- Editorial
- T&I Newswire - Quality Control Conference
- In the Spotlight - Inflation Bites Back
- Tech Tip - Assigning shortcut keys in Word
- Featured Client - LudoTIC
- Events Calendar
- ExTra Photos
- Advertisement
Customize your keyboard with Word! As translators, we use Word's word count tool several times a day to count the number of words in a document. Instead of using the mouse to go into Tools > Word Count... we assigned a shortcut key "Alt+W" to do this for us. Click here to see how we do this. You should consider doing the same if there are commands you use all the time--it's easy!
Ever sat through a 50-minute PowerPoint presentation that read like a novel? Thanks to LudoTIC, specialist in multimedia usability, there should be far fewer of those to put up with. We recently finished translating LudoTIC's training catalogue and are looking forward to attending a course on how to create more effective and technically successful presentations.
WORDFAST TRAINING - L2
September 4 & 5
Lausanne
Increase your productivity and the quality of your translations (training in English). Sign up...
SDL TRADOS TRAINING
September 9 & 10
Lyon
One day for beginners followed by an intermediate level training for more experienced users. Sign up...
WORDFAST TRAINING - L1
September 11 & 12
Paris
Learn how to use one of the most popular translation environment tools in the world (training in French). Sign up...
WORDFAST TRAINING - L2
October 20 & 21
Paris
Increase your productivity and the quality of your translations (training in French). Sign up...
WORDFAST TRAINING - L1
November 4
Orlando
A one-day introduction to Wordfast to get you operational with translation memory software. Sign up...
AMERICAN TRANSLATORS ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE
November 5 to 8
Orlando
Hundreds of translators will gather for professional development, networking, and a little Disney fun. Read more...
PROZ.COM TRANSLATION CONFERENCE
November 21 & 22
Paris
Translators from France and Europe gathering for two days of quality control training and networking in Paris. Read more...
Check out the beautiful art that Apex Traduction sponsored during the Craies d'Azur street painting festival, organized by the Pays Niçois local chapter of the Junicr Chamber International. Click here to see them...
Dear Reader,
Summer is here at last (for those of us in the Northern hemisphere) and we hope you've all been enjoying the nice weather, seaside cocktails, and vacation with family and friends.
The most pressing announcements are perhaps all of the events we have linded up this fall. We've scheduled several Wordfast trainings over the next few months and we're currently developing some new trainings that we're going to start offering in 2009.
We'll also be organizing or attending professional conferences in Paris and Orlando in November. We're very excited about the "Quality Control" theme that was chosen for the ProZ.com and Apex co-sponsored conference in Paris.
Otherwise, we have some funny tales to tell you about the twisted translations we've come across recently and our wild adventures hitchhiking in St Blaise.
Thanks for reading,
Anaïs and John Di Rico, Apex Traduction
Apex co-organizing the second annual French translation conference with ProZ.com
Mark your calendars freelance and salaried translators: this is the professional event you've been waiting for... Virginie Vermonet and John Di Rico have put together a great program for two days of training and networking in Paris come
November. This year's theme is quality control and several industry experts will be running trainings dealing with translation standards, proofreading processes, software tools, and more. Participants get to choose from more than 10 trainings during the two days, and special networking events have been lined up to talk shop, meet each other, and take time off to enjoy the finer things in life (i.e. gourmet dining in Paris!). Check out the program and sign up as soon as possible because space is limited: http://www.proz.com/conference/62.
On a lighter note, we couldn't help but take a picture of this sign at a highway rest area in the Aveyron region of France. Our personal favorite: "Don't park your car in a lonely place not enlightened"!
Inflation, oil security, and food for thought
Are you as concerned about inflation as we are these days? Though some places are worse off than France or the USA (Zimbabwe for example), we still have a lot to worry about. An article from the Financial Times reports that Dow chemicals is raising prices on all its products by up to 20%. Another tells us that Arcelor-Mittal will be raising the price of steel for automobiles by almost 60%. So if the price of oil, food, and consumer goods are going up, what about services?
It would seem only natural that prices in the service industry increase along the same lines. However, services require less natural resources, the shortage of which is the main culprit behind spiralling prices. Plus, when prices rise, people start by cutting spending that benefits the service industry. In other words, demand decreases and if the supply doesn't readjust, prices are bound to fall.
So what is Apex going to do about it? We've taken some concrete measures for both you and us. First, thanks to improved efficiency, we're freezing almost all of our rates. We've also decided to publish them for more transparency.
We're also doing our part to ween ourselves off oil. We've become avid users of mass transit, despite living 30 minutes outside of Nice, with very few buses into and out of the city, and a 5-minute bike ride to the bus stop! This has its immediate advantages however. In July, John missed the bus and had to hitchhike down to Nice. Suprisingly, the good samaritan who picked him up was in dire need of a translator. Before we knew it, a environmentally-friendly missed bus turned into a €500 business opportunity!
Hopefully, prices will start to cool off as demand contracts and speculators get burned. In the meantime, we'll be pursuing our fight against inflation by improving our efficiency and cutting ever more costs. It's just another one of our commitments to you: delivering quality translations at fair value.
Want to fly for free? We have had a French American Express card for several years now and every purchase that we make earns us frequent flyer miles.
During the month of August, anyone we refer to the program gets 3000 miles credited to their Air France KLM frequent flyer program. You get an American Express Gold card free for the entire year, earn miles for every euro spent, and get special travel insurance when you purchase airline tickets. As for us, we earn miles for referring you!
If you're interested, click here to sign up for an Amex card. Please let us know if you sign up so we can thank you personally.
Apex Traduction in a nutshell:
- Owned and operated by a team of Franco-American translators
- Specializing in finance, marketing, tourism, and website translations
- Accredited training center - professional development for translators
- A network of independent, qualified translators headquartered just outside of Nice, France
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