Character counts…

The most viewed article I have ever written by far was “So how many words do you think it was?” which I wrote in 2012 almost ten years ago.  I revised it once in 2015 and whilst I could revise it again based on the current versions of Trados Studio I don’t really see the point.  The real value of that article was understanding how the content can influence a word-count and why there could be differences between different applications, or versions of the same application, when analysing a text.  But I do think it’s worth revisiting in the context of MT (machine translation) which is often measured in characters as opposed to words… and oh yes, another long article warning!

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The portfolio merry-go-round…

Growing a product range, buying new companies, being bought yourself, adopting new technology, reorganising  etc… all of this creates significant change across an organisation that often feels as though you’re on a merry-go-round where things change as you go around until you’re back to where you started and then it all changes again.  I can only imagine that feeling applies to customers and employees alike as each revolution strives to be better than the last, easier to navigate, meaningful in its purpose and full of the promise of success once properly implemented… and yet slightly confusing at the same time!

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What’s in a name?

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

In Shakespeare’s soliloquy, Romeo and Juliet, Juliet isn’t allowed to be with Romeo because his family name is Montague… sworn enemies of the Capulet family.  Of course she doesn’t care about his name, he’d still be everything she wanted irrespective of what he was called.  The rose would still smell as sweet irrespective of what it was called.  “Trados”, “SDL” and “RWS” have endured, or enjoyed, a feuding history as competitors in the same industry.  Our names are our brand and now that they’re changing do we still smell as sweet?  Sadly things don’t end well for poor Romeo and Juliet… but in our story we fare a little better!

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