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I – José Benjamim de Jesus Magalhães Ruivo - am a native Portuguese freelance technical translator, born (in 1969), raised, and living, in Portugal.
I’ve been translating professionally since 1991, and since then specializing in Information Technology. Computer manuals (specially notebooks) are really my “bread and butter”, with software interfaces' localization also playing a major part in the whole of my work, and actually being my preferred type of work.
Consumer electronics, such as GPS navigators (for instance), mobile phones accessories and software utilities, are also among the regular type of work I’m used to performing.
Who I am What I do Professional experience Formal education Tools of the trade Peer and clients' recognition For potential clients Contacting me
Besides translating technical documentation and general content texts, I also perform the following services:
a) Proofreading and editing (of pre-translated materials);
b) Transcription of recordings, handwritten texts, etc,
c) Copywriting, translation and localization of advertising and marketing materials;
d) Software localization (with or without the aid of specialized utilities for this purpose, see Tools of the trade);
e) Abstracting - such as when you want to know what a certain document is basically about, although you don’t need a “word by word" translation of it, I can summarise the contents and ideas in the document, faster and cheaper than translating it.
f) Typesetting, (or DTP - desktop publishing); basically, reviewing the layout of translated texts in a DTP program. (For the time being, restricted to Adobe FrameMaker.)
Anything else you have in mind? Go ahead, and ask me about it – together we might very well find a solution for your particular need.
Who I am What I do Formal education Tools of the trade Peer and clients' recognition For potential clients Contacting me
My working language pair is only English into (European) Portuguese. (I graduated with French as a source language too, but “after all these years”, I never did any meaningful work from French into Portuguese.)
I started professional translation as a freelancer, working for the Portuguese version of “PC Magazine”, from Ziff-Davis, back in 1991.
After that, I’ve worked at clients’ premises, both abroad and in Portugal, and gathered clients in the UK, Netherlands, USA, Ireland, Singapore, Japan and Australia.
Besides all kinds of computer related materials - both software interfaces and their manuals, hardware manuals and online helps, press releases, disclaimers, etc. - and varied consumer electronics, I’ve translated marketing texts, mechanically oriented instructions, and general purpose documentation. (Please don’t ask me to translate juridical documentation – you’d be poorly served if you managed to talk me into doing you that “favour”.)
Who I am What I do Professional experience Tools of the trade Peer and clients' recognition For potential clients Contacting me
I have a Bachelor of Arts in Translation, with English and French as target languages, by ISLA, which I completed in 1991. (Back then, you could not get a Masters degree in such a course; that’s why I don’t have a Masters degree, not because I wasn’t smart enough, or not hardworking enough, to get such a degree.)
Who I am What I do Professional experience Formal education Peer and clients' recognition For potential clients Contacting me
Trados, naturally. Or rather, SDL Trados, as it’s now known. My first contact with this CAT tool was in 1993, using an agency’s dongle for running the software. A few years latter I bought my own license (along with the corresponding, now obsolete, dongle), and have used it daily, for years. SDL Edit, if you prefer, is also something I can use, for either translating or reviewing work.
If you have a web site to translate, or any other documentation in html (or any of its variants) format, don’t bother converting it into Word format - I actually prefer doing such kind of work in TagEditor, rather than in Word. (Besides, work done with the help of such a tool, can be done in a more consistent way, faster, and cheaper too.)
Idiom™ Desktop Workbench . I've used this CAT tool for a few years, and feel comfortable with it. So, if that's you tool of choice, let's have it.
MS FrontPage. I'm not a webdesigner, but if your webpages need some editing to make look just right in my target language, I'm happy to use this tool, according to your instructions
Who I am What I do Professional experience Formal education Tools of the trade For potential clients Contacting me
I am a Examined Member of the ITI - Institute of Translation and Interpreting – in the UK.
Some of my clients speak for themselves about my work:
“Jose Ruivo has assisted us with various translations into European Portuguese over the years. We are very pleased with his work and will continue to use his services in the future.”
Mr. Philip Riley (on May 2006), project manager, and owner of SOFTtalk Translations
Our agency has been
working with Jose Ruivo for about two years now. He has been supplying
translations of technical manuals for consumer electronics from English into
Portuguese.
Jose usually meets the deadlines we agree upon, and if for some reason he needs
more time, he will always inform us in advance.
We haven’t had any complaints, and more importantly, we have never received any
complaints from our clients either!
Mrs B. Bernaert (on May 2006), B B Translations, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
"I have found Jose to be enthusiastic and conscientious in his project undertakings. He is reliable and has always strived to provide Rubric with the quality expected of being a lead translator for us. "
Mr. Frank Lim (on June 2006), project manager at Rubric
Who I am What I do Professional experience Formal education Tools of the trade Peer and clients' recognition Contacting me
If you’ve liked what you’ve read so far, and would like to now more about my services, drop me a line, or give me a call. (Details in the Contacting me section.) Let me know who you are or you represent, what you expect from me, and feel free to ask about what you wish to know.
Besides discussing rates, I can also quote on a particular project – actually prefer doing that, after analysing all the work involved, rather than giving you a fixed price per word. And it may it turn out the quote is lower than the result of multiplying words by cents, too!
If you feel tempted to seduce me into working for less than 85 Euros per thousand words of source English text - or 0.085 Eur (eight and a half cents of Euro) per word - it's best that you don't waste your time with me, unless you have solid reasons to convince me otherwise...
(I understand the present - mid 2008 - dollar/euro conversion rate is "uncomfortable" to some of my potential clients; let's talk, but don't realistically expect me to work for last year's USD rates ;-P )
Payments methods I normally accept include cheques, bank transfers, PayPal, Moneybookers, Western Union, MoneyGram, etc. Preferred currency is definitely Euros (although we might come to an agreement on Sterling or Dollars).
Who I am What I do Professional experience Formal education Tools of the trade Peer and clients' recognition For potential clients
If you wish to contact me, here’s how:
1) E-mail: i n f o at j o s e – r u i v o dot c o m (I believe you’ll understand how to write my email address, and hope automated s p a m s e a r c h tools won’t);
2) Phone / mobile: +351-21.457.9773 / +351-96.000.1914;
3)
Snail-mail: R. Teixeira Aguilar, Lt 19 – 3 Esq.
B. Escola Tecnica
2775-289 Parede
Portugal
Who I am What I do Professional experience Formal education Tools of the trade Peer and clients' recognition For potential clients
Last update: 2008/07/18.