You have a Slovak birth certificate, diploma or company extract, and an organisation in another country asks to see it. Three terms may come up: certified translation, apostille and legalisation.

Translation and authentication do different jobs. Depending on the document, destination and receiving organisation, you may need a translation, an apostille or full legalisation—or a combination. The order matters, and checking the requirements first can save you unnecessary steps.

This guide covers documents issued in Slovakia for use abroad.

Three terms, three jobs

Term	What it certifies	Who provides it in Slovakia
Certified translation	The translator certifies that the translation accurately reflects the source document. It does not authenticate the source document itself.	A translator registered in the official list maintained by the Ministry of Justice.
Apostille	The authenticity of the official signature, the capacity of the signatory and, where applicable, the seal or stamp on a public document.	The Slovak authority responsible for that type of document.
Full legalisation, including superlegalisation	Authenticates a document through a chain of certifications where the apostille procedure does not apply and no exemption removes the requirement.	The relevant Slovak authorities, followed by the destination country’s embassy or consulate.

An apostille replaces the traditional legalisation chain where the Hague Apostille Convention applies. A certified translation may still be needed alongside it.

What an apostille actually does

An apostille is a standard certificate established by the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention. The Convention has applied to Slovakia since 18 February 2002. The certificate can appear on the document itself or on an attached sheet.

It authenticates the document’s official origin. It does not confirm that its contents are true or determine whether a foreign organisation will recognise the rights or qualifications described in it.

You should also check how recent the underlying document must be. An apostille does not override a recipient’s requirement for a recently issued certificate or register extract.

When you may not need an apostille

Certain public documents used within the EU

Regulation (EU) 2016/1191, applicable since 16 February 2019, removes the apostille requirement for certain public documents issued in one EU country and presented to public authorities in another.

It covers documents concerning matters such as birth, marriage, death, parenthood, residence and nationality. It does not cover diplomas or company extracts. For documents within its scope, a receiving authority that requires a certified translation must accept one made in another EU member state, including Slovakia.

There is a specific condition for documents proving absence of a criminal record: the exemption concerns documents issued for an EU citizen by the authorities of their member state of nationality. A Slovak criminal record extract issued to a foreign resident does not automatically qualify.

For some covered documents, you can request an EU multilingual standard form from the issuing authority. It accompanies the public document and acts as a translation aid. When it provides sufficient information, a separate translation should not be necessary; a translation may still be requested in exceptional circumstances. Ask whether a form is available for your particular document.

The regulation concerns documents submitted to public authorities. Private banks and employers may have different requirements. It also addresses authenticity rather than automatic recognition of a document’s legal effects.

Documents covered by a bilateral treaty

Slovakia has agreements with certain countries that simplify or remove authentication requirements. Higher authentication is generally unnecessary for documents used in the Czech Republic, while exemptions involving other countries may depend on the document and the receiving authority.

Confirm that the relevant exemption covers your document and intended use before paying for an apostille or legalisation.

Who issues apostilles in Slovakia?

There is no single apostille office for every Slovak document. These are common examples:

Authority	Examples of documents it authenticates
Relevant district office — okresný úrad	Birth, marriage and death certificates from local civil registries; certain documents issued by local authorities, including residence certificates.
Regional court — krajský súd	District-court documents, court-issued Commercial Register extracts, notarial documents and certifications, expert reports and certified translations.
Ministry of Justice	Documents issued by higher courts, including regional courts and the Supreme Court.
Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, consular department	Criminal record extracts, Land Registry extracts and certificates of residence for foreign nationals issued by the Foreign Police. Preliminary authentication may be required.
Ministry of Education	Most certificates and diplomas issued by Slovak schools and universities within its jurisdiction.
Ministry of the Interior	Citizenship certificates and civil-status certificates issued by Slovakia’s Special Registry — Osobitná matrika.
Ministry of Health	Medical reports and certain documents issued by institutions within its jurisdiction.

For court and notarial documents, territorial jurisdiction matters. Certified translations can be authenticated by any regional court. Specialised medical, police and military educational documents follow the procedure of the responsible ministry.

Land Registry extracts require preliminary authentication by the Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre Authority before authentication by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The criminal-record procedure is explained below.

How much does it cost?

