| Stran v tématu: [1 2] > | Looking for online dictionaries Autor vlákna: Lautreamont (X)
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Lautreamont (X)
Local time: 20:49
nizozemština -> španělština
+ ...
Hello,
My company would like to purchase specialized online dictionaries (bilingual: EN-ES and viceversa)
They asked me to search the net and come up with some good ideas regarding financial, marketing and general dictionaries. They are willing to pay a monthly/annual quote for them.
I was wondering if anyone could help me on this issue since the information available is overwhelming and I do not know which one is better or more accurate.
Thank... See more Hello,
My company would like to purchase specialized online dictionaries (bilingual: EN-ES and viceversa)
They asked me to search the net and come up with some good ideas regarding financial, marketing and general dictionaries. They are willing to pay a monthly/annual quote for them.
I was wondering if anyone could help me on this issue since the information available is overwhelming and I do not know which one is better or more accurate.
Thanks in advance,
Sergio ▲ Collapse
| | | | lounjc4 
Local time: 14:49
angličtina -> španělština
+ ...
| online dictionaries | Mar 30, 2010 |
I recommend babylon dictionaries online. It has very useful dictionaries; you can try it for a week and make the decision to go for it. Good look, lounjc4.
| | | | Reed James
Chile
Local time: 14:49
Člen (2005)
španělština -> angličtina
| Word Magic is the best | Mar 30, 2010 |
I find that the most specialized dictionaries come in paper or PDF format, but Word Magic has been on the market for several years and comes with business, legal, medical and general dictionaries. You can download a trial version at www.wordmagicsoftware.com
| | | | | Not a good idea | Mar 31, 2010 |
Personally I would not spend a single euro in online dictionaries in their current state. Not only many of them are incomplete and misleading, but they are more expensive (you pay time and time again) than paper dictionaries (which you pay only once). We prefer to have a carefully chosen library of dictionaries on paper in our office, and it does wonders for us.
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| Looking for online dictionaries | Mar 31, 2010 |
Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote:
Personally I would not spend a single euro in online dictionaries in their current state. Not only many of them are incomplete and misleading, but they are more expensive (you pay time and time again) than paper dictionaries (which you pay only once). We prefer to have a carefully chosen library of dictionaries on paper in our office, and it does wonders for us.
I agree with you, but would not generalise. I feel multilingual dictionaries like Festo's one or the IEC vocabulary quite useful for technical issues. And they are free...
[Editado a las 2010-03-31 11:17 GMT]
| | | | Reed James
Chile
Local time: 14:49
Člen (2005)
španělština -> angličtina
| What hotkeys do you use with paper dictionaries? | Mar 31, 2010 |
Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote:
Personally I would not spend a single euro in online dictionaries in their current state. Not only many of them are incomplete and misleading, but they are more expensive (you pay time and time again) than paper dictionaries (which you pay only once). We prefer to have a carefully chosen library of dictionaries on paper in our office, and it does wonders for us.
Tomás,
I like paper dictionaries too. I like the sensation of thumbing through them, those seconds of uncertainty. Will the term appear? The terms you invariably come across that you weren't looking for. The way you start to memorize the headwords; some of them curious and ones you never actually use. Or how about the way paper dictionaries get smudged and dogeared with use?
Unfortunately they don't have macros. You can't copy them or send them to a friend without a scanner or an army of data entry people to digitize them. If you use several dictionaries, you have to take the time to look in each one.
By definition, any manmade work is going to be incomplete -whether paper or electronic. You do have to buy new versions of paper dictionaries if you want all the latest terminology. There are computer terms that did not exist 10 years ago that we use today, and the only way to get the latest definition is by going online or buying a more recent edition of a paper dictionary. Are you going to spend money on a new edition of a dictionary just because of a few hundred new terms? It is no coincidence that the selection of bilingual and multilingual dictionaries at local bookstores here in Santiago is dwindling to next to nothing, whereas five years ago, you could find at least a dozen of such dictionaries.
In short, I advocate the use of both paper and electronic dictionaries as well as thoroughly researching the meanings of new and/or unknown terms to ensure we are using the right terms.
[Edited at 2010-03-31 13:19 GMT]
| | | | | Paper dictionaries also have pro's! | Mar 31, 2010 |
Reed D James wrote:
Unfortunately they don't have macros. You can't copy them or send them to a friend without a scanner or an army of data entry people to digitize them. If you use several dictionaries, you have to take the time to look in each one.
Yes, all that is true, but I think we are forgetting the good points here. Here are some that jump to mind:
- The time spent going to the shelve and turning pages gives me precious seconds to imagine a solution; in many cases, I have already found a good solution even before I find the term; it is also healthy for me to stand up every now and then to look in a dictionary
- If they are good, dictionaries are produced with the maximum care by experts in their fields (in many electronic dictionaries you get an unexplained dump of anything possible, which does not help much, I'd say), and you can trust that it was a conscious work because the names of the editors and team appear in the book and their good name is at stake
- You don't need a computer or an electronic device to check your dictionaries; they are compatible for ever as technology evolves, as long as we can still read words...
- You don't need a power outlet or batteries to power your dictionaries
- Although probably a bit outdated, I will be able to give these dictionaries to my kids (would you say the excellent German Mink dictionary is bad to have? I got it from my father)
- If I so decide, I can burn a dictionary and even get warmth for my home out of it, or can find other uses like raising a monitor a little bit; just try to do these two things with electronic dictionaries!
