Each business has to face their own unique challenges, but accessing the international market is one of the most common. The tools required to tackle each challenge will vary and it is worth doing the research to identify the tools best placed to serve your needs. We want to talk to you about CAT tools (Computer-Assisted Translation), software that can make the difference in a company’s translation and localization management because they increase translator productivity and reduce translation costs.
If you are trying to optimize the internationalization of your company with software, then you will find everything you need to know about CAT tools and how they can benefit your business in this article.
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What are CAT tools?
CAT tools or Computer-Assisted Translation tools are programs that enable translators to work efficiently and with precision. CAT tools combine the use of translation memories (TM) with other technology – such as machine translation and terminology management – to offer various useful features that can aid all stages of translation. A translation memory allows translators to reuse previously translated content which saves times and minimizes the possibility for human error. Other helpful features include terminology management, quality control and real-time translation revision.
Although CAT tools are primarily used within the translation industry, companies that often have content to translate could also find them useful; for example, a marketing or sales team that works with different countries or departments are regularly collaborating with external partners. The best CAT tools are easy to use and can help youautomate repetitive tasks, improve translation quality and save money and time in the long run.
What do CAT tools do?
CAT tools split up the document to be translated into translation units calledsegments. With the help of a rather intuitive interface, the document gets translated sentence by sentence; the segments displayed side by side in the two languages.
The translations of these segments are gradually saved to the internal database, aka the translation memory (TM), which holds all previous translations and makes relevant suggestions when it detects a similar or equivalent sentence to be translated in the text. This allows the translator to access all previous translations and avoid translating the same sentence multiple times, which helps to maintain a consistent terminology and style with ease by consulting the translation memory.
Moreover, CAT tools make it possible to integrate terminology database (term bases) that are incredible resources for a company, especially when it comes to technical translations, because they provide the translator with clear guidelines on approved company terminology.
The advantages of using a CAT tool
- Translation quality: one of the main advantages of using a CAT tool is the quality it provides. If you use a professional CAT tool and regularly update the TM, you will gain more consistent and precise translations. This is because the CAT tool will be able to suggest translations that align with company and brand standards. It will also help revisers to find and correct any errors that would otherwise have gone unnoticed by human translators when they are translating the same content many times.
- Save money and time: using a translation memory optimizes costs by reusing previously translated material. Repetition discounts can have a significant impact on the cost of a translation – imagine translating an e-commerce website which has hundreds of almost identical product descriptions, for example. Likewise, using a TM speeds up the translation process and avoids the often tedious copy and paste work for web designers, graphic designers and DTP specialists.
- Ability to translate files in special formats (HTML, XML, InDesign, etc.): it’s possible to have layout documents, website pages and code strings translated quickly and without the risk of compromising the file, which favours their ultimate import(for example, translating a website in WordPress is a smooth and fully optimized operation thanks to the use of CAT tools).
The main CAT tools on the market
In conclusion,
if your company often has content to translate, a CAT tool could help you streamline the workflow and heighten efficiency. This in turn will help you reduce costs, improve translation quality, and save time. CAT tools can also help you automate repetitive tasks and save money and time in the long run.
Rachael is a young but talented colleague, who specializes in translations from French and English into Italian. After graduating in the UK, she moved to Italy where she taught English as a foreign language to Italian students and where she learnt the real Italian she needs to fully understand the source texts and translate them into English. She has also worked as an intern at AlfaBeta’s office in Rome and is now one of our youngest freelancers.