Translation Tools continued

What is Machine Translation?

Machine translation can mean one of two things: Automatic translation or Computer Assisted Translation (CAT).

However, it must be made clear that using CAT tools is a very different thing
to using automatic translation systems!

In theory, automatic translation software can translate without human intervention. It uses predefined grammatical rules and a (limited) dictionary. However, this method is often unpredictable and is by no means any kind of
substitute for human translation, as it requires extensive human post-editing.

These facts speak for themselves: a translation, even a simple one, cannot be entrusted to automatic translation software.

CAT (Computer-Aided Translation) tools use a translation memory to store
recurring sentences. When a section of text is to be translated several times,
for the same project or even for future projects, the software displays the stored translation so that the translator can simply check and approve it. In fact, one section can have the option of more than one translation if required, so that the translator can choose according to the context.

All of our translations are done by qualified native speakers of the target
language, but we do also use computer-assisted translation tools and translation memories, such Trados, Déjà vu and SDLX.

Benefits

To The Living Word the importance of these kinds of tools is quite clear.

We find them extremely useful for use with projects where the source material provided by the client contains a lot of repetition and when similar documents
or new releases of a product are expected in the future.

In these cases CAT tools ensure consistency of terminology and style, not only throughout a document, but also for any future documents for the same client.
CAT tools application helps to keep our rates competitive without skimping on accuracy and style.

Managing translation memories is also a very important part of our work with
CAT tools. Clearly, a translation memory can only ever be as good as the people who have created it. We manage our memories in-house to ensure that we can consistently provide our clients with the best translation.

In addition to the advantages of using a translation memory, our translation
tools also give us the opportunity to create glossaries. This means that
terminology lists can be custom-made for a client, and even for a
specific product.

We prefer to liaise closely with our clients on this, and to encourage clients to approve these lists, in order that we can maintain and update them constantly.
As with all of our services, we encourage continuous feedback from our clients.

Alternatively, to discuss your project in more detail please call us on:
+44 (0)1604 601927