Free-flowing text in digital format. Embedded text in illustrations, formatted PDF-files, PowerPoint presentations, scanned papers and the like. Text which is not digitized.

The free-flowing, digital text is considerably quicker to deal with than the other two formats. Free-flowing, digital text can very well be formatted; "DOC". "RTF" and "HTML"-pages (= i.e. webpages) are example-formats of free-flowing text. Such formats can as a rule be handled with CAT-tools, which is quicker than the other formats.

Embedded text has to be dealt with in the file format they are used in, and CAT-tools cannot be used.

Non-digitized text can be handwritten papers or scanned images, and do not easily lend themselves to CAT-tool-usage. They can sometimes be OCR-treated, but this is never really worth the time.

There are therefore separate rates for translations of free-flowing, digital text and the other two categories.

• All these prices assume that the text is available in some kind of digital format. If the source text to be translated has been scanned, faxed and/or handwritten, and thus is presented to me in some kind of graphical format, there will be an additional charge, since this involves a lot more work. I might even turn down this type of assignment. If your text is not digitized, let me look at it and give you an offer.

• A "rush job" is considered to be free-flowing, digital (unformatted) text that must be delivered within 12 hours. Other types of text are not "rush jobs". They take longer time to expedite.

• Assignments from translating agencies are a bit different. They (the agencies) usually set the rates; it´s a kind of take-it-or-leave-it type of situation.

I charge roughly US $ 45 per hour. But as a rule, I make you an offer for each project, where I estimate the time required for the job.

Yes, I have on occasion made "combined" jobs, involving both production and translation of documentation, such as course material. Usually, the material is available in one language, but needs updating and inclusion of new material, even new illustrations, and then translated as well.

For this kind of projects, I charge a special rate, based on the estimated time it will take for the whole job.

The need for Technical Documentation

The need for technical documentation is growing with leaps and bounds! In the USA, writing of technical manuals for computer operatives, computer programs and programming languages is flourishing. As soon as a new version of any of these hits the market, manuals for all of these new versions also appear.

Have you ever wondered why these manuals as a rule are so thick? Well, the answer is of course that the authors of these books get paid by the word!

Talk about "heavy reading"!