Fees depend on the authority. Current published charges include:

• €10 for an apostille issued by a regional court.
• €10 per document at the Ministry of Education, regardless of the number of firmly bound pages.
• €30 per authentication act at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Check payment arrangements before visiting. Some offices accept payment by card, while others require a prepaid eKolok. The Ministry of Education does not sell eKolok vouchers on its premises. Notarised copies and additional authentication steps can add to the total cost.

The usual order when an apostille is required

Start by confirming the receiving organisation’s requirements. Then the usual sequence is:

1. Prepare the document for authentication. Obtain the correct original and arrange any necessary preliminary certification.
2. Obtain the apostille from the competent Slovak authority.
3. Have the document translated. Include the apostille and other authentication wording if the recipient requires them to be translated.
4. Obtain an apostille for the certified translation, if required for your submission.

Arranging authentication before translation helps ensure that the translation includes the required stamps and certificates.

Diplomas and notarised copies

For a diploma or another document you want to preserve, the translation may be bound to a notarised copy.

This can introduce additional steps: authentication of the original by the responsible ministry, preparation of the notarised copy, and authentication of the notary’s certification by the relevant regional court before translation. Confirm the required sequence before having the copy or translation prepared.

Example: a criminal record extract for a job in Norway

Norway is outside the EU, so the EU exemption described above does not apply. This example assumes that the employer has specifically requested an apostilled Slovak criminal record extract.

1. Obtain the original extract — výpis z registra trestov. Check how recent the employer needs it to be.
2. Have the original authenticated by the Criminal Records Register of the General Prosecutor’s Office. It must receive the official stamp and authorised signature needed for subsequent authentication.
3. Obtain the apostille from the consular department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
4. Have the document translated into the language requested by the employer, including the apostille where required.
5. Obtain an apostille for the certified translation, if the recipient requires one.

The preliminary authentication in step two is essential: obtaining an extract from a post office does not complete that step.

When full legalisation is needed

If authentication is required, no exemption applies and the Apostille Convention does not operate between Slovakia and the destination country, your document will generally need full legalisation.

This involves certification by the relevant Slovak authority, legalisation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and final superlegalisation by the destination country’s embassy or consulate. The translation may also need authentication. Confirm the procedure with the embassy before starting.

Country requirements change. The Convention entered into force for mainland China on 7 November 2023, Canada on 11 January 2024, and Algeria on 9 July 2026.

Check the official HCCH status table, including entry-into-force dates and any objections affecting its application between the countries concerned.

Before you pay for anything

Ask the organisation receiving your document:

1. Do you need a translation? Which language is required, and will you accept a Slovak certified translation?
2. Do you need authentication? Is an apostille required for the original, the translation or both? Does an exemption apply?
3. How recent must the document be?
4. Which document format will you accept? Must you receive the original, or will a notarised copy be sufficient?

If you plan to submit an electronic certified translation, also confirm the accepted file format and electronic-signature requirements before ordering it.

Get a quote for your certified translation

Send Lexika a scan of your document, the destination country, the receiving organisation’s instructions, the required language and your deadline. Include any requirements concerning apostilles, notarised copies or electronic submission.

Request a quote for your certified translation. We’ll get back to you the same business day.

Information checked on 7 October 2026.

We often encounter a “shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted” kind of request, or learn that we have less time to complete a task than planned. So how can you ensure that your translator or agency translates your text as quickly as possible?

The time required to translate a text is influenced by many factors. Most demanding of all are illegibility, incorrect formatting, missing punctuation, abbreviation usage, and general unintelligibility.

Each text translation has its own peculiarities and time requirements. In this article, we will discuss everything that determines the time it takes to complete a translation.

Client requirements

At first glance, the client’s basic translation requirements are simple, yet they have the largest impact on translation speed. These include:

• The language to which the text is being translated. Translations from English to German are often more readily available than translations from English to Kazakh.
• Text content. There are far more excellent translators of audit reports than there are translators specialising in mitochondrial proteolysis studies.
• Text length. The number of written pages on paper or on the screen is unimportant — text length is measured in words or characters.
• The file format you use to send us the text to be translated. The DOCX and XLSX formats can be processed almost immediately, while other formats may require extra preparation time.
• Text formatting level. The better the text is formatted, the fewer post-translation edits will be required.
• Translation purpose. Translating a document for business or work takes less time when compared to the translation of a marketing text aimed at a large audience.

