Forum: CAT Tools Technical Help
Topic: The best Translation Software ?
Poster: Christine Andersen
Post title: It depends what you are looking for
Trados is a translation memory, and when you first start it up, 'nothing happens'. It is a CAT-tool - CAT stands for Computer Aided Translation.
As the human translator does the work, Trados builds up a database or TM (Translation Memory), which in time can be very useful, when a similar assignment appears.
Each sentence is stored as a whole sentence, in both languages, and next time an identical or similar sentence occurs, Trados finds it and inserts it automatically in the translation.
At first, all that comes up will be standard sentences such as 'Page XX of YY' (Trados updates the numbers automatically) or dates, telephone numbers and so on, depending on what kind of text you are working with. Later, if there are many standard phrases in an official letter, for instance, or safety sentences in a product description, these will come up too.
There is a glossary function - Multiterm - which can be edited to include regular terminology, which will be recognised when it appears in the text. This is very useful for long strings or fixed expressions like the 'Ethical Committee for the Pharmaceutical Industry in Denmark' - they can be inserted with just a few key strokes to save typing.
Many things can be added to Multiterm besides straightforward terminology: standard safety instructions, titles of directors and employees or departments in a client's company... anything that comes up regularly, but is not a complete sentence.
_____________________________
Of course, it takes time to build up a translation memory and edit the glossary function, but once these tasks have been done, it is possible to export them and share them with colleagues.
If you have a trusted colleague who has already built up a translation memory, you can import it into your own TM and make use of it.
Agencies often collect these TMs too, and send them to freelancers. They can be very useful, but it is necessary to ensure that only the correct, final translations are stored in the TMs. Otherwise they will accumulate errors, and inevitably, even correct translations may also become outdated. It is always a good idea to be critical about anything that comes from the TM - and it is always possible to override it and insert a new translation.
____________________________
Trados Studio can be linked up to search-engine software and translation engines, which will actually produce translations. I do not use these, and know very little about them, but some translators find them useful.
Machine translation comes from a giant database, and uses algorithms to recognise words and expressions in the source language, and then match them with expressions in the target. (This may be anything from the generic Google Translate to highly specialised engines developed for particular subject fields.)
Machine translation may produce correct translations, but it may also have trouble with grammar and syntax, and it may have trouble with words that look the same but mean different things in different contexts...
Post-editing is always necessary, and is a growing business. The results may be useful, or they may be inaccurate and very difficult to understand.
___________________________
Trados Studio is only one of many CATs. It is the one I use, and I have very little experience of others. It is relatively expensive to buy, but it also has many features, and I think it is worth the investment. It does take time to learn how to use it.
There are others - MemoQ is a popular competitor, which also has many advanced features and costs a fair amount.
WordFast Classic is a 'lighter' version, which I tried and used as a backup some years ago, but I have not used it recently. It is very popular, and I believe it is a good CAT to start with, as it is easy to learn the basic features.
There is also Wordfast Pro.
Deja Vu
And LOTS Of others... for instance here....
[url removed]
______________________________
I distinguish CAT tools from Machine Translation this way:
With a CAT, the translator is in charge from the start and decides, sentence by sentence, whether to accept the suggestion from the CAT or re-translate it.
With Machine Translation, the machine runs through the text and produces a draft.
The human editor then has to sort out the mess ... :razz:
MT is improving, but it still has a long way to go before it is really reliable.
Topic: The best Translation Software ?
Poster: Christine Andersen
Post title: It depends what you are looking for
Trados is a translation memory, and when you first start it up, 'nothing happens'. It is a CAT-tool - CAT stands for Computer Aided Translation.
As the human translator does the work, Trados builds up a database or TM (Translation Memory), which in time can be very useful, when a similar assignment appears.
Each sentence is stored as a whole sentence, in both languages, and next time an identical or similar sentence occurs, Trados finds it and inserts it automatically in the translation.
At first, all that comes up will be standard sentences such as 'Page XX of YY' (Trados updates the numbers automatically) or dates, telephone numbers and so on, depending on what kind of text you are working with. Later, if there are many standard phrases in an official letter, for instance, or safety sentences in a product description, these will come up too.
There is a glossary function - Multiterm - which can be edited to include regular terminology, which will be recognised when it appears in the text. This is very useful for long strings or fixed expressions like the 'Ethical Committee for the Pharmaceutical Industry in Denmark' - they can be inserted with just a few key strokes to save typing.
Many things can be added to Multiterm besides straightforward terminology: standard safety instructions, titles of directors and employees or departments in a client's company... anything that comes up regularly, but is not a complete sentence.
_____________________________
Of course, it takes time to build up a translation memory and edit the glossary function, but once these tasks have been done, it is possible to export them and share them with colleagues.
If you have a trusted colleague who has already built up a translation memory, you can import it into your own TM and make use of it.
Agencies often collect these TMs too, and send them to freelancers. They can be very useful, but it is necessary to ensure that only the correct, final translations are stored in the TMs. Otherwise they will accumulate errors, and inevitably, even correct translations may also become outdated. It is always a good idea to be critical about anything that comes from the TM - and it is always possible to override it and insert a new translation.
____________________________
Trados Studio can be linked up to search-engine software and translation engines, which will actually produce translations. I do not use these, and know very little about them, but some translators find them useful.
Machine translation comes from a giant database, and uses algorithms to recognise words and expressions in the source language, and then match them with expressions in the target. (This may be anything from the generic Google Translate to highly specialised engines developed for particular subject fields.)
Machine translation may produce correct translations, but it may also have trouble with grammar and syntax, and it may have trouble with words that look the same but mean different things in different contexts...
Post-editing is always necessary, and is a growing business. The results may be useful, or they may be inaccurate and very difficult to understand.
___________________________
Trados Studio is only one of many CATs. It is the one I use, and I have very little experience of others. It is relatively expensive to buy, but it also has many features, and I think it is worth the investment. It does take time to learn how to use it.
There are others - MemoQ is a popular competitor, which also has many advanced features and costs a fair amount.
WordFast Classic is a 'lighter' version, which I tried and used as a backup some years ago, but I have not used it recently. It is very popular, and I believe it is a good CAT to start with, as it is easy to learn the basic features.
There is also Wordfast Pro.
Deja Vu
And LOTS Of others... for instance here....
[url removed]
______________________________
I distinguish CAT tools from Machine Translation this way:
With a CAT, the translator is in charge from the start and decides, sentence by sentence, whether to accept the suggestion from the CAT or re-translate it.
With Machine Translation, the machine runs through the text and produces a draft.
The human editor then has to sort out the mess ... :razz:
MT is improving, but it still has a long way to go before it is really reliable.