Word count in translation

Both a professional freelance translator and project manager could face challenges charging a translation job or project. Drawing on a previous experience of translation industry professionals we have to learn ways to enhance the value of our effort. Let’s have a look at what influences calculating translation.

The number of words in a document usually increases or decreases when the document is translated. The text expansion and contraction are attributes of the translation procedure. Take it into account while calculating translations.

The number of characters would always vary. It depends on different language pairs as well as a type of specialized translation whether they are medical, IT, technical, financial, economic, legal, literary, etc.

Language matters

In general, a text translated from English to French, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Romanian, or Russian will expand by about 10-20% and vice versa. So for example your French to English translation text will contract by around 10-20%. Translating from English to Danish or Dutch, Portuguese, Greek, Turkish, your text will grow by about 20% or even 30% and vice versa.

The other way around the text translated from English to Swedish, Finnish or Norwegian will contract approximately by 30% and expand in reverse translation. Chinese and other ideographic languages will contract by about 30-40%.

The figures presented above may only be approximate. As it was mentioned before the text expansion depends on a subject matter and terminology to a great extent. Also the quality of the writing matters. Alternatively, you could find information referring to Romance languages using nearly 30% more space in each line of text than English does. Cyrillic-alphabet languages use up to 45% more space. Chinese, Korean, and Japanese take up about 20% less space.

Without regard to measuring units that you use for a text volume evaluation, you need to anticipate changes in the target text size in relation to the source text. Include it in the calculation. Notice that calculating the price per word of the source or target language reduces costs at times. And at other times it increases them.

Calculating translation with a word-count tool.

To fulfill an accurate and quick estimation a professional software gives the best fit. With AnyCount you can calculate not only words but also any text elements and custom count units in your files and documents. Find out more about AnyCount.

Michał Tosza shows us how to use the wordcount and statistics feature in memoQ to present your client with transparent information when quoting a project.
Last time I briefly introduced 5 memoQ functions that are especially useful when localizing games. As I told you back then, I would elaborate on each of them on future articles. So today, it is time to analyze those memoQ features that can help us calculate the amount of work and time required to localize a medium-sized game.

Let us imagine we have the following scenario: We have just received an incoming query from a small independent game developer. Let’s call them GreatGames. They are ready to publish their next game, but they know that localization is vital to reach as many potential customers as possible. Before launching the game, they approach you and ask for a quote (the price of translation). They also request you to provide an estimation of the time it takes to localize their game. They are honest and state that you are not the only translator they are contacting.

Now let us try to analyze this developer:
 

• They have no localization experience. This is the first game they will localize,
• They are likely to be price-sensitive. After all, they are an independent studio,
• They would need a concrete time-span of the translation process. They are close to their launch deadline,
• They value transparency. They have been transparent too when they told you are not the only translator they have contacted.

All in all, they expect a straightforward calculation, a concrete deadline, moderate price, and transparent communication. So, what do you need to do to get this job and win this client? You need to deliver exactly all they need. Or even more, as “underpromise and overdeliver” is a powerful business strategy.

How can memoQ help with this task?

First, you need to acquaint this developer with basic translation industry standards, such as the fact that financial and deadline calculations are rooted in the number of source words in the translation project.

But, what are source words?

Source: the amount of text calculated in the original file.

Why not in the translation? We simply do not know the length of the translation (target text) and for that reason, it is impossible to agree on a price for the translation while negotiating the job.

Word: it is not as straightforward as it seems.

Word is a string of letters, special characters or numbers ending with space, end of line character, or end-of-sentence punctuation. Why will we use words as the basis for our calculations? Because all CAT-tools (memoQ included) treat it as a standard unit of measure when analyzing, calculating, parsing and performing all other operations on texts. This is simply an industry standard.
 

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A piece homework for you: 

John has got a cat.
John’s got a cat.
John’s got 345 cats.
John has got 23 000 cats.
John has got 23.000 cats.
John has got #### cats.
John

How many words are there in each of these segments? This is your homework for the next time. You can download this simple file here, import to memoQ and find out.
 

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You can save this definition of source words to be passed on to the developer when sending your bid. Now we need to move on and analyze the file they delivered.
 

1. Create a project for GreatGames in memoQ and import the file for translation

The imported file is displayed in Project home > Translation > Documents section. You can find the total number of words next to the file name (in the # column). 
 

The word count for translation is the number of words contained in the file that you need to translate. There are different ways to calculate this word count, depending on the type of text and what it represents.

Document translation

If you have a text file to translate, in any file format, you can register an account and create a Document translation project. Enter the word count in the “Work Conditions” section and you will get the quote for your translation.

Many software can help you get the word count depending on the file format. The most popular text editors have a word count tool function to calculate the number of words in your file.

