Mac or PC? That impossible question for translators
This is a question that I regularly come across on forums, I'm sure I've even asked it myself and the answer always seems to be - it depends.
Does it really depend? What does it depend on?
Disclaimer - I'm not being paid by Apple or Windows for this post!!
After the recent "Macbook meets glass of water" incident that my close friends will know about I was forced to come face to face with this question yet again. It's okay, in the end the Macbook was repaired and all data recovered and a lesson in back-ups and water bottles not glasses was learnt!
Anyway, as I was saying a valuable lesson was learned, as I spent 5 days with no Macbook feeling very lost and frustrated by the old, sloooooow, lump of a PC that I call my "spare". During those 5 days I had to prepare for an assignment, manage without a whole ton of documents (that I had obviously not backed-up for months despite owning two hard-drives just for that purpose...) and I wondered what I would have done if I'd had a translation job too.
Whenever I see that question - Mac or PC - my answer has, unfortunately for your wallet, to be both! I'm speaking wearing my translator's hat for this part of the answer (for interpreting for me it has to be Mac all the way) - I honestly don't know how I'd translate without both - my PC serves for Trados and Abbyy only - nothing else. I don't connect it to the internet and heaven forbid I don't have a constant power supply as it only lasts about two minutes without being plugged in. Okay yes it's an old laptop, but it works perfectly for Trados and Abbyy. Then I have my trusty, speedy, all-day-without-being-plugged-in, shiny Mac next to the laptop, firing up all my research, and for me what really is worth the price tag - Pages!!
I don't know if you've ever had to translate a fiddly graphic or gone crazy screaming at Word when yet again it moves everything when you just wanted to add a simple text box to make your translation look just like the original.... my answer to it all your woes is Pages on Mac. It truly is my lifesaving piece of software and I use it for 99% of all my translation jobs.
Obviously not everyone has the luxury of having both a Mac and a PC (as you probably guessed my PC was a hand-me-down from a family member) but I really couldn't work without both for translation.
If you don't have the option for both, and you've already bought a Macbook then don't despair - Marina Brunello wrote a really useful post about using CAT tools on a Mac - check it out here.
Also - if nothing else, learn from my accident - don't forget to do your back-ups!!
What about you? What's your preference and why?
