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Websites translation: how to quote
Thread poster: carlo van di (X)
carlo van di (X)
carlo van di (X)
Local time: 11:38
English to Dutch
+ ...
Mar 19, 2009

I was asked to translate a website. Scanning through, it seems like a lot of work. I can't see exactly how many words/pages there are. Does anyone know how to disect a website in order to be able to quote for it? Should I contact the webmaster?

Surely a translator cannot be expected to scan every link and keep track of the word count etc.
Please advise. Thank you very much.

Carlo

[Edited at 2009-03-19 12:44 GMT]
 
Lori Cirefice
Lori Cirefice  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 11:38
French to English
source files Mar 19, 2009

Ask your client to send you the source files - or ask them to put you in contact with the person who can provide them.

See recent discussion here http://www.proz.com/forum/localization/130538-localising_translating_a_website_from_a_to_z.html
 
carlo van di (X)
carlo van di (X)
Local time: 11:38
English to Dutch
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Found more helpful links Mar 19, 2009

Thanks very much Lori! Seems like many people have the same problem.

I have now found another post on this topic:
http://www.proz.com/forum/proofreading_editing_reviewing/121213-roughly_counting_words_to_proofread_a_website.html

I am thinking of trying the following, as recommended by Anthony Baldwin: [quote]Anthony Baldwin wrote:

I would just download the html files from the site, and open them in the OpenOffice.org html editor, which can count the words.
Also, I could create an OmegaT project with said html files, and get an accurate breakdown of the word count, repetitions, etc., from OmegaT.

and I might try this one:
[quote]Ray_S wrote:

I have used this (still lurks in my bookmark collection folder) in the past: http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/translation/website-wordcount-tool.php
 
Karen Stokes
Karen Stokes  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:38
Member (2003)
French to English
Beware of changes Mar 19, 2009

Websites are dynamic things. I'd follow Lori's advice and get the source files so that both you and the client know exactly what you're quoting for and translating. If you simply download the files today and the client makes a whole lot of changes tomorrow, neither of you will know where you are.

Best,

Karen
 
Igor Indruch
Igor Indruch  Identity Verified
Czech Republic
Local time: 11:38
English to Czech
sometimes there are is no choice... Mar 19, 2009

Karen Stokes wrote:

Websites are dynamic things. I'd follow Lori's advice and get the source files so that both you and the client know exactly what you're quoting for and translating. If you simply download the files today and the client makes a whole lot of changes tomorrow, neither of you will know where you are.

Best,

Karen


As I wrote in recent post about this, it is quite common that clients do not have source files. Sometimes they are able to provide XML, but quite often realy just link to their site. It is especially a case for companies, who had a web page only in their local language for several years, so most of the original source files are lost or in hardcopy form.

So grabbing the site is the only option in such case.

Put a condition in the contract that web site would be localized only as it is to some specific date and anything newer would be considered as new project.

[Edited at 2009-03-19 15:22 GMT]
 
Riccardo Schiaffino
Riccardo Schiaffino  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 03:38
Member (2003)
English to Italian
+ ...
Nonsense Mar 19, 2009

Igor Indruch wrote:

As I wrote in recent post about this, it is quite common that clients do not have source files. Sometimes they are able to provide XML, but quite often realy just link to their site. It is especially a case for companies, who had a web page only in their local language for several years, so most of the original source files are lost or in hardcopy form.


Apart from the editable source files for graphics, which, indeed, could be lost, this is nonsense. They may have lost track of their files, but if they have a web site up and running, the various html, xml, css, (etc.) are all available on the server where the web site resides.

The person requesting the translation may not know how to get to those files, but their webmaster have to have access to them.

Even if they are unwilling or unable to help, there are programs that permit to download all the files from a website in one fell swoop.
 
Riccardo Schiaffino
Riccardo Schiaffino  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 03:38
Member (2003)
English to Italian
+ ...
Of course not Mar 19, 2009

carlo van dijk wrote:

Surely a translator cannot be expected to scan every link and keep track of the word count etc.
Please advise. Thank you very much.



Get the customer to send you all the files to translte, and run a word count on them with an appropriate tool (e.g., Trados).
 


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Websites translation: how to quote







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