitamanitamaneta*score five, *thrashing, *thrash, *cricket score, *trounceFive goals, but not necessarily by the same player.
but [goal]golgolgolgoalIf you don't know what a goal is you probably won't be interested in this article!
cornercorner, calcio d'angolocórnercórnercornerDitto!
córner olímpicocórner olímpic*goal (straight/directly) from a corner, *score (straight/directly) from a cornerWhen the ball goes straight into the goal from a corner, without touching another player (except perhaps a small touch by a goalkeeper).
arbitrereferí, árbitroàrbitre/arefereeThe main official in charge of a match.
vuelta olímpicalap of honourWhen players walk around the edge of the pitch, celebrating in front of their fans.
cucchiaio, pallonettovaselinavaselinachipA short, high kick going over the head of an opposing player or over the arms of the opposing goalkeeper. Also used as a verb.
grand pont*autopase*autopase*beat, *go (a)roundWhen a player knocks the ball past an opponent on one side and runs around the other side of him or her.
lucarneescuadraescairetop cornerThe area just inside where the crossbar and post meet on the goalposts.
prolongationprórrogapròrrogaextra-timeAn additional 30 minutes of play in knockout matches when the scores are level at the end of ordinary time.
temps additionnelprolongación, descuento, tiempo añadidoprolongació, descompte, temps afegitinjury time, stoppage time, time added onAdditional time added by the referee to compensate for time lost due to injuries, substitutions or time-wasting.

Joseph’s article does not offer a translation of manita. I believe there is no specific term in English. We would either say that a team scored five or use an expression that refers to the fact that a team were well beaten, such as the verbs thrash or trounce. The expression cricket score is often used when a team is banging in the goals. A commentator might say ‘At one stage Arsenal looked like they might make it a cricket score‘. For those unfamiliar with cricket, this is an exaggeration. Even the lowest innings score ever in first-class cricket is 26, but normally a cricket score would be in excess of 150.

An interesting term in Spanish (and Catalan) is córner olímpico, literally an ‘Olympic corner’. In English we have no such term, so we’d just have to say that a player ‘scored straight from a corner’. According to Nicolás Alejandro Cunto’s blog, the term was coined when Argentina scored such a goal against Uruguay in 1924. The Uruguayan team had recently won the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Paris, where they celebrated with a lap of honour, which in Spanish was dubbed a vuelta olímpica – an Olympic lap or tour – a term still used in Spanish – and in Catalan – to this day.

The same article by Nicolás Alejandro Cunto illustrates the much higher proportion of words borrowed from English in Latin American Spanish than in Spanish Spanish. He uses referí (referee) rather than árbitro and wing (winger) rather than lateral.

Another curious Spanish term is vaselina, literally meaning ‘Vaseline’, to refer to what in English we call a chip. In English the word chip is often used as a verb rather than a noun, so ‘marcó con una vaselina’ might become ‘chipped the ball (over the goalkeeper’s head and) into the net’.

Joseph’s article mentions petit pont (small bridge), the French term for a nutmeg. French football parlance also has the grand pont (big bridge), which is when an attacking player knocks the ball past a defender on one side and then runs around the other side of the defender. (If you’re confused by this explanation, watch this exquisite ‘grand pont’ and goal by an 8-year-old called Adam, and if you’re not confused, watch it anyway!) There is no term as precise as this in English. Although a translator could describe the action precisely by explaining the manoeuvre in detail, this is a good example of where it is better to let some information become lost in translation in the interest of maintaining good style (e.g. ‘Ronaldo beat Johnson on the right flank before unleashing a cross to the far post…’).

French refers to the top corner as the lucarne (skylight); Spanish and Catalan use escuadra and escaire respectively, both meaning ‘right angle’. The closer the ball is to the junction between the crossbar and the upright, the more likely a French writer or commentator is to say en pleine lucarne (‘right in the top corner’, or ‘in the very top corner’).

Finally, translators working between French and Spanish or French and Catalan should watch out for a false friend when referring to extra time and injury time (see the table for other synonyms). Extra time is called la prolongation in French, but in Spanish and Catalan prolongación and prolongació mean injury time; extra time is called prórroga and pròrroga respectively.

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Key changer for OpenSong using the Do, Re, Mi system

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Update on 5 November 2013

The original file I uploaded didn’t work properly. Please use this updated file.

If you want to see how it works, open up this demonstration file in a text editor, then run the exe file and play with the shortcut keys. Remember to release shift-ctrl before pressing each shortcut.

____________________________________

Various tools for projecting song words allow users to add chords to be used by musicians. Such tools are often used by Evangelical churches to project the words of a song for the congregation. In OpenSong files, lines starting with a dot are ignored by the software when projecting the words on a screen but are shown in exports used by the musicians, so a typical section of an OpenSong file might read something like this:

.Do Fa La Fa
These are some words to a song, shoop shoop

OpenSong has a tool to enable the user to change key, but since the program was designed by people in an English-speaking country that uses the “C, D, E,…” system, it is not designed to work with chords written using the “Do, Re, Mi,…” system.

I have designed a tool that will convert chords written in the “Do, Re, Mi,…” system used in Spain, among other places. You can download it here.

It has been tested with OpenSong. If you have files in a different format (i.e. chord lines don’t start with a dot), let me know and I’ll try to adapt it for you.

For this to work you must be using the scale Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si, Do. If you live in a country that uses a slight variation, let me know and I’ll try to adapt it.

To use the tool, run the exe file, read the shortcuts in the dialogue box, then place your cursor in the text file (download a demo file here) containing the words and chords and press the appropriate shortcut. You can use it in the song editor in OpenSong or by opening the song source files in a text editor.

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