| Turn a client video into a time-coded SRT in your target language, split long audio into pieces you can transcribe, and pull text out of scanned source files. |
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You know the drill. The PM sends a job offer, the rate is fine, the deadline is tight, and you say yes. Then you open the file. It’s not a nice clean .docx. It’s a scanned PDF your CAT tool won’t touch. Or it’s a 40-minute video and the client wants “subtitles in Spanish, burned in, by Thursday.” No script. No SRT. No timecodes. Before you translate a single word, you’re retyping, transcribing and spotting subtitles by hand. None of that is translation. It’s the mechanical part of the job, and it’s eating the hours your per-word rate is supposed to cover. Sound familiar? ❓ Here’s the thing: Trados, memoQ and your TM aren’t the problem. It’s the grunt work that happens before the file ever gets into your CAT tool. That’s exactly the kind of work a computer should be doing for you. And let’s be clear up front: none of these tools replace you. Anything an AI produces here is a first draft for you to post-edit, the same way you’d treat MT output. Your language skills are still the product. So below are the tools I’d hand any freelance translator, most helpful first. Some run on your Windows PC, some run right in your browser. Click Learn more on any one for the full rundown. Now on with the show… 😃 |
| Subtitle Jobs: From Raw Video to SRT 🎬 |
Transcribe, translate, time and burn in. Four steps that used to mean four different programs and a whole evening in Subtitle Edit. |
| Tool | What it does for you | Translate and Subtitle Video
Learn more → | Point it at the client’s video and pick the target language. It builds a time-coded transcript (powered by OpenAI), translates it with the timing intact, writes a standard .srt file, then uses FFmpeg to burn the subtitles in as open captions or embed them as a subtitle track. You get the timecodes and the SRT without spotting a single line by hand, so your time goes into post-editing the translation instead. | Segmenter
Try it → | Got a two-hour interview or webinar for a transcription job? Split the audio or video into manageable segments right in your browser, so you can work (and bill) in chunks. Bring your own OpenRouter key and it will transcribe each segment too, giving you a rough verbatim first pass to correct. |
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| Tip: Treat the SRT like MT output: open it, post-edit the translation, check your reading speed and CPS, THEN burn it in. The tool does the timing, you do the quality. 😊 |
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| Scanned Source Files: Get the Text Out 📄 |
Birth certificates photographed on a kitchen table. Screenshots of an app’s UI strings. A scanned contract with no text layer. You can’t quote it, and your CAT tool can’t open it. |
| Tool | What it does for you | OCR and Translation with AI
Learn more → | Grab the text out of an image or screenshot using AI-assisted OCR, then get a quick translation of it. Great for getting a real word count before you quote, pulling source text into a file your CAT tool can handle, or a fast gist of a document so you know what you’re accepting. (It’s a starting point, not a certified translation. You still do the real work.) |
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| Tip: Before you run ANY client material through an AI tool, check your NDA and the agency’s AI policy. Plenty of LSPs forbid it outright. When in doubt, ask the PM first. 🔒 |
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One thing I’ve learned: you don’t need to automate your whole business this week. Pick ONE job type that eats hours before the real translating starts. Fix that. Then pick the next one. An evening back on every subtitle job adds up fast. That’s more time for the specialist work that pays a real rate, and for your life away from the second monitor. That’s the real FREEDOM. How about you? What’s the one file type or job step you’d love to never do by hand again? Drop me a note and tell me. I read every one. |
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