1. What is a CAT tool?
Computer-Aided Translation (also called
Computer-Assisted Translation) is a term used to describe computer
techniques used to facilitate the process of translation more
efficiently.
2. Why should you use a CAT tool?
Using CAT tool,
human translators can post-edit the machine translated content, to
improve fluency and accuracy of the translated content to match the
naturalness of human translation while delivering with better
turn-around time.
CAT tool aids the process of post-editing, thereby increasing the productivity of human translators by 2-3 folds within couple of months of usage for certain language pairs with right CAT tool (For European language SDL Trados, for Indian Language Transzaar ). In consequence, you will make more money and you will have more leisure time for your creative work.
CAT tool aids the process of post-editing, thereby increasing the productivity of human translators by 2-3 folds within couple of months of usage for certain language pairs with right CAT tool (For European language SDL Trados, for Indian Language Transzaar ). In consequence, you will make more money and you will have more leisure time for your creative work.
3. Advantages of CAT tools:
1. Reduce Turnaround Time
2. Improve Consistency
3. Minimize Translation Cost
4. Track History - who did what, and when
2. Improve Consistency
3. Minimize Translation Cost
4. Track History - who did what, and when
4. How does CAT Tools work
A CAT tool aids the process of post-editing more efficiently through the following main functions:
1- Translation Management System
2- Translation Memory (TM) Management
3- Terminology/Glossary Management
4- Additional Functions
1- Translation Management System : Translation Management is basically the automation of the entire translation process. It eliminates repetitive mechanical tasks while enabling control, increasing team collaboration and delivering with greater efficiency.
2- Translation Memory (TM) Management: The main function of a CAT tool is to save the translation units in a database, so that they can be re-used for any other text, or even in the same text. The TM stores the source text and its corresponding translation in language pairs called translation units. Through "fuzzy search" features the search functions of CAT tools even find segments which do not match 100%. This saves a lot of time and effort and helps to make a coherent and consistent translation. Translation Memory Exchange (TMX) format is an open XML standard used for exchanging translation memory (TM) data created by Computer Aided Translation (CAT) and localization applications.
3- Terminology/Glossary Management: A terminology consists of words and phrases used to create sentences in a translation solution. Most terminology interface lists contain two columns: the first one contains terms in the source language, and the second one gives the corresponding terms in the target language. A CAT tool is the automatic look-up in terminology databases, and the automatic display and insertion of the search results. Terminology aids in translation to maintain consistency.
4. Additional Functions
Besides these main functions many other functions are included in a CAT-Tool which also make translation easier and increase the translators productivity:
4.1 Lexical items search
4.2 concordance search
4.3 Quality checking
4.4 Import/Export tools
4.5 Alignment Tool
4.6 On-line Internet tools
4.4 Import/Export tools
4.5 Alignment Tool
4.6 On-line Internet tools