Mustafa Mahmoud wrote:
Thanks folks for sharing your thoughts. I don't do DTP as most of you. But that doesn't include the minor (yet tricky!) format tweaks that I have to do after translation/exporting from a CAT tool, especially that my language pair is bidirectional (English Arabic). I.e., LTR to RTL, and vice versa, which sometimes requires extra effort beyond basic formatting.
However, I was trying to gain some ground by brushing up on my DTP skills to add extra revenue. I took a short course on InDesign CS3, then David Blatner's videos. But that, oh, consumes much much time. And time equals money. It is a catch-22. But I am more inclined to proceed towards translation only, especially that I already have excellent MS Word formatting knowledge. (No brag
).
[Edited at 2015-01-26 20:15 GMT]
Thanks for the poll, Mustafa. I'm a believer that a translator needs to enjoy doing DTP and typesetting to provide a reliable and knowledgeable service to his/her clientele. To offer DTP services just to make more money is not the right approach.