![]() Compared to other professional tools, their price seems unjustifiable to many translators. Full versions of the most used CAT tools have expensive licence costs.Detractors base their opinion on several points, some of them quite reasonable, some not so much: You can still find complaints on the matter on specialised forums and newsgroups. Quality assurance module, which reviews the text and flags common errorsĭespite all the advantages, a few freelance translators reject the use of translation memories.Spell checker, similar to that found in common word processors.Dictionary module or connector, showing suggestions from one or more electronic dictionaries. ![]() Project management module or functions, for the organization of the project.Reference material module, showing documents related to the translation project.Alignment module, to create a translation memory from translated documents without a CAT tool.Machine translation connector, showing suggestions from one or more machine translation engines.TM Editor, to edit translation memory contents.Concordance / Search tool, to search within the TM.Term Database (or TermBase, abbreviated to TB).Modern Computer-Aided Translation tools usually include: Some prefer to refer to Computer-Aided Translation Tools as Translation Environment Tools (TEnT), because they include more features than just the matching algorithm. What features are included in a CAT tool? This last advantage is clearer when translating the second version of a text, where most of the content remains the same. Higher productivity, because identical segments need to be translated only once, while similar (fuzzy) segments are also partially translated by the system.Better coherence of the document: CAT tools retrieve the same target text for identical source text.No sentence can be left untranslated, because CAT tools don’t allow empty target sentences.Typical advantages of translation memories and CAT/TMM tools for professional translators are: Within the same program, you can also look up existing terms from a TermBase (TB) and even pretranslate the text with the help of the machine translation engine of your choice. Thanks to an algorithm, when translating a text the software matches the sentence to be translated with the sentences found in the database, serving one or more existing translation that can be accepted, edited or discarded. Translation memories are used by assisted translation software, or more specifically, by its subset called Translation Memory Managers. Oversimplifying, translation units are segments of text in 2 languages and correspond - more or less - to sentences, according to specified punctuation rules. It’s called a “memory”, because it remembers past translations. One of the most useful results that the IT+Internet revolution brought to the translator’s office was the advent of translation memories.Ī “translation memory”, usually abbreviated as TM, is nothing more than a database of translation units. We can speak with full knowledge of the facts, because we have been using one of these tools for more than 10 years. Indeed, there are a few, although they are aimed at the most tech-savvy users. This resistance is partly justified by the high cost of software licences, partly due to legitimate doubts, but also based on a few misconceptions.Īre there any free or open source alternative that can really compete with paid solutions, are easier to use, can really enhance a translator’s or translation company’s productivity and help a non-professional in their translations? Surprisingly enough, although they’re widely available on the market since the Nineties, not every translator has embraced this technology, while most translation companies do include at least one of them in their workflow. ![]() Translation memory tools are considered one of the most useful tools for professional translators and Language Service Providers (LSP), but also for non-professionals who frequently need to translate texts. ![]() OmegaT, a free and open source translation tool.What features are included in a CAT tool?.
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