Microsoft Office suite

You can use the Word Count function in Microsoft Word under the Review menu.

For PowerPoint, go the File tab, click Info and then Show All Properties. The Words property counts all the text on slides and notes pages.

Note that Microsoft Excel does not have the word count function, but you can copy the cells with the desired text in Word to calculate an estimated word count.

OpenOffice and LibreOffice suites

If you do not use Microsoft Office, both OpenOffice and LibreOffice are valid free alternatives. Their text editing software provides a word count tool function under Tools -> Word Count.

Google Drive

For Google Docs files, open your document in Google Drive, then go to the Tools menu and select Word count to see the number of words.

The word count function isn’t available for Google Sheet or Slides, but you can copy their content in a Docs file.

You can import in Google Drive also Microsoft Office files in compatibility mode to get their word count.

Export a Google Drive file for translation

You can export a Google Doc, Sheet or Slide and download it on your computer. There are several file formats you can choose from. To have the document translated, you can download it as a Microsoft Office suite file. Some very common file formats are .docx, .xlsx, .pptx. Any translator will be able to work on them.

To export and download your Google document, follow these steps:

1. Open the file.
2. Click File -> Download as.
3. Choose a file format.

PDF files

For PDF files, the best way to calculate the word count is to convert them in a text file.

Convert to a text file with Acrobat Pro

If you have Acrobat Pro, you can export the document in a Word file format going to File -> Save As Other… -> Microsoft Word -> Word Document.

Copy or open in Word or other text editors

You can select parts of the text or the entire PDF contents and copy them in Word or your preferred text editing software.

Word and other text editors can open PDF files. When you select to open a PDF, they will convert it. The results of the conversion depend on the PDF formatting, but in most cases the converted file is suitable to get an estimate of the word count.

Upload to Google Drive

Google Drive can convert a PDF file to a Docs one in order to get the word count:

1. Go to Google Drive.
2. Upload the PDF file.
3. Right-click on the PDF file.
4. Click Open with -> Google Docs.
5. The file will be converted to a Google Doc.
6. Open the converted Docs document and go to Tools -> Word count to see the word count.

Convert an image PDF to a text file

PDF files can be made of images instead of text. In this case, it is necessary to convert the images into text before calculating the word wound. While you could use specific OCR (Optical character recognition) software, Google Drive offers an effective solution.

You can upload an image PDF in Google Drive as explained above. Google will convert the images or PDF in a Google Docs, but some formatting might not transfer (see the Google documentation for more information). The word count of the converted file will be a rough estimate, you can provide both the original file and the converted one to the translators and they will confirm the quote for you.

Use online tools

There are also online tools to calculate the word count of many file formats. Doc Word Counter allows you to drag and drop the file and get its word count.

If you don’t have a file, you can use website services where you can simply paste the text to calculate the word count.

Software and app strings files

We offer dedicated software projects to easily manage the translation of your strings.

Supported file formats:

GNU Gettext PO or POT (.po, .pot)	UTF-8 Unicode
Android XML (.xml)	UTF-8 Unicode
Apple strings UTF-16LE (.strings)	UTF-16LE Unicode (LLHH)
Apple strings UTF-8 (.strings)	UTF-8 Unicode
Apple StringsDict (.stringsdict)	UTF-8 Unicode
Apple PLIST XML (.plist)	UTF-8 Unicode
INI file (.ini)(Joomla, Delphi Unicode Resource)	UTF-16LE Unicode (LLHH)
IPP XML	UTF-8 Unicode
Java Property Resource Bundle Unicode (.properties)	Java Unicode (uNNNN)
Label-value pair with no quotes (label=value)	UTF-8 Unicode
Label-value pair with quotes on value (label=”value”)	UTF-8 Unicode
Nevron Dictionary	UTF-8 Unicode
PHP associative array, short syntax (.php)	UTF-8 Unicode
PHP define() statements with double or single quotes (.php)	UTF-8 Unicode
XLIFF (.xliff)	UTF-8 Unicode
XML with ITEM elements and text to translate on “KEY” attribute	UTF-8 Unicode
YAML (.yml, .yaml)	UTF-8 Unicode

If your source file is in one of the supported formats, you can register and create a software project. Simply upload the file and the system will provide you the word count of the strings to translate.

Short and plain text

For simple texts (up to 250 words) you can create an Instant translation project, and our system will count the words for you.

WordPress websites with WPML

The WPML plugin is a complete solution to translate your WordPress websites. WPML includes a website word count tool, which will go through the entire content and produce a complete report for you. To reach it, go to WPML->Translation Management. Scroll to the bottom of the Translation Dashboard and click on the Word Count link.

Once you know how many words there are to translate, it is easier to estimate the translation costs.