Once your translator or translation agency understands your basic requirements, optimal solutions can be rapidly developed.

Preparation for (express) translation

Working with the appropriate materials always streamlines the translator’s job.

Editable text format

Cutting-edge computer tools help achieve high quality and quick translations, where a PDF or hard copy of the original is not suitable. While these can be converted into an editable format, extra time might be needed.

Text formatted correctly into one of the editable formats will minimise pre-translation preparation time. MS Word, MS Excel and PowerPoint are some of the optimal formats for translations of contracts, business documentation, annual reports or presentations.

Mistakes and typos in the original

Even an “innocent” typo or missing comma can change the meaning of the text. The last thing you want is for the translator to do detective work at midnight, trying to decipher the author’s intentions or determine whether comma is missing in the text.

Reach out in advance

If you know that you’ll need an express translation of the contract you’re working on in the afternoon or tomorrow, arrange it with your translator or agency in advance.

Planning will prevent unnecessary stress and ensure that your preferred translator is available.

If you frequently order translations, it’s best to have your texts translated by the same vendor. This guarantees much more consistent and coherent translations.

To bring a translation even closer to your needs, provide your vendor with reference materials such as previous translations or established business terminology. 

Dividing the text among translators

When you have almost no time left and machine translation isn’t an acceptable solution, you can split the text among multiple translators.

In that situation, 3–4 translators should work together translating a contract of 8,000 words required overnight. They translate the text utilising CAT tools, enabling key terminology integration, quick quality assurance of the output as well as online communication during the translation. You should always be informed of the split in advance and asked for your grant of approval.

How long does it take to translate one page?

As one of our translators put it: “At least as long as writing it.”

The term “one page” can mean vastly different text lengths, and thus vastly different translation times. A dense text written in a small font can easily consist of up to 1,000 words.

Therefore, we rely on the number of words or characters when determining translation strategies. On average, translating 250 words (i.e., 1,800 characters with spaces) takes approximately 1 hour.

Other than the translation itself, translating a text also involves:

• pre-translation text editing,
• terminology research,
• post-translation proofreading,
• revision by a second linguist
• and output quality assurance testing.

How long does it take to translate a 16-page contract?

To keep this estimate simple, we will assume this is a contract of about 4,000 words.

One translator is expected to take approximately 16 hours when translating a moderately challenging professional text of 4,000 words.

At LEXIKA, we translate texts from the fields of economy, law, technology, healthcare and IT every day. Should you approach us requesting an express translation in one of these fields, we will quickly find a well-suited and qualified translator or team for you.

Looking for a translator to translate a contract or document? Contact us and we’ll give you an individualised quote with an estimated delivery time.

Have you decided to order a translation and are wondering what text format should be sent to the translation company? Here we will unveil the secrets of document processing and show you the differences between a PDF and a Microsoft Word document from a text-processing perspective.

What exactly is a PDF?

The PDF (Portable Document Format) platform was created by Adobe in the early 90s as a new way to share documents that guaranteed they would look identical on every computer by utilising the Adobe Reader software.

While the original paid-for software was also released as freeware in 1993, the PDF format and standard still must fulfil Adobe’s strict requirements today.

PDF benefits

PDF guarantees that any text file converted to the PDF format will maintain its formatting and (in principle) cannot be edited. This is the main reason why invoices, bank statements as well as trade offers or work documents are usually processed and shared as PDF documents.

PDF complications

However, the biggest advantage of PDF becomes problematic for translation. Why? Because a PDF text doesn’t behave like a text.

And, since translators and software used in translation must work with text, it is necessary to process the PDF document using special technology called OCR first.

OCR Technology

OCR software can convert PDF documents into an editable form.

OCR software is computer software using Optical Character Recognition that allows it to change the PDF document contents back into text—in a Microsoft Word format for example—which can then be fully utilized by both the translator and the specialised CAT tools.

However, this conversion takes time. Moreover, in addition to simply importing the PDF into the OCR software, a few more extra steps are required. This allows for the source text to be prepared and later for the translation to be provided in an adequate quality.

What should happen if you provide the source text as a PDF document?

