The computer-aided translation (CAT) tool is truly a great asset of a professional translator who deals on a daily basis with various translation of websites, public announcements, corporate letters, IT translations, literary works...
There are several main points why it is beneficial to use a CAT tool. I find it an irreplaceable and very helpful instrument in my daily work.
There are several main points why it is beneficial to use a CAT tool. I find it an irreplaceable and very helpful instrument in my daily work.
- The best feature, in my view, is the fact that CAT tools help preserve consistency. Let's say, you translated a document for a client a month ago. A new document contains similar sentences, expressions or phrases. Instead of going back into your files and researching how you translated a phrase or a sentence, your translation memory (TM) brings up the matches of your previously translated segments. This is probably the best feature, in my opinion.
- Glossaries are also a great way of preserving consistency in your translations. I have several glossaries that I work with. When a term appears in the segment that you are translating, the Glossary brings up your translation of this term which you had previously saved and confirmed.
- Another great feature is that you do not have to worry about preserving the source format in your target document. The CAT tool does this for you.
- The CAT tool also allows you to open and edit many different file formats. This way, you can immediately start working on a project instead of looking for a program to open your source document.