And of course, you don't need to check your dictionaries every time you need to use a term! You can use good dictionaries in your research of the right term, and then feed your termbase with it. Voila! It's readily available (with macros and all) from that moment onwards. It is the quality of the information used in research that worries me most since, after research, I will have the term in my termbases.
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Reed D James wrote: I find that the most specialized dictionaries come in paper or PDF format, but Word Magic has been on the market for several years and comes with business, legal, medical and general dictionaries. You can download a trial version at www.wordmagicsoftware.com
(From Word Magic's website)
Nuestro diccionario técnico especializado en Leyes...
Looks like their own specialised law dictionary is wrong in the translation of "law"... I reckon a scratch in the picture of the car would not help car dealers sell it.
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Pablo Bouvier wrote: I agree with you, but would not generalise. I feel multilingual dictionaries like Festo's one or the IEC vocabulary quite useful for technical issues. And they are free...
I entirely agree. These two are really nice.
I must complain about "control valve" in Festo's. The term "distribuidor" is missing, whereas it is translated correctly in French (second instance of "control valve").
| | | | Reed James
Chile
Local time: 14:49
Člen (2005)
španělština -> angličtina
| Could you please explain? | Mar 31, 2010 |
[quote]Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote:
Reed D James wrote: I find that the most specialized dictionaries come in paper or PDF format, but Word Magic has been on the market for several years and comes with business, legal, medical and general dictionaries. You can download a trial version at www.wordmagicsoftware.com
(From Word Magic's website)
Nuestro diccionario técnico especializado en Leyes...
Could you please explain more about the part that is wrong? How would you write it?
This could be one mistake among a goldmine of well-researched and compiled terms. Paper dictionaries can have errors too. I have seen them, but I could not show you unless I scanned them or copied them here, which would make them semi-electronic (at least in my (electronic) book).
| | | | | Looking for online dictionaries | Mar 31, 2010 |
[quote]Reed D James wrote:
Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote: Reed D James wrote: I find that the most specialized dictionaries come in paper or PDF format, but Word Magic has been on the market for several years and comes with business, legal, medical and general dictionaries. You can download a trial version at www.wordmagicsoftware.com (From Word Magic's website) Nuestro diccionario técnico especializado en Leyes... Could you please explain more about the part that is wrong? How would you write it? This could be one mistake among a goldmine of well-researched and compiled terms. Paper dictionaries can have errors too. I have seen them, but I could not show you unless I scanned them or copied them here, which would make them semi-electronic (at least in my (electronic) book).
I will not enter in the discussion about dictionaries quality. But, please take a deeper look at the right bottom of Wordmagics site, where it says Human translation services, starting at 4 cents. If this is the price offered to the clients, how much of these 4 cents will go to pay the translator? 2 cents?
[Editado a las 2010-03-31 20:06 GMT]
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Reed D James wrote: Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote:
(From Word Magic's website)
Nuestro diccionario técnico especializado en Leyes... Could you please explain more about the part that is wrong? How would you write it? This could be one mistake among a goldmine of well-researched and compiled terms. Paper dictionaries can have errors too. I have seen them, but I could not show you unless I scanned them or copied them here, which would make them semi-electronic (at least in my (electronic) book).
Well, if this was for legal translators, they would have said "especializado en Derecho". Or "especializado en términos jurídicos", but never "...en Leyes...". It is like saying "diccionario técnico especializado en dulces" to mean "especializado en repostería". A matter of register, I reckon.
Of course paper dictionaries have errors. I have some tiny coloured post-its in some of them so that I can port the error warnings to the next edition. I never said they are perfect. But I think that, as a linguist, your name appears among the makers of a dictionary, you better do it right!
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Emma Goldsmith
Španělsko
Local time: 20:49
Člen (2004)
španělština -> angličtina
Word Magic has quite a South American slant to it, which is fine if you live on that side of the ocean, but is misleading elsewhere.
I downloaded a trial of its medical dictionary but was disappointed with its many anglicised terms.
find other uses like raising a monitor a little bit
How did you guess, Tomás, that's just where "Nuevo diccionario politécnico de las lenguas española e inglesa" is sitting! (And the two RAE are side by side under my 15")
| | | | Reed James
Chile
Local time: 14:49
Člen (2005)
španělština -> angličtina
| How would you classify dictionaries in PDF format? | Mar 31, 2010 |
Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote: Of course paper dictionaries have errors. I have some tiny coloured post-its in some of them so that I can port the error warnings to the next edition. I never said they are perfect. But I think that, as a linguist, your name appears among the makers of a dictionary, you better do it right!
So Tomás...what is a PDF version of a paper dictionary? Is it electronic or simply "on-screen paper"? There are several PDFs out there that are simply paper dictionaries and good ones at that. After paying for them, you can download them and they are yours for a long time. (I don't think that either .pdf or .txt formats will become obsolete for quite some time to come).
| | | | | Some examples of eternal things that were phased out | Mar 31, 2010 |
Reed D James wrote:
So Tomás...what is a PDF version of a paper dictionary? Is it electronic or simply "on-screen paper"? There are several PDFs out there that are simply paper dictionaries and good ones at that. After paying for them, you can download them and they are yours for a long time. (I don't think that either .pdf or .txt formats will become obsolete for quite some time to come).
Hm... I reckon a simple PDF format should last longer than some other formats, but we also thought diskettes, CD-ROMs, removable drives, etc. were here to stay and they have been gradually phased out.
I keep thinking that a dictionary is the best option in the long run. At least for me and my way of working! Of course I also use the software version of some of my dictionaries, but just because it is the same quality and information. I thought we were discussing electronic-only dictionaries.
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