1. A project manager must process the document in OCR software (i.e., ABBYY FineReader).
2. The OCR software converts the text into an editable form, such as a Microsoft Word document. The longer the document, the more time-consuming the process will be.
3. To guarantee that the conversion ran correctly, the original text must be compared in detail to the original PDF document, character by character.
4. Other than the contents, reviewing and editing the formatting is also important, such as:

• page make-up
• text field utilisation
• paragraph and line layouts
• page numbers and indentation
• formatting and header/footer set-up
• heading styles
• table of contents and figures
• page layout

But why have such a detailed revision? Incorrect formatting affects a translation’s length and price; it also complicates, and sometimes even nullifies, any further work on the text.

Looking for a more affordable translation and quicker turnaround time?

The next time you order the translation of a PDF, first ensure you don’t still have it tucked away somewhere in its original text format (Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc.). We can provide you with a faster translation at a better price in one of the following formats as well.

Regardless of the format, we guarantee to provide you with a quality translation that looks precisely like the original document.

1. Open the text document.
2. Click on the Words icon in the status tab at the bottom left of the screen.
3. A statistics window opens showing the number of words and of characters including spaces.
4. To calculate the number of standard pages, divide the number of "Characters (including spaces)" by 1,800.

This article is comprised of 3.5 standard pages, or 6,219 characters with spaces.

Hint: Within one Microsoft Word document, you can count not only the length of the entire text, but also the length of a specific part of the text. To do so, select the required text section(s) and follow the instructions above.

Counting the number of characters in Google Docs

If you use the Google Docs service, then the word count statistics is displayed as follows: in Main menu, select Tools > Word Count.

To calculate the number of standard pages in Google Docs, simply divide the value in the Characters line by 1,800.

Attention: Don’t be confused by the first line of the statistics, "Pages". This line shows the number of physical pages in the document, not the number of standard pages.

To display the statistics, you can also use the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl+Shift+C. The statistics window may be kept minimised in the bottom left corner during your work process.

Determining the number of words and standard pages in other formats

If you can copy and paste a text in any format into the Microsoft Word or Google Docs text editor, then you can calculate its length that way.

However, it can be quicker and more effective to count texts in their original formats, especially when copying a text requires more steps or too much time.

Counting the number of characters in PDF format

PDF files with copyable text that’s not very long or complicated can be copied and counted in a text editor. If you have a PDF file with more extensive formatting or structure, it’s much quicker to convert it into DOCX using OCR tools and then count it in the text editor.

The same instructions can be followed for PDF files that contain text formatted as images.

If the PDF file is protected against copying or other manipulation, then the only way to count the number of characters is to print the texts, scan them and convert the files into an editable form, as mentioned above.

Counting the number of characters in Microsoft Excel

The number of characters in one or more cells in Microsoft Excel may be counted by using the LEN function and following these detailed instructions.

Tables with simple structures can be saved in the TXT format and counted in Microsoft Word.

Counting the number of characters in Microsoft PowerPoint

Open the presentation. In the Main menu, find the statistics by clicking the Information icon in the File bar. Next, confirm the Show all properties option in the bottom right.

The PowerPoint statistics only show the number of words. However, it also includes the number of words in a particular slide and in the notes. In English, one standard page represents approximately 300 words. Therefore, the total number of words is divided by 300. This calculation method is not 100% accurate, but it still offers a rough estimate of the text length.

Hint: Count the number of characters more accurately in a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation by saving it as a PDF. All slides and corresponding notes should be displayed. Then, copy the texts from this PDF file into Microsoft Word to easily count the accurate number of characters or standard pages.

Utilize specialised programmes

Some specialised programmes can also reliably calculate text lengths in various DTP programmes, such as Adobe InDesign, PageMaker, FrameMaker, as well as computer programme texts and those intended for webpages (html, php, or xml).

Printed text lengths

If your texts are hard copies, then you can scan and convert them to a file format wherein length is easily established (e.g. Microsoft Word).

What does a standard page have to do with translation?

As a unit of measurement, a standard page can determine the text length in translations, as well as in lyrical works, student dissertations or creative writing.

The translation price depends on the text length, language combination, delivery date, additional complementary services or specific client requirements.

Want to know your text length and translation price? Leave the counting to us! You can get a free, no-obligation price calculation in just 30 minutes.

