CAT TOOLS: AN INTRODUCTION

MONTSERRAT BERMÚDEZ BAUSELA

 Quote
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 For translators there is no longer any question of

whether or not to use computers and networks. The
use of information and communication technology
(ICT) is a fait accompli in the lives of today’s
language professionals. (Austermühl 2001: 7).
 What are CAT Tools?
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Computer Aided/Assisted Translation Tools (or Translation

Environment Tools (TEnT), by Zetzsche, J. The Translator’s
Tool Box) help in the translation process and improve the
productivity of the translation projects. In Spanish:
Herramientas de Traducción Asistida por Ordenador (TAO).

ADVANTAGES:

 Coherence (sharing a project with different translators)

 Improved final quality
 Productivity and efficiency of the translation process
 Highly repetition factor - > Reduced cost
 Different types of CAT Tools
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depending on the Translation Lifecycle
 PRE-TRANSLATION PROCESS
 Project Management tools (before and during the process)
 Preparation of files
 Alignment tools

 TRANSLATION PROCESS
 Translation Memory tools (TM)
 Machine Translation (MT)
 Terminology managers
 Corpus Linguistics tools
 Localisation tools
 QA

 POST-PROCESSING PROCESS
 DTP tools
 The Translation Lifecycle
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Pre- • Pre-translation (setting up the

project, analysis of files,
translation levering possibilities…)

Translation • Translation, QA

Post- • DTP, TM maintenance, Project

processing Wrapping-up
 Pre-translation
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• Project Management Tools

Scheduling, overview, assigning resources, budget…

• Alignment Tools
They help feed the TM by aligning a source language text
with its target text and importing the resulting TU into a new
TM.
 Example of PM Tool
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 Example of Alignment Tool
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 Translation
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•Translation Memory (TM) tools:

• suggest previously translated and stored segments that are
similar to the segment he/she is translating.

•are empty when they are first created and start storing TU
when the translator is translating.

•Machine Translation (MT). Sp: Traducción Automática (TA):

• is an automated translation tool;
• based on grammatical rules, glossaries, dictionaries and
frequency statistics;
• can be integrated into the overall translation process;
• controlled languages (Caterpillar Technical English;
Caterpillar Fundamental English; AECMA Simplified English).
 Translation
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•Terminology managers
•help to manage your terminology: creating and storing it and
adding new terms along the process of translation.
•Corpus Linguistics tools
•help to study words in context throughout concordances,
collocates, clusters...
•Localisation tools
•help to translate and adapt the software to meet the requirements
of the target market.
•QA tools
•help to check the quality of the final product (linguistic, cosmetic,
functional…)
 Example of Terminology Tool
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 Example of Corpus Linguistics Tool
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 Example of Localisation Tool
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 Other Localisaton Tools
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 RC-WinTrans
 Multilizer
 Visual Localize
 Resource Hacker
 Resource Tuner
 Examples of Web Localisation Tools
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CatsCraddle
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WebBudget
 Post-processing
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•DTP: Desktop Publishing Tools

 Specific format. InDesign, FrameMaker or QuarkXPress
 What does a TM provide?
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THE POSSIBILITY OF:

 Reusing previously translated segments that have been stored

in the TM.

Pre-translating

Storing terminology both in the source language and the target

language in a term database to interact with the TM.

 Project Management: conducting analysis, creating statistical

reports and word counts.

Quality Control: terminology check, untranslated segments, tags,

numbers, spaces.

Aligning previous source texts along with their corresponding

translations, as an easy and fast way to “feed” the memory.
 Why use a TM?
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 Prompting suggestions of previously translated source

and target segments stored in a database, allowing
translators to reference it during translation.

 Integrated environment: TM, MT, TB, Glossaries, etc.

 Reusability: Exporting it in different formats: TMX, TXT,

DOCX, etc.
 What is a segment and a TU?
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A segment is a portion of text that is usually:

a sentence
a title or a heading
a list item

What is a Translation Unit (TU)?

A matched pair consisting of the source and target
segment.
 Types of matches
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 Previously translated segments are presented during

translations as a “match percentage” from the TM.
 A match indicates the similarity between two source
segments, and can indicate the scope of effort required
to translate.
 100% match: The source segment is exactly the same as a
previously translated segment stored in the TM.
 Fuzzy match: Parts of the source segment match a
previously translated segment stored in the TM. The
percentage indicates how closely the segments match.
 No match: No similar segments exist in the TM, or the
percentage match is so low that reuse causes more work
than translating from scratch.
 Standards
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 TMX: Translation Memory eXchange

 TBX: TermBase eXchange
 XLIFF: XML Localization Interchange File Format
 Translation Memory (TM) Tools

TYPES OF TM TOOLS:

 Tools based on macros which are executed in Microsoft

Word and are associated with the TM and the TB, such
as Trados 8 orWordfast.

 Other tools work in an independent environment such as

Trados Studio, Déjà Vu, Transit or memoQ.

 Other TMs that are web-based such as memsource

and Wordfast Anywhere.
 Based on macros
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 Independent environment
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 SDL Trados Studio 2019

Training and Certification

 memoQ

 Déjà Vu X3

 Star Transit
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 Web-based
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 Memsource

 Wordfast Anywhere
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Traducción y Nuevas Tecnologías

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Traducción y Nuevas Tecnologías

 A last note…
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 We should not mistake CAT Tools with on-line

resources for the translators such as:
 Term banks
 Dictionaries

 Translation Associations

 Referential monolingual linguistic corpora

 Distribution lists

 Translator’s blogs