Translating doc
Thread poster: DAVOOD RASTGUO
DAVOOD RASTGUO
DAVOOD RASTGUO  Identity Verified
Local time: 00:53
English to Swedish
+ ...
Apr 22, 2023

Hello, do you Wordcount when translating legal documents or they are rather a one-off price for each type of document for example property purchase doc? By the way what is best tool for conversion of images to a Word where the words could be counted_

 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 00:53
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
@Davoud Apr 23, 2023

It depends! I have a one-off price for small translations (driving licences, ID cards, passports, police records, etc.), but larger documents (incorporation of a company, divorce decrees, adoption procedures, etc.), I invoice by word. Regarding images, I do not transfer them (please be careful because under some circumstances this might be considered a counterfeit), I write [image], just like I do with signatures or stamps.

 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 01:53
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
@Davoud Apr 23, 2023

DAVOUD RASTGOU wrote:
Do you do a wordcount when translating legal documents, or do you use a one-off price for each type of document? For example, property purchase document.

I don't do this type of translation, but from what I recall from chats with colleagues, standard forms that contain the exact same information except for the person's individual responses tend to be charged per page or per document. If you translate many of these, you may even have a template (i.e. a previous translation) that you can re-use and simply fill in the person's individual information. But even if there is no template -- if the document is mostly a form or something like a certificate or diploma, translators often charge a flat fee for the entire translation. However, documents that contain unique text (i.e. longer documents, including divorce decrees, antenuptial agreements, wills & testaments, trust founding documents, and possibly also property purchase documents) are charged per word.

By the way, what is best tool for the conversion of images to a Word file where the words could be counted?

That would be an OCR program ("optical character recognition"), and there are a few of those (free and paid), but OCR programs work best if the source text looks very clean and tidy... and my experience with legal texts is that the source files often look very bad, so you won't be able to do a reliable word count, even with OCR software.

The latest version of Microsoft Word has built-in OCR. Simply drag and drop the PDF file onto the Word window (e.g. onto the ribbon). You can see how Microsoft Word's OCR compares to that of Abbyy FineReader and one online system, here.


Liviu-Lee Roth
Enza Esposito Degli Agli
 
DAVOOD RASTGUO
DAVOOD RASTGUO  Identity Verified
Local time: 00:53
English to Swedish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Legal Doc Apr 25, 2023

Dear Maria and Samuel, thank you for your detailed explanation. Really helpful.

 


To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator:


You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request »

Translating doc







Wordfast Pro
Translation Memory Software for Any Platform

Exclusive discount for ProZ.com users! Save over 13% when purchasing Wordfast Pro through ProZ.com. Wordfast is the world's #1 provider of platform-independent Translation Memory software. Consistently ranked the most user-friendly and highest value

Buy now! »
Trados Business Manager Lite
Create customer quotes and invoices from within Trados Studio

Trados Business Manager Lite helps to simplify and speed up some of the daily tasks, such as invoicing and reporting, associated with running your freelance translation business.

More info »