You can get a word count estimate for the selected content or entire post types in your site.

Note: WPML word count is only an estimate. You can send the content for translation and ICanLocalize will provide you with the definite word count and quote before starting.

Word count for selected content

Go to the WPML -> Translation Management page. Use the filters to find the items you want to translate. Use the checkboxes to select the desired content and the estimated word count will be displayed right underneath the table.

Word count for entire post types

On the WPML -> Translation Management page, click the Word count for the entire site link.

In the pop-up dialog that appears, select the post types you want to get a word count estimation for and click Recalculate.

I’m ready to translate! Can you help me?

Of course! When you’re ready to start, just register and we will guide you through the entire process. You will get high-quality translations done by professional linguists in a few clicks.

If you need help with the word count for translation, please send us the file by email or in a support ticket. We will be happy to calculate the word count and create the project for you.

By Sandra Bologna

Why is it that when you submit a request for translation to a number of translation agencies, you don’t always get the same word count from each agency? Do these agencies just pick the numbers out of thin air, or is there logic behind the varying word counts?

Since the cost and timeframe for translation is based on the volume of your document, it’s important to obtain the most accurate estimate. As there is no set system or rule currently in place for what tools should be used to produce word counts, you should at the very least be familiar with what might be going on and why you can’t seem to get two agencies to produce one word count.

From generating a word count using the Word Count tool in MS Word, or using a counting tool such as PractiCount and Invoice, to using translation tools such as Trados or Wordfast, it’s hard to produce similar results when each of these tools have their own way of counting. Even though agencies may use these various systems to produce their word counts, a word count generated from Trados will not be the same as a count that has been generated from MS Word.

Contact us for a free translation estimate

Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word assumes that everything between spaces is a word. This means that it will count numbers and symbols. Translation tools on the other hand, will not include these characters when generating a word count, since it is assumed that they don’t actually require translation. There is however, some debate on whether numbers or symbols should be counted. Since they don’t require translation, some think that they shouldn’t be included, while others argue that the translator still has to check and revise each number and symbol, which would warrant them to be included in the count, especially with documents containing a lot of data.

For example, ‘1 2 3 @# + 4’ would be considered six words by Microsoft Word and zero words by Trados.

Also, MS Word does not include text from text boxes, auto-shapes, headers, footers and comments.
For a document containing only a few text boxes with little text, this wouldn’t be a great problem but for documents with many text boxes, this would have a serious effect on the word count. We’ve received projects in the past where due to the nature of the project, the documents had been written entirely in separate text boxes. Since these were considerably large documents, not using an appropriate method for the word count could have proven detrimental.
MS Word does not include text in embedded objects (also called OLE: Object Linking and Embedding) such as an Excel worksheet embedded in a Word document, or diagrams with text. Just like text boxes, or a longer document with a lot of data containing many embedded complex Excel sheets, the low word count numbers you would generate from MS Word would be significant.

For HTML files, the drop down text options would not be counted in MS Word, especially in files that contain a form with predefined options for a drop down box. The HTML page title, button text, and text in meta tags would also not be included in an MS Word count.

PractiCount and Invoice
PractiCount and Invoice is a word count analysis tool that allows you to produce a line and character count in single files, folders, and subfolders. PractiCount and Invoice counts the text in text boxes, headers, footers, footnotes, endnotes, comments, and OLE objects. It also supports various file formats such as; DOC, RTF, XLS, CSV, PPT, PPS, WPD, PDF, HTM, HTML, SHTML, XML, SGML, ASP, and PHP. Using a word count analysis tool such as PractiCount and Invoice will automatically eliminate some of the problems that could occur with MS Word’s Word Count tool.

Translation Tools
Wordfast is a translation tool that counts footnotes, endnotes, headers, and footers. Trados, another translation tool, goes one step further and also counts non-grouped text fields, something Wordfast does not do. These tools don’t count text in grouped text fields or embedded objects.

Then there is the issue of tags. MS Word counts each tag as a word, which would produce an inaccurate word count, whereas Trados ignores all tags. Wordfast counts each group of internal tags as one word, which some say is accurate because the translator has to work with the tag. A benefit of using a translation tool to produce a word count is that a translation tool also allows you to count the number of repetitions in a document, which would result in a quote with a reduced rate.

On average, MS Word produces the lowest word count compared to Trados and Wordfast. Wordfast and PractiCount and Invoice produce higher word counts.

Agencies will generate your word count depending on the document. If it is a simple Word file with only straight non-repetitious text, a count using MS Word’s word counting tool works fine. For other documents that are more complex and require further analysis, either a word counting analysis tool or a translation tool should be used. Still, with such varying methods of producing a word count, it’s not rare that quotes received from different agencies may contain different word counts.