I've written twice about Intento, first in September of 2018 (edition 291) and then in January of 2020 (edition 308). Both times I've described it as an ingenious way of accessing not one but virtually all available machine translation engines at the same time and through very easy means. Both times I also lamented that it was basically unavailable for individual translators -- at least in a reasonable manner and at a reasonable price.

This has now changed with the availability of a number of subscription models that might indeed make sense for translators.

But let's first talk about the pros and cons of using a tool like Intento. (When I say "a tool like" I'm really not being particularly accurate because it's actually the only tool that does what it does.) If you have used generic machine translation engines like those from Google, Microsoft, or DeepL via your translation environment, you know that it is rather tedious to create an API (application programming interface) key on their respective websites and then enter it into the application you're using. It might be OK if you just want to use one or two machine translation engines, but if you would like to access 10 or 20, this becomes a real headache (and honestly untenable -- if only because you don't even know many of these engines exist or how to jump the language barriers of the many East Asian specimens to connect to them).

Why exactly would you want to have access to so many engines? The answer to that depends on a number of variables. For instance, if you work in a language combination that is not particularly well supported by machine translation engines, the performance between different texts you translate may differ widely. The same might be true for languages that are well supported -- particularly when it comes to different kinds of text or subject matter. You might be well situated if you are already using a customizable machine translation engine such as OPUS-MT or ModernMT (as discussed in the last few Tool Box Journals) (and, yes, it's also fine if you don't use MT at all 😋), but for others it might be rather attractive to have only an API-based agreement with one entity (in this case, Intento) to connect you to AISA, Alibaba, Amazon, Apptek, Baidu, CloudTranslation, DeepL, Elia, Fujitsu, Zinrai, Globalese, Google, GTCOM, IBM Watson, iFLYTEK, Kakao Developers, Kawamura International, Kingsoft, Lesan, LINDAT, LingvaNex, Microsoft, ModernMT, Naver, NTT Com, Pangeanic, Process 9, Prompsit, PROMT, Rozetta, RWS, SAP, SYSTRAN, Tencent, Tilde, XL8, Yandex, YarakuZen, or Youdao.

I know. I didn't know about many of these MT providers' existence, either.

Clearly not all of them will be relevant (Fujitsu's Zinrai engine, for instance, supports only English <> Japanese), but there is a great likelihood that some engines will be relevant for your language combination, and an even greater likelihood that there will be more than you think.

So, how does one work with Intento? First, you'll need to work with either Lingotek, memoQ, RWS Trados, Smartcat, Wordfast Anywhere, Wordbee, or XTM if you want to bring MT suggestions via Intento into your translation environment. For each of these tools, a free plugin is provided (either readily integrated or separately installable) that enables you to connect to Intento. You will then need one of the plans that Intento offers to access its ready-made connectors to its MT partners. The newly unveiled plans that are relevant to individual translators include:

You can find the different options and offerings listed right here. (Oddly enough, there is no readily accessible link to that page on Intento's website.)

While the second option is attractive, my sense is that the first will be the most popular with translators. Why? Because the main differentiator is access to customizable MT engines (engines like Google AutoML, ModernMT, DeepL with its terminology training component, Microsoft's Custom Translator, and many of the others), and I have a hard time imagining a single translator building and maintaining several different MT engines that they would like to access through a tool like Intento. For a small or mid-sized LSP, the latter option might very well be interesting.

By the way, before you apply your preferred MT engine to your text, you can run a test that compares several outputs in the Intento Console. Or you can just select the engine you might know is likely to produce the best results right in your translation environment.

In the first article I wrote about Intento, I wrote this: "I very strongly encouraged Konstantin [Intento's CEO] to look into developing ready-made access plugins for tools like Memsource, memoQ, and SDL Trados." (Emphasis on "very" was in the original.) They have done that and much more, and I'm glad they did. I'm thankful every time an interesting piece of translation technology becomes available not only to enterprise customers or LSPs but to freelancers also. And there's no doubt that Intento's technology is here to stay. Pavel Doronin, the Product Lead at Intento whom I talked to for this article, told me that there are 57 (!) full-time employees working for Intento around the world at this point. Also, the reports on the state of machine translation that Intento publishes once a year on its website are required reading if you're interested in how the landscape of machine translation is morphing in front of our eyes.

Let me add one thing that I think is important to take into account when using Intento, and then a couple of things I would like to see in the future.

First, it's really important to know about the confidentiality settings of the different engines. I've mentioned many times before that Google, Microsoft, and DeepL all assure us that they treat our data confidentially if we use their API to access them (which Intento does), but my sense is that these are the exceptions rather than the rule. Depending on your clients and their privacy needs, this is very important to keep in mind. In fact, it would be a very helpful service for Intento to provide clarity about the privacy considerations of their various partners.

Two other options that I would welcome are:

Since I was successful with my last suggestions (though it admittedly took three years), maybe I'll be successful again.

In the last year, the number of online meetings, webinars and networking sessions for translators and interpreters has shot through the roof.

By now, you've probably picked up a solid webcam and figured out how to tweak your lighting and framing to look good on camera. You may have even splurged on a green screen to hide all the chaos behind your desk -- or created a professional branded background for your online meetings.

If so, you've likely stumbled across a common problem. High-quality webcams tend to have wide-angle lenses, which means they tend to pick up way more than that tiny clean patch you've carefully curated behind you.

Wish you could crop stuff in the background out of the shot for online meetings? Looking to crop your webcam so it only captures your green screen?

You can.

In this month's column, we'll show you how to zoom and crop your webcam for online events using a nifty tool called OBS Studio - and even add in that branded background.

