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Looking for software to compare/merge pdfs
Thread poster: Imogen Hancock
Imogen Hancock
Imogen Hancock  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:58
Italian to English
+ ...
Aug 3, 2009

Does anyone have any recommendations for translator appropriate software for comparing pdfs?

I am looking for software that will compare pdfs and highlight the repetitions. Clients often ask for discounts when documents are similar, but without some form of accurate compare/merge tool I can't locate the repetitions quickly or calculate how much of the text is repeated. Most of the documents I work with are scanned documents which are low res.

Many thanks
 
Uldis Liepkalns
Uldis Liepkalns  Identity Verified
Latvia
Local time: 09:58
Member (2003)
English to Latvian
+ ...
Short answer- not reasonable and cannot be done Aug 3, 2009

Yes, we too somtimes receive jpg files with request to do them in Trados with according Trados discounts. These requests should be just laughed at- if you want your job to be done in Trados, please provide it in Trados compatible format. Full stop there and thats it.

Uldis

Added- if those PDFs are genuine (not scanned), you can use some tool like SolidConverterPDF to convert them to Word and than proceed just as you would do with normal Word files.

If the P... See more
Yes, we too somtimes receive jpg files with request to do them in Trados with according Trados discounts. These requests should be just laughed at- if you want your job to be done in Trados, please provide it in Trados compatible format. Full stop there and thats it.

Uldis

Added- if those PDFs are genuine (not scanned), you can use some tool like SolidConverterPDF to convert them to Word and than proceed just as you would do with normal Word files.

If the PDFs are just scanned pictures (you cannot highlight separate words) then Finereader (some EUR 700?- I don't remember the exact price) can do or not do the job (depending on the scan quality).

But I still insist that no outsourcer can expect you to have bought and use like tools just in order they can get discounts from you (to pay you less, because you have paid for and possess some advanced and expensive tools).

U

Imo1982 wrote:

Does anyone have any recommendations for translator appropriate software for comparing pdfs?

I am looking for software that will compare pdfs and highlight the repetitions. Clients often ask for discounts when documents are similar, but without some form of accurate compare/merge tool I can't locate the repetitions quickly or calculate how much of the text is repeated. Most of the documents I work with are scanned documents which are low res.

Many thanks





[Rediģēts plkst. 2009-08-03 23:58 GMT] ▲ Collapse
 
Stanislaw Czech, MCIL CL
Stanislaw Czech, MCIL CL  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:58
Member (2006)
English to Polish
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
I agree with Uldis Aug 4, 2009

To take advantage of repetitions you need to have editable files - doc, rtf, ... than you can compare such files. If your client does not send you such files and rather provides you with "scanned documents which are low res" than they cannot expect discounts based on repetitions.

However as you need to translate these low res docs anyway - you can definitely benefit from software which is going to help you to convert such scans to something editable. I have invested long time... See more
To take advantage of repetitions you need to have editable files - doc, rtf, ... than you can compare such files. If your client does not send you such files and rather provides you with "scanned documents which are low res" than they cannot expect discounts based on repetitions.

However as you need to translate these low res docs anyway - you can definitely benefit from software which is going to help you to convert such scans to something editable. I have invested long time ago in Abby Fine Reader and I am very happy with it - it allows me to convert pdf files (even bitmaps) to Word documents. This program has 2 advantages - it is reasonably good at preserving the original layout and format and recognizes languages used in original documents - it even "understands" that one document may contain more than 1 language.

Best Regards
Stanislaw ▲ Collapse
 
Imogen Hancock
Imogen Hancock  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:58
Italian to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
thanks Aug 10, 2009

Many thanks for your replies. I agree that client requests are often unreasonable - but they often just don't believe that the software doesn't exist to do this easily. I tried the trial version of Abby Fine Reader a while a go and didn't have much luck - but maybe need to try it again. It would be great to be able to reliably convert pdfs to word docs, but that may be some time in the future.
 


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Looking for software to compare/merge pdfs






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