MET workshops

Solving terminology problems more quickly with IntelliWebSearch (Almost) Unlimited

Michael Farrell, Mortara, Italy

Translators, editors, terminologists, interpreters and lexicographers often need to check large numbers of terms on the Internet in the quickest and most efficient way possible. Without a time-saving freeware tool for Windows like IntelliWebSearch, this entails repeatedly copying terms to your PC clipboard, opening your browser, opening the most appropriate on-line resources, pasting terms into search boxes, setting search parameters, clicking search buttons, analysing results, copying the best solutions back to the clipboard, returning to your working environment and pasting the terms found into the text.
 
IntelliWebSearch is a sophisticated tool that semi-automates the terminology search process so your task can be completed more rapidly and effortlessly in the interest of your sanity. Version 5 of IntelliWebSearch has lost most of the arbitrary limitations found in previous versions.
 
Purposes: 1) To learn to use the various time-saving functions IntelliWebSearch 5 provides and to tweak a few program settings to get the tool to work in the way you prefer, and 2) to learn to set IntelliWebSearch 5 up to implement a few common search techniques that can be used to solve some frequently occurring search problems.
 
Developer and facilitator: Michael Farrell
 
Description/Structure: The workshop is divided into two parts. The first part takes a look at IntelliWebSearch 5 “straight out of the box” to see how it can be used to speed up and simplify terminology searches on the Internet. All the basic functions will be illustrated together with some of the most used program settings that can be adjusted to tweak the tool’s default behaviour.
 
The second part examines some typical search problems translators and editors face during their working day, looks at how they can be solved with a touch of “search engine theory” and explains how IntelliWebSearch 5 can be used to save standard settings and perform appropriate searches literally at the press of a button (keyboard shortcut). The whole workshop, from start to finish, involves practical exercises on using, customizing and configuring IntelliWebSearch 5.
 
Who should attend? Translators, editors, interpreters, terminologists, lexicographers and anyone who has to translate, find and check terminology frequently, rapidly and efficiently on the Internet.
 
Outcomes: At the end of the workshop, participants will have the tool set up on their laptops and be able to implement some common term search techniques. Participants will also know how to customize and use IntelliWebSearch 5 to access virtually every on-line dictionary, encyclopaedia and search engine. They will also receive two complimentary one-year licence codes for IntelliWebSearch Version 5 so that they can use the tool during and after the workshop (the period of validity commences from the date of the workshop).
 
Pre-workshop information: Attendees are required to bring their own laptop (and cable if battery life might be a problem) or should sign up with a partner who has one to share. The laptops must have a Windows OS. They should be able to connect to the conference centre’s Wi-Fi or have a broadband dongle for the practical exercises.
If you are not yet an IntelliWebSearch Version 5 user, please download the program now: http://www.intelliwebsearch.com/version-5/download/. If you have never tried the tool before, you can ask for a two-month trial activation code during installation.
Participants who wish to swot up on web search theory beforehand may like to look at a site with information and tutorials about Google in particular (“for experienced users, novices, and everyone in between”: http://www.googleguide.com/) or another site with general search news and commentary: http://searchengineshowdown.com/.
 
 
About the facilitator: Michael Farrell is primarily a freelance translator and transcreator. Over the years, he has acquired experience in the cultural tourism field and in transcreating advertising copy and press releases, chiefly for the promotion of technology products. Being a keen amateur cook, he also translates texts on Italian cuisine.
Besides this, he is an untenured lecturer in computer tools for translation and interpreting at the IULM University (Milan, Italy), the developer of the terminology search tool IntelliWebSearch and a qualified member of the Italian Association of Translators and Interpreters (AITI).