There is one tradition at Lexika that we have maintained for years: every early spring, we voluntarily undergo an audit in accordance with ISO 9001 and ISO 17100. This proves to both our clients and vendors that we offer top-quality services and continue to make headway and improvements. However, 2020 played out a little differently.

This year’s audit was scheduled for 27 March 2020. But two weeks before the scheduled audit date, the situation brought on by the coronavirus forced most of us to switch to home offices. Understandably, we discussed whether it wouldn’t be more appropriate to postpone the audit.

In the end, we agreed that traditions should be upheld, and so the decision was clear: the audit would take place on the prescheduled date. Then, we faced the question of how to accomplish the audit — which has always taken place in person — with everyone working from home.

Online audit

Thankfully, the nature of our work allowed us to undergo the audit online. The combination of our sufficient technical equipment, which is integral to our work, along with our previous work-from-home experience, meant that we already had our online meetings down to a science. Therefore, on the big day, the audit went as smoothly as ever.

This year’s audit is successfully behind us, and it was undoubtedly an interesting experience. We continue to be amazed at the creative solutions companies come up with in crisis situations, and how promptly they adapt to new circumstances.

I would like to thank the TÜV SÜD certification company auditor for allowing us to undergo the audit online. At the same time, I offer my thanks to the entire LEXIKA team that passed this audit with flying colours despite the current unusual circumstances.

Appropriately chosen expressions, style and the use of uniform terminology all help to maintain the internal and external logic of your written presentation.

Consistent use of terms will boost the comprehensibility of your text. Replacing predefined terms with various synonyms – such as glossary, terminological dictionary, term database or company glossary of terms – detracts from the overall comprehensibility of the text.

Consistent terminology holds the key to success

The uniform structure of written texts should be maintained for various reasons:

• marketing texts are aimed at strengthening the brand or increasing sales;
• legal documents should be clear, trustworthy, and offer the highest possible level of legal certainty;
• product documentation should enable the buyer to use the acquired product correctly.

The common denominator here is that authors of every type of text want to be sure that the content conveyed will be understood correctly, the meaning of specialized terms is clear, and any abbreviations or sentence structures used are adequately explained.

Communication management is therefore important in almost every organization, even if the language of communication is our own native language.

This is precisely the purpose of (company) glossaries, also known as terminological dictionaries in professional circles. These constitute glossaries of terms, abbreviations, and phrases typical of a certain organization or industry. In fact, they are dictionaries containing expressions either in a single or in multiple languages.

Multilingual glossaries of terms play an important role in translating any specialized documentation into other languages. Thanks to glossaries of terms, professional translators know which variant they should use in their translation, which terms are off-limits, and which terms have a distinctive use depending on the specific context or product.

Benefits of a company glossary

You will gain the following benefits by using a term dictionary:

1) Consistent translations
A high-quality term glossary will ensure consistent translation and this consistency will in turn offer the reader a better experience with the product. For example, a certain key term is used by the marketing department, the user then finds it in the instruction manual, and it is used by employees working in the customer service department in the same way.

2) Trademark and investment protection
If translators translate the same concepts in different ways, your customers abroad will not be able to identify the key terms that define your brand, which cannot bode well.  Brand quality directly affects the survival of products and companies today.

3) Accelerating the translation process
Unclear assignment instructions result either in ambiguous translations or in additional questions from translators and reviewers. A high-quality glossary of terms will ensure clearer instructions, as well as faster and more effective work on the part of the translators.

4) Minimizing the cost of translation
A term glossary containing terms frequently found in your texts can simplify certain phases of the translation process and subsequently lower the price.

A clear and well-defined glossary will ensure the consistent and high-quality translation of key terms in your text. If you do not have a glossary but would like to create one, please e-mail us or give us a call. We will be happy to help you.

This year Lexika is celebrating the 25^th anniversary of its founding. On this occasion we looked back at its history with the best person for the job – the man who witnessed the birth of Lexika, though he was no more than 15 years old at the time.

In a series of articles, Michal Kmeť, Lexika’s Managing Director, will tell us how the translation industry was run in the 90s, and let us in on Lexika’s backstage 25 years ago and now.

