What are Computer-Assisted Translation Tools?
Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tools aid our professional translators by providing a user-friendly platform that streamlines the translation process. Thanks to these tools, translators are able to work more efficiently by breaking down the text into smaller, manageable segments, called “translation units”. As translators progress with their work, CAT tools store these translation units in the Translation Memory.
Why do we use CAT Tools?
Quality Assurance
Our CAT tools include integrated quality assurance features that check translations for potential errors, inconsistencies and omissions. This built-in QA process aids our proofreaders and editors in verifying the accuracy and quality of the final translation.
Consistency
By leveraging Translation Memory, our translators can work more efficiently, resulting in faster turnaround times for translations. The reuse of previously translated segments saves time and allows us to meet turnaround time requirements even for larger volume projects.
Cost-efficiency
By using TMs, we can potentially save you a lot of money. The technology reduces the need to translate repeated material from scratch. We will analyse your documents for repetitions and matches to previous content during our free, no-obligation quotation process. Wherever possible, we will apply a percentage discount to your quotation to ensure you’re never overpaying for your translations!
Time savings
Every time your translated content is added to the TM, the memory becomes more accurate and specific to you. This saves time for our linguists and ultimately ensures a faster turnaround time for your projects, given that any material that’s the same or similar to previously translated content will automatically be retrieved from the memory and used for your new project.
Flexibility
Our CAT tools allow us to work flexibly, in a variety of file formats. Whether your content has been written in Word, Excel, Adobe or HTML, our CAT tools extract the relevant data for translation and return a seamless translation in the same format as the original.
Computer-Assisted Translation FAQs
BLS has decades of experience working with CAT tools, and we are well-versed in all industry-leading CAT tools. Our chosen in-house tool is the cloud-based SmartCAT tool, but we are also familiar with many other tools such as SDL Trados, memoQ, XTM, Phrase, Smartling, etc.
Yes, all the well-known CAT tool providers have extensive data security measures in place, and your translations will always be stored and managed in a secure manner.
Yes, CAT tools and Translation Memories are versatile and can work with a wide range of languages and content types, be it legal contracts, marketing material for your website or software user interfaces.