We've also created a tutorial video to walk you through every step of the process. Check it out to see how to zoom and crop your webcam in no time flat.

OBS Studio is free, open source software for video recording and livestreaming.

Available for Windows, Mac or Linux, OBS started out small and has picked up steam in recent years, garnering sponsorships from YouTube, Facebook and Twitch. (But no worries -- only aggregated data is shared.)

OBS offers a wide range of features, allowing you to create scenes and transitions, mix audio, and plenty more that you'd do in a broadcasting studio.

But for today, we'll stick to one simple use case: zooming and cropping your webcam -- for free.

First, download and install the program from the OBS website.

When you open OBS Studio, the configuration wizard will launch automatically. Pick "I will only be using the virtual camera," then apply the settings.

Now it's time to bring your webcam into OBS. Click the plus button under Sources, then select "Video Capture Device." Name the device and click "OK." Then, select your webcam from the dropdown menu.

You may need to allow OBS to access the camera. After you click "OK," your webcam will appear.

Now that you've brought your camera into OBS, it's time to tweak the settings so you look great on camera.

To do so, click on the image. You'll see a red box. (If the box doesn't appear, right-click the image, then select "Lock Preview.")

To zoom in and out, click and hold one of the dots on the box, then drag to resize.

To crop the shot, hold down the Alt key, then click and drag one of the dots on the box.

At this point, you can drag the camera anywhere on the screen. You'll want to resize the shot so it fills the entire canvas. (Make sure you don't have any black bars around the image.)

If your image is bigger than the frame, OBS will crop out the extra bits.

When framing the shot, place your webcam at or slightly above eye level. Crop the image to frame your shoulders and entire face, leaving yourself in the center of the shot. Avoid putting your face in the middle of the screen, which leaves too much empty space above your head. Instead, draw an imaginary line across the upper third of the screen and rest your eyes on it. (You'll find more of our favorite tips about getting the right lighting and framing the shot in our post about looking sharp on video calls.)

Once you've got the shot properly cropped, it's time to use OBS' virtual webcam. Click "Start Virtual Camera" on the right side of the screen. Then, head on over to your meeting platform and select the "OBS Virtual Camera" for video input.

And voilà - your nicely cropped, well-zoomed image has popped right into your virtual meeting.

If you're using a green screen, you can add a custom background right in OBS.

To drop that background into OBS, click the plus button under Sources, then pick "Image." Give your image a name, like "Background," click "OK," then select the image file. If your background is covering up your webcam, right click on it under Sources, then go to "Order," "Move to bottom."

Finally, we need to turn on "chroma key" to filter out the green screen. Right-click your webcam, then select "Filters." Click the plus button under "Effect Filters" and add "Chroma Key." Name it, then adjust the sliders to fine tune your settings. (Don't overdo it, or you may end up looking like a ghost! 👻)

And that's it! You've now set up OBS Studio to zoom and crop your webcam for free in any meeting software.

Josh Goldsmith is a UN and EU accredited translator and interpreter working from Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Catalan into English. A passionate educator, Josh splits his time between interpreting, researching and teaching through www.techforword.com, which empowers language professionals to make the most of technology.

Tablets for translators. It's not as crazy as it seems.

Pick up your free ticket to the Innovation in Translation Summit and discover Josh's top tips for proofreading and maximizing productivity using a tablet.

Wordfast Anywhere, the free web-based version of Wordfast that "keeps [Wordfast's] users happy, and [the] competition fuming" (original quote from Yves Champollion, Wordfast's original and ongoing developer of some Wordfast versions), has rather surreptitiously introduced a beta version of a translation management system (a system that makes it easy to outsource work to multiple translators, editors, etc., allows you to set up workflows, and allows for invoicing).

It's free at this point (promised through the end of the year), and it indeed performs all of the above-mentioned tasks. It can't (and does not intend to) compete with other more advanced TMSs that have high degrees of automation and a larger feature set (and much higher price tags). But it does allow you to distribute right from within its interface individual or multiple files (it's file-based rather than project-based) and other necessary resources to individual translators. These translators can then access the files, TMs, glossaries, and MT within Wordfast Anywhere, finalize their portion of the job, and send it back. Depending on the setting, it will then either be automatically sent to an editor (or whatever the next step is supposed to be) or it will ask the project manager to do that.

Since the pricing info for the different parts of the job is already recorded within the system, the different parties can then also send their invoices right from within Wordfast Anywhere as well.

Who is it good for? Certainly translators who already work within Wordfast Anywhere and want to cooperate with colleagues. Also small agencies who want to bootstrap their processes. And -- as Yves pointed out in an email to me -- NGOs.

You can watch an informative video about the TMS (before the invoicing feature was introduced) by Philippe Locquet right here.

I've talked about this before, but I will mention it again in this and the next edition of the Tool Box Journal. Like many of you, I will be at the ATA conference in Minneapolis on October 26-30. The "Dictionary Exchange" is something that we came up with a few years ago, and quite frankly I think it's one of the highlights of the conference (you can read some recollections from the first time right here). In a nutshell, it's a place to give away dictionaries that are gathering dust on your bookshelves and (no matter whether you yourself brought dictionaries or not) to add as many dictionaries as you want to fill the shelves in your office. If you're planning to be at the conference, there will be a table where you can generously offer your dictionaries to your colleagues. If you're not planning to come to Minneapolis in person, just send me those dictionaries and I will put them out for you. I'll be staying at the conference hotel:

Hyatt Regency Minneapolis

1300 Nicollet Mall

Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55403

Don't mail them too early (and certainly not too late!), and be sure to highlight my name as a guest arriving on the 27th. It'll be great!

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