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Launch your search for information and entertainment. Contact us with your suggestions for additional links. 

Language, glossaries & dictionaries
Translators and interpreters, as well as anyone fascinated by language in general, will find something useful or fun here. 

Translator & interpreter associations
Many regional and national associations offer online directories to help find the right translator or interpreter for projects. They also offer resources to their members: individuals and companies that provide language services.

Russian & Cyrillic 
Find a wealth of entertaining and useful sites focusing on Russian language and culture.

Earth and Sky
Connect to the Web’s vast resources related to geography, the environment, geology, and related earth sciences.

Editing & writing
Improve your editing and writing skills with these guides and compendiums of links to similar sites.

Design
Just a few of the almost inexhaustible number of sites giving advice on design for the Web and other media.

Fonts & type 
Start here for free fonts and information about typography.

Utilities
Recommended utilities that you may download for a free trial period, then register for a small fee if you continue to use them. 

Browsing tips
Some notes about the construction of this site and advice on how to improve your browsing experience here and elsewhere on the Web.

Language and Glossaries
Be sure to check the other topics for glossaries specific to those subjects.

Translation Journal
Every translator should bookmark Gabe Bokor’s monthly online magazine for its feature articles written by prominent practitioners, regular columns, and an extensive list of WWW resources for linguists of every stripe. 

Symbols
The world’s largest online encyclopedia of graphic symbols contains more than 2,500 Western signs, arranged into 54 groups according to their graphic characteristics. 1,600 articles discuss their histories, uses, and meanings. The signs range from ideograms carved in mammoth teeth by Cro-Magnon men to hobo signs and subway graffiti.

Animal Words and other Collective Nouns
You know about a herd of cattle, but a mob of kangaroos? A murder of crows? One web site offers several categories of animal words; another has a long list of collective nouns, some actually used, others invented specifically for the list.

Xlation.com
This site is indeed about “more than words,” but its crown jewel is a database of more than 1,600 glossaries, dictionaries, and grammars indexed by language and subject.

Words of the Year
The American Dialect Society cites the most important new words of each year for the past decade.

Frank Dietz’s Links
This German-English translator has collected more than 850 links that include English-language references and German and multilingual glossaries organized by subject area.

Eurodicautom
The multilingual terminological database of the European Commission's Translation Service covers the EU's 12 languages and 50 subject areas.

Translators’ Bookmarks
Compiled for the World Intellectual Property Organization, with emphasis on French and English.

A Web of Online Dictionaries
Access 330 dictionaries in over 100 languages (Afrikaans to Zulu) on Robert Beard's extensive site, a great place to begin an afternoon of linguistic browsing. 

One Look
At last count 2,655,106 words in 580 dictionaries covering a multitude of topics, some in foreign languages, all in one integrated database.

Omniglot
Alphabetic, syllabic, logographic, and alternative writing systems; includes a variety of interesting links.

Numbers in Over 4000 Languages
And still growing.

Proto-Indo-European and the Comparative Method
Kathleen Hubbard answers the question "How do we know what we know about Proto-Indo-European and other languages that died out before they were written down?"

English as She is Spoke vs. Babelfish
Compare a vintage Portuguese-English phrasebook with modern computer translation.

Editing & writing

Elements of Style 
Although later revised by E. B. White, William Strunk, Jr.’s classic first-edition (1918) guide to English usage has held up well and is available online. The latest (4th) edition is now available for purchase. Read it often.

Fight the Fog & English Style Guide
Eschew obfuscation.

Guide to Grammar and Style
Besides this guide, Jack Lynch also has a long list of useful links for writers and editors.

Language and Style Resource
The Columbia Journalism Review features Evan Jenkins's Language Corner.

Plain Language Active Network 
Against all odds, the U.S. Government offers guidelines for clear, concise writing.

Proofreading marks
A summary of common proofreading marks.

Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases
Can’t find just the right word? Consult this classic reference book online.

The Reference Desk
This site has an incredible number of links to all sorts of reference materials, from almanacs to encyclopedias, but it's not totally serious. You can find daily comics and other humor, moon phases, horoscopes, and games as well. 

What is good hypertext writing?
Jutta Degener’s advice about writing style for the Web with its appendix of "Dangerous Words."

How to write good
You may have seen some of these tongue-in-cheek rules for good writing, but this comprehensive list guarantees some belly laughs.

Design

Design Refresher
Robert C. Parker gives tips for designing in various media.

Professional Web Design & HTML Tutorials
Joe Barta’s online or downloadable tutorials teach you how to write basic HTML.

The Will-Harris House
This site spans a number of categories with information on design, typography, writing, and even a recipes page. 

Yale's Web Style Guide 
Basic design principles for creating Web sites.

Utilities

WinShade
Too many open windows on your computer desktop? This utility lets you roll ’em up by clicking on the title bar. You can also specify other actions (maximize, minimize, etc.) for the left and right mouse buttons. $10 registration.

Firefox
Tired of endless urgent updates to plug security holes in your current browser? Take back the Web with Firefox, a free, open-source browser based on Mozilla Gecko technology (also used by Netscape). It's smaller, faster, and safer. Download and install the basic browser and add only the extras that you need.

Font Utilities

For best browsing results

The site uses Georgia, one of the Microsoft fonts especially designed for legibility on Web pages. Microsoft used to make them available for free downloading, but have discontinued this practice. If you own fairly recent Microsoft software, you will probably already have them installed. If so, you will see this page as designed.

You can also set Georgia and its san serif companion Verdana as your browser’s defaults, making other sites miraculously become more legible. No more Times Roman squinting! 

Can't bookmark this site because you’re trapped in somebody's frame? Break free.

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© R. Michael Conner 1999–2003. All rights reserved.