CAT Tools: Overview and Benefits

Many people tend to relate translation to a “human-only” industry without using any cutting-edge technologies. What they don’t know is that to guarantee the high quality of the translation process, every project conducted by professional translation agencies and freelance translators is assisted by powerful tools called Computer-Assisted Translation Tools (CAT Tools).

So what exactly are CAT Tools? Why are they so important? Let’s find out the answers in today’s post.

What Are CAT Tools?

Computer-Assisted Translation Tool (CAT tool) is a program specifically designed for translators and linguists in the translation of documents. The aim of CAT tools is to help translators improve their productivity and the quality of translations. What’s more, CAT Tools allow translators and linguists to edit, manage, and store previous translations.

It’s a common belief that CAT Tools do all the translating tasks (just like machine translation) without human involvement. The truth is, they are only a helpful translation environment for translators. It helps you boost the translation process, not do all the work for you.

                                                                  Trados Studio 2017 Display

In the past, one CAT Tool could only be used either online or offline. XTM, Smartcat, and MateCat to name a few only supported online projects while Trados and MemoQ used to be offline platforms. Now, the gap between the online and offline platforms is narrowed down. More and more CAT Tools integrate online and offline platforms together, making it easier than ever for translators to work on a project.

What Makes CAT Tools Important?

CAT tools contain four core features that make them powerful:

(1) Translation Memory and Termbase,

(2) The ability to work on almost any format,

(3) Bilingual format.

(1) Translation Memory (TM)

Translation Memory (TM) stores source texts and their translations from previous projects that can be used for future translation projects. A TM can be a phrase, a sentence, a paragraph, or a heading.

A Translation Memory brings various benefits to translators:

• • • Translators never have to translate the same phrases/sentences twice, helping them reduce the time for translating;
    • CAT Tools stores all previous translations, boosting the consistency of your past, current, and future translation projects;
    • Translators can share assets with their fellows while working on high-volume projects.

A Translation Memory is made of Translation Units (TU). A TU is usually a sentence that was stored from previous projects. Simply speaking, the more TU you have, the more various your TM is. If a TU in the current source text matches the TU in the Translation Memory, CAT Tools will automatically find the matches and suggest the translation for translators.

The types of matches might vary among CAT tools, depending on the algorithms the tool producers use. But in general, there are four types of matches:

• • • Context Match (or Perfect Match) – both the context and meaning of a sentence match 100% with the previous translations in TM. To put it in other words, you have translated the sentence in your previous project and the CAT tools also recognize the sentences around it. These are usually headings, tables, and titles. With Context Match TU, translators can use the previous translations without changing anything.

• • • 100% Match – a sentence that has the same words and format as the sentence that was translated is called 100% Match. The context of the sentence may be different so you need to check the 100% Match sentences again to avoid some surprising differences. But most of the time, translators don’t have to translate that TU again.

• • • Fuzzy Match – Some words from the new sentence match your previous translations. You can use the previous translations for the match words while having to translate the new words. Fuzzy Match is mostly divided into 4 groups: 95-99% Match, 85-94% Match, 75-84% Match, and 50-74% Match.

• • • No Match – The whole TU is new so translators must translate it from scratch.

(2) Termbase (TB)

A termbase (TB) is a searchable database or glossary integrated into CAT Tools. To some extent, it is similar to dictionaries. It can store a single word or a short expression for your use. While Translation Memory restores all types of words, a Termbase focuses on only terminologies. In other words, a termbase is a special type of Translation Memory.

A termbase also contains reference notes and rules about the terms’ usage. When translating, the termbase suggests to you what a word or expression, say, brand names or product-specific terms should be translated accurately.

So why is a termbase beneficial? Instead of searching for the meaning of a term on the Internet or in dictionaries, translators can get help from Termbases displayed on the working screen of CAT tools. With the Termbases on CAT tools, translating time can be reduced significantly, and thus the productivity of translators is enhanced.

(3) The Ability To Work In Almost Any Format

Without using any supporting tools, translators can only work on ready-to-use files such as Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel. Since more and more customers ask for more complex types of files, not using supporting tools may deprive translators of potential translating tasks.

Meanwhile, CAT Tools support a wide range of file types, from Microsoft Word to HTML, XML, MS Word, Open Office, Java Resource (Properties), InDesign (INX/IDML), etc. that meet all customers’ demands.

(4) Display A Bilingual Format

The display of CAT Tools is divided into two separate columns. One column is the source text and the other is the target text. Translators can easily translate and review both versions at the same time.

The bilingual format of CAT Tools also benefits Quality Assurance (QA) process with QA Tools. Instead of reading and comparing two separate files, the QA process can take place on CAT Tools, saving reviewers a great deal of time and effort.

How Can CAT Tools Benefit Your Projects?

Besides being powerful assistance to translators, CAT Tools bring great gain to clients’ projects in terms of time, money, and quality.

(1) Reduce Translation Costs

If you have, say, a 1000-word document, you don’t have to pay for all 1000 translated words. You only pay full price for what’s new, i.e. words that translators really translate, not words that have already been stored in the Translation Memory.

The rate to translate a word is also based on the duplicate rate that we mentioned above. Let’s take an example. In your 1000-word document, there are 450 “No match” words, 300 “Fuzzy match” words, and 250 “Exact match” words. The weighted word count for them is 1, 0.7, and 0.25 respectively (This is not a fixed weighted word count. The weighted word count that each CAT tool and customer apply varies).

With CAT Tools’ involvement, you are only charged for 722.5 words instead of 1000 words. In a nutshell, CAT Tools help reduce a great deal of money for translation projects.

(2) Quicker Turn-around Time

Since translators don’t have to translate 100% of the text, less time is needed to translate documents (compared to no CAT tools translation methods). It’s helpful especially when you need a rush translation.

(3) Remain the Consistency of Translations

A word in your language can have numerous equivalents in a foreign language. Let’s take a simple example. “Quan trọng” literally means “important” in English, but it’s still correct if translators paraphrase it into “vital” or “crucial”. If translators don’t use CAT tools during the translating process, there can be several translations for the same source which leads to the inconsistency of the target documents.

In cases where many translators work together on one large-volume project, each of them might use a different translation for the same word, affecting the consistency of the final translation. Luckily, the problem can be solved by using CAT Tools. Thanks to the Translation Memory, the terms used throughout the translation are consistent. It makes the translations smoother and thus, increases the overall quality of the projects.

The Drawbacks of CAT Tools

With all the benefits above, does it mean CAT Tools is perfect? Well, nothing is perfect, and neither are CAT Tools. CAT tools are likely to divide the source file into small separate segments such as a phrase or a sentence. As a result, it can only understand the context of the sentence, not the whole document. Therefore, translators cannot rely 100% on tools without checking the translation carefully. Referring to the source documents is an essential step to guarantee an accurate translation.

An Infographic About CAT Tools

Let’s summarize everything we have discussed above regarding CAT Tools with the following infographic.

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