Do you constantly need translations for your company? Would you like to develop a specific short-term or long-term translation project that follows the same corporate line? In that case, make sure you collaborate with a company whose expert translators are assisted by CAT tools. You will save time and money.
What CAT tools are and what they are for
Computer Assisted Translation tools are defined by software that assists the work of a human translator.
CAT tools are computer programs that provide extra help on translation projects, as they speed up the process and provide greater effectiveness, avoiding repetitions, which means the companies that request these translations save time and money.
It’s important to point out what CAT tools are and what they are not. Despite the fact that they are a valuable support to the translator’s work, they do not translate on their own and need human action through proofreading or the revision of the translations. We’ll explain why.
What CAT tools are used for
CAT tools are especially useful to translate large amounts of content with a lot of repetition:
- Instruction manuals for all types of products.
- Operation guides for vehicles, machinery, electrical appliances and software items in constant evolution, among others.
- Documentation of research products (healthcare, industrial, etc.) with new development versions.
- Informational texts about different topics (scientific, legal, educational, etc.)
- Balance sheets.
There are many companies that have recurring content, with few but necessary differences from one period of time to another, that require its translation into several languages.
Hiring the services of a professional translation company that has quality computer assisted translation tools will guarantee that companies’ content will be translated in a consistent and harmonious way, with no contradictions and more efficiently in terms of costs and deadlines.
What benefits do they provide a professional translators’ work with?
The characteristics of these translation software tools help optimize professional translators’ work. Let’s see what they consist in.
- They create translation memories. CAT tools work dividing the text and storing the segments in memories that can later be consulted and modified when needed.
The software detects concordances between the new text translated by the translator and previous content, marking them and favoring having to click less, at the same time the memory is adding the new segments.
- The translator also has glossaries, which are compilations of specific words for each project. This software marks specific words so that they are always translated in the same way, thus achieving terminological and corporate harmony.
- They allow shared work in projects that require several translators or revisers. The professionals involved can add comments or make changes establishing an online workflow that avoids unnecessary delays.
- They keep the original format. Through tags, translation tools avoid problems such as boxes that do not match due to the different length in characters between two or more languages or images that are out of place, which helps the translator by not having to slow down their work in order to correct formatting errors.
As you can see, CAT tools are of great assistance when organizing translation projects, acting as an invaluable assistant that helps to obtain quality, coherent and more effective translations.
