Tips

Recently, our partners, the creator of ChangeTracker, Protemos LLC company has released new business translation management system - Protemos.

Protemos is a brand new online project management service developed especially for freelance translators. There is also an Enterprise version for translation agencies, but in this post we’ll talk about the Freelance version.

The project’s main feature is that it’s very easy-to-use and forever free for freelancers. To sign up, just visit www.protemos.com and click the corresponding button.

Setting up an account is quick and straightforward, so you can start working with your new account in just a couple of minutes.

You need to fill in several fields, enter some basic system values, and then you can start creating projects. After you sign up you’ll receive the user manual. Alternatively, you can download it directly here: http://protemos.com/assets/files/Protemos_Quick_Start_Manual_En.pdf. The manual is short and sweet. It’s really a step-by-step guide that doesn’t contain any redundant information.

So, the first thing you need to do is add system values. System values let you to add the language pairs you work with, your offered services (in addition to translation and proofreading, you can indicate other services such as layout design, OCR, etc.), specializations (preferred topics), accepted currencies for payments, and units (words, pages, etc.).

To add new system values or search previously added valued, use the System > System values menu, where  you’ll find the tabs for each category of values:

Next, you may want to create a project in the system. Creating a project is very simple: just click New Project on the Projects tab, which is opened by default:

Then fill in the necessary information:

The primary purpose of using the Freelance version is to bring order to your customer relationships: you can keep records of all your clients (current and potential), maintaining all contact information, prices, and agreements in one place.

It is easy to search for and add clients, just like searching for or creating projects. All tabs are designed with the same intuitive user interface:

You can also import your clients from an Excel spreadsheet.

If you already have a list of clients, you can easily search for the one you need, filtering your list by the first letters of the client’s name, ID, email address, or status.

After a couple of months of translation work, you may want to create some reports to see how successful you have been as a freelance translator, proofreader, or other service provider:

You can create general financial reports or summary reports based on projects, invoices, or actual payments. By comparing the reports, you will easily see which clients owe you money and who may need a gentle reminder about a payment due.

You can also analyze your performance using the Finances menu. It’s divided logically into receivables, invoices, and payments, so you can use a template to create your own invoices according to a due date.

There is another menu for adding new (project, client, or payment) records to the system. This quick menu duplicates part of the functionality of the main menu, but it can help save a lot of time on common actions:

Thus, Protemos allows freelancers to:

1. Maintain all client information, as shown above.
2. Maintain all project-related information, including potential (quotes) and actual projects; link projects and clients; add receivables and deadlines.
3. Store project-related files in the cloud.
4. Automatically generate quotes and invoices and send them to the client right from the system.
5. Record every client’s payments and clearly see who owes you money and whether there are any overdue payments.
6. Automatically generate statistics by client and by order; receive notification of your monthly salary, which clients are most profitable, what trends are there in invoicing and payments, etc.
7. Export any tables into Excel spreadsheets for further processing, if needed.

In summary, Protemos lets you manage your freelance activities in a simple but very helpful way. This approach is definitely much more flexible and reliable than using Excel spreadsheets alone. It may also be preferable to other competing products in terms of the interface and price (remember, it’s free for freelancers).

This system allows a freelancer to streamline project management activities, freeing up more time for actual translation work.

Moreover, Protemos developers are gathering feedback to make Protemos even more of what users want. The Protemos team would love to hear your ideas. Just sign up at www.protemos.com, try the system, and send us your feedback.

Did you know? Just as you copy and paste the text itself, you can copy and "paste" its format. The only change is adding SHIFT key to the same shortcuts:

• Copy text: CTRL + C
• Copy format: CTRL + SHIFT + C
• Paste text: CTRL + V
• Paste format: CTRL + SHIFT + V

In other words, you can copy, for example, "COURIER NEW + bold + underlined," and then apply ("paste") this format to another text fragment.

Use this little but useful hint!

It is easy to segment the text correctly during the translation stage: it is enough to make sure that source text has the required text fragments.

The segment that you need to add the additional fragment to can be expanded using the Expand command (key combination CTRL+ALT+PgDn):

The segment is expanded to the nearest character that TagEditor treats as the segmentation sign. If an "unnecessary" fragment gets into the segment, it can be "moved" to the next segment using the Shrink command (key combination CTRL+ALT+PgUp):

The non-segmented text is displayed in TagEditor as follows (let's take, for example, Alice in Wonderland):

The non-segmented text is displayed in TagEditor as follows (let's take, for example, Alice in Wonderland):

As you see, TagEditor has cut the first segment at the colon after "nothing to do" and broken the sentence into two parts. It would be logical to expand that segment by adding the second part of the sentence:

once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, 'and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice 'without pictures or conversation?'

But that part has already been placed in the second segment. That's why, first you need to remove the second segment. Otherwise, you won't be able to expand the first segment. To do so, open the second segment by pressing ALT+Home:

In order not to lose the translation (so-called target), you need to select and copy it into the clipboard by pressing CTRL+C. Then remove the translation by pressing ATL+Del:

The translation is removed and only the source English text is left. Remember that translation is stored in the clipboard. Now you return to the first segment and open it:

You expand it (TagEditor allows doing it as there is no second segment anymore) by pressing CTRL+ALT+PgDn:

Now you need to paste the translation of the second segment into the target from the clipboard by placing the cursor at the end of the first segment and pressing CTRL+V:

...and close it with committing the translation into the translation memory by pressing ALT+End:

This way all the text of the pre-translated second segment has been combined with the first segment.

There is a relatively easy and quick way to insert special characters into the text. To do this, you need to press ALT key and then to enter a special code on the additional numeric keypad (yes, exactly: entering via numeric keys above the basic keypad with letters is impossible). It is so called entering via ALT codes. A special 4-digit code is assigned to each character. Try to remember several ALT codes for the most frequently used characters. But what to do, if there is no separate numeric pad at all, for example, on a 13" laptop? In this case, Fn key helps: it allows to enter digits by letters keys :) Here are the equivalents:

• ALT+Num 0 = ALT+Fn+M
• ALT+Num 1 = ALT+Fn+J
• ALT+Num 2 = ALT+Fn+K
• ALT+Num 3 = ALT+Fn+L
• ALT+Num 4 = ALT+Fn+U
• ALT+Num 5 = ALT+Fn+I
• ALT+Num 6 = ALT+Fn+O
• ALT+Num 7 = ALT+Fn+7
• ALT+Num 8 = ALT+Fn+8
• ALT+Num 9 = ALT+Fn+9

Here is how they look on the keyboard: