Sergio Alasia e Marco Cevoli

Complete Guide to OmegaT

Techniques, tips and tricks for translators and project managers

The book

Over 185 pages, this manual (currently available in Italian only) covers both the basics and the more advanced functions of OmegaT, focusing in particular on the procedures that allow a linguist to translate more than 20 file formats, from a simple Word document to InDesign or LaTeX.

The book also unveils all the tricks for using OmegaT to open and translate files from other translation programmes, such as SDL Trados TagEditor, or Wordfast Classic or Pro. Complete Guide to OmegaT is therefore aimed at all persons not familiar with OmegaT (or who do not know all its functions) and who are looking for a clear, complete and detailed manual in order to quickly learn how to make the best use of this computer-aided translation tool.

The book is split into 5 chapters that take an in-depth look at all the features of OmegaT, accompanying the reader from installation to discovering its most advanced features.

  • The first chapter introduces the concept of computer-assisted translation and CAT tools, explaining their advantages and disadvantages, while giving an overview of the various commercial and free tools.
  • The second chapter presents OmegaT in the context of free and open source translation tools and introduces its structure and interface.
  • The third chapter describes in detail how to choose, download and install OmegaT on the three most common platforms: Windows, Mac and Linux.
  • The fourth chapter explains how to work with OmegaT, guiding the user through the various stages of a translation project.
  • The fifth chapter discusses the advanced features of OmegaT, showcasing some less common functions and illustrating various typical usage scenarios, including in combination with other free and open source tools.

The manual includes a number of Appendices with 2 handy sheets containing the most useful keyboard shortcuts, codes for representing languages, lists of stop words in Italian and English for use with dictionaries, and answers to frequently asked questions.

The text concludes with a recommended bibliography and a list of useful programmes.

IMPORTANT: The Guide was published in 2012 and is current with OmegaT version 2.5. We are working on an update and an English translation, but as yet we don’t have a date for its release. You can check our online training course on OmegaT if you’d like to learn more about this software.