The translation industry is ever-changing. In fact, it is a subject to many technological innovations. One of these innovations is the use of CAT tools. A Computer Aided Translation tool is a computer program aimed to help language service providers. It is important to understand that they are not automatic translation tools. Instead, they facilitate the translation process with their different features.

CAT tools automatically split the text into “segments”, making it easier to divide big workloads. The segments are stored in databases, known as translation memories. When the program identifies similarities among words or sentences, a suggested translation will appear so the segments can be supplied and re-used.

Still unsure about the benefits of using a CAT tool?

There are many different applications in the translation industry, they all serve specific needs and are ideal either for translator, editors or project managers. In this part, we focus on the benefits of using CAT tools for translators:

• Increasing consistency of translations.

Thanks to Translation Memories, CAT tools standardize the translations of the same subject, increasing consistency. The tools make sure that the writing style and the terminology are coherent throughout the document, helping translators obtain homogeneity for the whole document no matter how many words it has.

• Speed

As a translator, you’ll see that the suggestions CAT tools offer can help with speed even if you don’t use the raw output, it will still have saved you a considerable amount of time.

• Using CAT tools allows saving time.

As explained, the Translation Memory acts as a database storage, keeping a record of both, target and source sentences. With an updated TM, translators can obtain more words in reduced time. When the software recognizes that two segments are identical or similar, it will suggest an exact translation, which can be re-used and saves effort and extra time for the linguist.

• Error Reduction

Translation tools are designed to be through. They will help you avoid errors like skipped words or lines in the translation.

• Ensure quality of the document.

Working with pre-translations represent a big advantage for linguists because they can use the time to revise the document instead of stopping for every single segment.

Eager to learn how to use a CAT tool? TranslatorPub offers training courses tailored to your needs so you can be up to date with the industry’s requirements. Contact us for more information?