What is a CAT tool? Explanation of benefits and drawbacks

 

Table of Contents

• 1. What is a translation support tool (CAT tool)?
• 2. What can be done with CAT tools
• 3. Pros and Cons of CAT Tools
• 4. Summary

1. What is a translation support tool (CAT tool)?

In translation work, multiple people are involved such as project managers (coordinators), translators, and reviewers (checkers). Among them, translation support tools are used to specifically assist translators and reviewers, and improve the efficiency of translation work and the quality of translated text. These tools are also known as CAT tools (Computer-Assisted Translation tools). Some representative products include Memsource by Memsource and Trados Studio by RWS.

 

・Difference from Translation Management System
Translation Management System is designed to assist Project Managers. It provides functions such as schedule management for translation work, centralized management of work data, and automation of processes. Representative products include Memsource by Memsource and Trados GroupShare by RWS (Memsource is both a translation support tool and a translation management system). For more details, please refer to the blog article What is a Translation Management System?

 

・Flow of Using CAT Tools
The flow of using CAT tools is as follows.
1. Prepare the document file to be translated.
2. Load the document file into the translation support tool.
3. Translate in the editing screen.
4. Generate a file in the original file format from the translated text.

 

CAT tools support most file formats such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF, but the text in the file must be stored as text data. For example, if text is pasted as an image in a PowerPoint slide, it will not be included in the translation. For scanned PDFs of printed materials, although the OCR function can be used, it may not accurately convert the text, so it is recommended to provide the original file with text data as much as possible.

2. What can be done with CAT tools

The main functions of the translation support tool are translation memory, machine translation, terminology glossary, and quality check. By utilizing these functions, the efficiency of translation work and the quality of translated text will be improved.

 

・Translation Memory
This refers to a database that stores pairs of original text and translated text that have been translated in the past. It is also called TM (Translation Memory). When translating for the first time, the original text and translated text are registered in the translation memory, and by referring to the translation memory thereafter, there is no need to translate the same sentence multiple times.
In addition, it is possible to search even with partial matches, so when there are similar original texts, the past translated text can be reused and only a part needs to be modified to complete a new translated text. By using translation memory for documents with many similar sentences or revised documents, the time and cost required for translation can be greatly reduced.

 

・Machine Translation
A function that allows computers (AI) to translate instead of humans. It is also known as automatic translation or AI translation. It cannot be used as a standalone translation tool and requires integration with external machine translation services such as DeepL or Google. When a past sentence cannot be found in the translation memory, using the machine translation function and then having a human correct it can improve translation speed compared to translating from scratch. However, it is important to note that machine-translated sentences may seem fluent and problem-free when read alone, but they may contain errors or omit words or phrases from the original text. Therefore, it is necessary for a human to compare and confirm the original and translated text, and make any necessary corrections.

 

Our company offers machine translation solutions called MTrans for Memsource and MTrans for Trados, which allow the use of machine translation services such as DeepL, Google, Microsoft, and NAVER Papago with Memsource and Trados. With standard machine translation functions, it is not possible to specify translation terms or automatically correct translations (such as converting English numbers to half-width, unifying to the "is" tone, etc.), but by using MTrans, these functions are added, further improving the efficiency and quality of translation work.

 

・Glossary
This refers to a database that stores translated terms and explanations corresponding to specific names in the original text. By registering terms such as product names and service names in the glossary, when translating, terms included in the original text will be automatically searched and the corresponding translation and explanation will be displayed. While it is important to use the correct names in official documents, using a glossary can prevent incorrect names from being used in the translated text.

 

・Quality Check
This is a function that mechanically checks the translated text according to various conditions. It can check if English and numbers are unified in half-width characters, if the translation term registered in the glossary is used, if the numbers in the original text also exist in the translated text, etc. The check conditions can be customized, and if there is a style guide for translation, the rules can be registered, and the quality of the translation will be improved by accumulating common typing mistakes.

3. Pros and Cons of CAT Tools

・Benefits 1: Improved Processing Capability
With translation memory and machine translation, you can reduce the workload by 10% to 90% for translation tasks.

・Benefits 2: Consistency
Terminology and quality checks allow for consistent translation and style.

・Benefits 3: Prevention of Translation Omissions
By displaying the original text and translated text side by side at the sentence level, it is possible to prevent translation omissions at the sentence level.

 

・Cons 1: Cost
CAT tools come with a cost. However, with the improved processing power of Pro 1, this cost can easily be recovered.

・Cons 2: Translated text may not fit the context
When focusing on translating sentence by sentence, the connection between the translated text and the previous or following text may become unnatural. After translating a sentence, it is necessary to read it together with the previous sentence to check if the connection is natural.

・Cons 3: Language Asset Management
Translation memories, glossaries, quality check criteria, etc. require management and therefore require additional resources.

4. Summary

Are you in need of translating a large amount of documents and looking to streamline the translation process? By implementing a CAT tool, you can reduce workload by 10% to 90% and improve the quality of translations. We can assist you in introducing the CAT tool Memsource, utilizing our expertise as a translation company. Please feel free to contact us.

 

Related Services

MTrans for Memsource
MTrans for Trados