5 CAT TOOLS THAT EVERY

TRANSLATOR SHOULD USE

In a previous post, we explained why companies should consider investing in Computer Assisted Translation

tools. Today, we will look at CAT tools in greater detail. You’ll find below an essential kit for any

professional translator for quick and high quality translation services.

1. TRANSLATION MEMORY SOFTWARE

Translation memory software is the most well-known CAT tool. It divides the texts to be translated into units

called “segments”. As the translator advances in the translation of the document, the software stores the text

in a database of already translated segments. When the software recognizes that a new segment is similar to

a segment already translated, it suggests that the translator reuse it. Some translation memory programs do

not work with databases created during a translation, but with preloaded reference documents.

Some examples of translation memory software: Trados Workbench, DéjàVuX, SDLX, Star

Transit, MultiTrans, Similis, MetaTexis…

2. LANGUAGE SEARCH-ENGINE SOFTWARE

Linguistic search engines work like traditional search engines, except that they do not seek results on the

Internet, but in a large database of translation memory. The goal is to find, in these banks, fragments of

previously translated texts that match the new text to be translated. Linguee, a multilingual context dictionary,

is one of them.

3. TERMINOLOGY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

Among CAT tools, there is also terminology management software. With programs of this type, the translator

has the ability to automatically search for the terms in a new document in a database. Some of these systems

allow the translator to add, in the database, new pairs of words that match and verify text using various

functions: the translator can then check whether this or that term has been translated correctly and consistently

throughout the whole draft. Here are three examples of this type of software: SDL

MultiTerm, LogiTerm and Termex.

4. ALIGNMENT SOFTWARE
Text alignment programs allow the translator to build a translation memory using the source and destination

of the same text: the software divides the two texts into segments and attempts to determine which segments

agree with each other. The result of this operation can be imported into a translation memory software for

future translations. Here are four examples of alignment software: Bitext2, Tmx

Bligner, YouAlign and LF Aligner.

5. INTERACTIVE MACHINE TRANSLATION

Automatic interactive translation resembles the programs you use on your cell phone for writing messages:

the program tries to predict how the human translator would translate a phrase or sentence fragment.

OTHER LANGUAGE PROGRAMS OF HELP TO THE

TRANSLATOR
Finally, you should also consider other very useful linguistic software for translators:

 Spell checkers (Proofread).

 Grammar checkers (Grammarly, Reverso)
 Terminology databases or online dictionaries, such as TERMIUM Plus, and the IATE.
 Search tools for “full text” and indexing which allow searches to be carried out into already-translated
texts or reference documents of all kinds, such as for example, ISYS Search Software and dtSearch
Desktop.
 Concordant or matching software which are reference tools used to look up a word together with its
context, whether in a monolingual, bilingual or multilingual body (such as a bitext or a translation
memory).
 Project management software. With this program, a project manager at a translation company can
organize complex projects by assigning translation tasks to different translators and track the progress
of each one.
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