Forum: CAT Tools Technical Help
Topic: Efficiency of using CAT tools in comparison to using none
Poster: Kevin Fulton
Post title: Variable
A number of years ago I had to translate a series of documents pertaining to outfitting a car body painting plant. I had to do a fair amount of terminological work for the first document which also contained a lot of boilerplate language pertaining to legal liability, intellectual property rights, disclaimers, etc. The second document dealt with a similar operation and contained the same boilerplate text. The main differences had to do with quantities, capacities and through-puts as well as additional operations. I finished the second text in half the time of the first. The third document was considerably longer, although it also contained much of the data from the first two documents as well as the boilerplate with minor modifications. Translating that document took no longer than the second document, thus freeing me to take a fourth document in the series.
Skip ahead 5 years...
I was offered another job on the same topic (different customer). Although some of the technology and boilerplate had changed, I was happy to see that I could put most of the prior work to good use.
I won't bore you with other examples, but I have found using a CAT tool useful for managing terminology, translating repetitive text (common when working with the same customer over time) and helping me to be a more **efficient** translator.
But this didn't happen overnight. I first used a CAT tool in 1998 on a highly repetitive text, and learned a painful lesson on garbage-in, garbage out.
Topic: Efficiency of using CAT tools in comparison to using none
Poster: Kevin Fulton
Post title: Variable
A number of years ago I had to translate a series of documents pertaining to outfitting a car body painting plant. I had to do a fair amount of terminological work for the first document which also contained a lot of boilerplate language pertaining to legal liability, intellectual property rights, disclaimers, etc. The second document dealt with a similar operation and contained the same boilerplate text. The main differences had to do with quantities, capacities and through-puts as well as additional operations. I finished the second text in half the time of the first. The third document was considerably longer, although it also contained much of the data from the first two documents as well as the boilerplate with minor modifications. Translating that document took no longer than the second document, thus freeing me to take a fourth document in the series.
Skip ahead 5 years...
I was offered another job on the same topic (different customer). Although some of the technology and boilerplate had changed, I was happy to see that I could put most of the prior work to good use.
I won't bore you with other examples, but I have found using a CAT tool useful for managing terminology, translating repetitive text (common when working with the same customer over time) and helping me to be a more **efficient** translator.
But this didn't happen overnight. I first used a CAT tool in 1998 on a highly repetitive text, and learned a painful lesson on garbage-in, garbage out.