CAT tools

A lot of text that is translated across an organisation or even across a single large document will have a large amount of repetition. For any large or ongoing translation project Absolute Translations use CAT tools, Computer Aided Translation tools. Examples are Trados, SDLX, DejaVu and Wordfast.

These CAT tools are computer programs that store terms or sentences and their respective translation in a database. While translating, a CAT tool helps us remember how we previously translated a certain term or sentence and suggests a translation for this term or sentence when they reappear.

CAT tools are particularly powerful when they are used in large translation projects as they have enormous benefits:

• enhanced translation quality given that the company terminology remains consistent throughout the translation projects;
• a considerable reduction in turnaround time repeated sentences or paragraphs will not need to be re-translated;
• dramatic cost savings given that repeated text is only charged at 1/3 of the normal price. This charge is in place as the translator will still check the context of repeated sentences and correct them if necessary.

Regardless of the material being translated, invaluable benefits are derived from these tools; and the longer a CAT tool is used the better the benefits get. It is particularly powerful when it is used on manuals, user guides, training material and other technical documents where you could see savings of up to half the previous costs.