1. -Translation
Technology A brief but useful introduction
to translation technology in
order to improve quality and
lower costs of your
translations.
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2. Topics:
What are CAT tools?
How can understanding CAT tools help me
purchase translations even if I don’t use them?
How a little bit of useful jargon can go a long way
(always in bold italics in this presentation).
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3. There are a lot of CAT tools on
the market, but all have similar
functions:
1. They allow the translator to see the
source text to be translated and the
target text that they are writing side by
side.
2. They have QA (quality assurance)
functions.
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4. 4. They detect repetitions in the document
and make repetitions appear automatically.
5. They allow for terminology to be saved
and processed.
6. They ensure that the formatting of the
source document is retained.
7. They export unclean files which can be
used to compile translation memories and
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quality assurance programs.Ferris Translations. All Rights
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6. Translation memory, simply stated, is a piece of
programming that stores previous translations
(both source and target text).
It looks like this:
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7. If you have translated a phrase into English in a previous
translation and it needs to be translated again, this
phrase appears automatically and does not even need to
be typed.
If a phrase has only been slightly changed from the
original, then the change is highlighted for the translator.
Texts that have to be slightly changed are called fuzzy
matches.
Example - Watch what happens when I translate this
phrase a single time:
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9. CAT tools also help ensure
terminology.
 You can say, “I want a certain term in German to
be translated into English always in a certain
way.”
 In big documents, however, there might be
hundreds of words that have to be specifically
translated.
 Especially for technical documents, you want the
same word on page 2 to be translated the same
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way on page 202.
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11. QA programs
 QA programs check translations for inconsistencies in the
source and target electronically regarding the following:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Spelling
Punctuation
Numbers
Terminology
Formatting
Translations inconsistencies
In general, they go through the entire document and see
a lot of differences that the human eye does not always
see. Although they are a great help, THERE IS NO
REPLACEMENT FOR THE HUMAN EYE!!
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12.  QA programs are analyzers of unclean files.
 These are special files that contain both the
source and the target text.
 They can be best described as the main
components of a translation memory but can in
fact be doc files, among other things.
 The opposite of an unclean file is a clean file. A
clean file is the translated text that is ready for
delivery to the customer.
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13. An unclean DOC file:
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14. Summary
You have learned the following internationally
recognized terms:
 QA program
 CAT tools
 Source and target texts
 Translation memory
 Repetitions
 Terminology
 Formatting
 Unclean files
 Clean files
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15. Make sure to check out my video:
10 easy ways to save money on translation
services.
Visit my website at
www.ferristranslations.com
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16. Thanks for watching!
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