Ebiwrite launched

We’re proud to announce that Ebiwrite, a web application dedicated to translators, has been launched today!

Background and design

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Yuka Mizuno and I’m Helicoid’s copywriter (I also help run the business-side of things). After working on several long translations last year, I wished for a web application created purely for translators.

One of the biggest annoyances I have with translation is constantly looking backwards and forwards between my source text and translation. On a computer this means flicking between windows or tabs, quickly ending up either fed up or with RSI. So I insisted my future husband (Alex, the designer and programmer of Helicoid’s applications) built translators a program that would resolve these issues.

The most basic problem, flipping between source text and translation, could easily be solved by splitting a text editor up into two panels. Alex created a prototype (using Helipad), and we worked from there. After a year of development, we’ve finally finished Ebiwrite.

Last but not least, you might be wondering about how I came up with the name. It’s a subtle pun on the Japanese word for prawn (ebi) and the pronunciation for A and B.

Main features

• Dual-panel editor, focused purely on text. Get rid of neck ache by keeping your source text and translation right next to each other.
• Version control allows you to jump back to previous versions of your translation.
• File uploads, for storing your source or reference material (PDF, Word, images, etc). Images can be used as source text (i.e., scanned text).
• Dictionaries, for building your own dictionary or phrase books. Dictionaries can be shared with the Ebiwrite community
• Profile page and your own URL. Each Ebiwrite account gets a URL, i.e., http://yuka.ebiwrite.com, and a public profile page: http://yuka.ebiwrite.com/profile. You can keep your profile empty if you don’t wish to use it.
• Tags can be used to organise translations and files. Tags also have a unique feature that allows you to build “books” (see Ebiwrite’s help page for more).
• Autosave.
• Search results appear as you type in the search bar that appears on every page.

Screenshots

Pricing & Requirements

• The Personal plan provides 500MB of storage and SSL access for £6.99 per month (GBP, not including VAT).
• The Premium plan provides 1000MB of storage and SSL access for £9.99 per month (GBP, not including VAT).
• The Free comes with 2MB storage.

Storage is determined by the size of translation text and uploaded file size.

Ebiwrite is designed and tested to work with Internet Explorer 7 (Windows), Firefox 2 (Windows, Mac and Linux), Safari 3 (Mac, Windows) and Opera 9 (Windows, Mac and Linux).

Mobile support

Ebiwrite has a mobile version too. Just visit http://youraccount.ebiwrite.com/mob.>

Developers

Ebiwrite has a REST API for most of the major features. If you’d like to write something like a Dashboard widget, get in touch and we might reward you!

Future developments

The text editor is currently a simple plain text editor. Ebiwrite’s design philosophy is based on allowing translators to write without the software getting in the way, so plain text was chosen over a Word-style rich text editor. If there’s enough demand for a rich text editor we may add one, but we hope people will enjoy Ebiwrite’s simplicity.

We’d like to add a comments and change tracking system so translators can invite their clients to discuss changes to a translation. Again, this will be developed depending on the community’s requirements.