For any of you who have done any amount of legal translations, you have probably encountered the PDF dilemma. By this I mean those PDF documents which were scanned from a poor-quality fax or photocopy and cannot be readily transformed into a Word document. You have three choices: re-key the entire source document and subsequently feed it into a CAT tool, type your translation while reading the source document as a printed version or PDF on your screen, or you can use ClipMate, thereby storing all names, numbers and terminology to be pasted into the target application (usually Word). ClipMate, in a word, is a versatile, powerful database for text and image clips. Once you have a term or phrase stored in ClipMate, you can paste it into virtually any application. You may download a thirty day evaluation version of ClipMate herewww.thornsoft.com. Now you are ready to organize your folders. On the left hand side of Clipmate's window, you should see a tree of folders. Right-click on one of them and create a new folder beneath it by selecting "Add New Collection". Then you need to choose an icon for your folder. Now you are ready to start copying text. If you want to key your own text into your ClipMate folder, press Control + N, and type the word or phrase into the bottom pane. If you wish to copy text from an application such as a web page or a dictionary, highlight the text with your mouse and then copy it by pressing Control + C. You will hear a "pop" sound meaning that the term has been copied to the designated folder. Now you need to name your clip in order to identify it later. Press Control + R and give the term its source language translation. For example, if I were to copy the term "lawyer" from a dictionary, I would then name the clip "abogado" for future reference. How can you find the term when you need it? There are two ways. When ClipMate is minimized to the tray, you can open it by pressing WinKey + V. Then click on any term and press the first few letters of the term you are searching for. For instance, if I were searching for "abogado", I would press "ab", and the program would jump to that term. Another way is to assign the clip a shortcut. To do this, press Control + R, and enter a shortcut name such as ".ao" for "abogado". Now, anytime you press ".ao", no matter what folder you happen to be in, you will get "abogado". Once you have found the term you wish to paste into Word, all you have to do is press ENTER, and the term will automatically be pasted into Word or whatever application you happen to be working with. I for one have chosen ClipMate as my master glossary program. I am slowly but steadily inputting all relative Spanish terms and their English translations into ClipMate for the simple reason that I work with a lot of scanned documents that are utterly incompatible with CAT tools. This way, I can always find the term I want when I want it without excessive typing. For more computing tips for translators, please visit Spanish Language Gateway: Spanish translators click here!