Lexika’s Beginnings

I remember quite well when my father applied for his trade licence for translation and interpreting in 1993. Now more than 25 years have gone by since LEXIKA started providing translation and interpreting services.

In the early 90s, my father retired early because of ill health and had to spend most of his time at home. However, he was determined to find employment, so he looked for work he could do from home. Back then we lived in the centre of Bratislava, and we were lucky enough to have a fixed telephone line. While searching for a job he came across the opportunity to provide translation services. What started as an ordinary job gradually became a trade activity and later a small company.

We had a modest start. The first few weeks after we opened a bank account, our account statements showed nothing but debits for drawing up and sending statements and account management fees. Gradually the situation improved – we replaced an old electric typewriter with a simple computer and a 40-pound fax with a more modern (and importantly lighter-weight) fax.

The times before the internet

In times when there was no internet, our main competitive advantage was the location in the very centre of the capital, because most translations had to be delivered and picked up in person. In those years we were available 24/7. And, yes, a few clients did take advantage of our non-stop service, calling late at night or turning up at two in the morning.

For internet and e-mail connection, we had to wait until autumn 1996. Often, I came home from school to find a line of clients waiting at the door. So instead of watching TV, I would take their orders and deliver translations by bike around town. Now that I think of it, I wonder what those clients thought about handing their documents over to a 15-year-old boy. But I guess those were different times.

Over the past 25 years I have worked in the translation and localisation industry, much has changed. A list of all the gradual and rapid changes would provide material for a whole article, and I’m certain there are even more changes ahead of us.

I am convinced that we owe our success to the customers and translators who have been with us since the nineties and to our values: focus on customer needs, integrity, team work and long-terms sustainability.

LEXIKA is now a member of tekom Europe e.V., the world’s largest professional association for technical communication, connecting approximately 9,000 experts in this and related fields.

Support for multilingualism and technical translations are directly linked to the field of technical communication.

LEXIKA’s membership in tekom Europe gives us faster access to information from the technical field, which is closely connected with the provision of translation services. Our customers will also explicitly profit from this, in the form of a wider range of high-quality services.

What is the technical communication?

Technical communication is the process of defining, creating and providing information for the safe and effective use of various products, mainly technical systems, software and services. This information is most frequently distributed in the form of text and graphics or other indirect means of communication.

In practice, this means that the consumer is supplied with each product (ranging from flat-pack furniture that the customer can assemble at home on their own to an automated production line) together with an instruction manual. These manuals describe how to correctly bring the product into operation, how to install it or prepare it for use and consequently also how to use it safely.

Translation services are the natural partner for technical documentation, since many products are distributed worldwide and target customers need information in their mother tongue on how to use them safely and effectively. At Lexika, we have wide-ranging experience in translating all kinds of technical documentation – instruction manuals and user guides for the engineering, power and transport industries, and for health and information technologies.

Do you need a technical translation? Please contact us at info@lexika.sk.

There is a great number of professional tools, free, or to buy for creating subtitles. If you’re going to make subtitles regularly, we definitely recommend professional, purchased software tools. However, if you’re going to make subtitles less often or only occasionally, you can easily use free software instead of a purchased one. You can find some free software tools on this list:

Subtitle Workshop

Very popular among the subtitling community is Subtitle Workshop, a handy little program, which doesn’t take up much space on your hard disk and comes with many features.

Advantages:	a range of features, including spell check
Disadvantages:	certain versions had issues with stability and displaying the soundtrack
Platform:	Windows, Linux, Mac OS

VisualSubSync

VisualSubSync is a practical program that can work with the soundtrack and keep track of the subtitle duration.

Advantages:	work with the soundtrack is outstanding, automatically spaced subtitles
Disadvantages:	the development and support has ended
Platform:	Windows

Aegisub

Aegisub, another powerful and almost professional tool for creating and modifying subtitles, is suitable even for the advanced users.

Advantages:	good display of the sound track, SSA/ASS subtitle scripting
Disadvantages:	doesn’t automatically space the subtitles, doesn’t show the reading speed
Platform:	Windows, Linux, Mac OS

We made a comprehensive tutorial for you on how to use this program in the next article.

Recommendation

You can significantly speed up your work with subtitling tools if you learn how to use the keyboard shortcuts. It will save you a lot more time than using your mouse.