Experience

Translation software

In our work, we use the specialised translation software functionalities to, first and foremost, ensure the highest quality of our translations.

One of the most useful tools in these software packages is the so-called “translation memory.” It is a database of reusable sentences and phrases, which increases the efficiency for translations of updated versions of the same text or of new texts in the same field.

Translation memories have some unique advantages:

• they help achieve translation consistency, also for subsequent updates;
• they allow multiple translators to work together, over a network, on the translation of a text, using the same memory and adhering to the same terminology;
• they sometimes lower the cost, because parts of the text, in some cases more than 50%, already have existing translations in the memory—those are not counted as new and lower the translation cost;
• they improve productivity—in many cases, tight deadlines are key for the successful completion of a project and that is where existing, regularly maintained translation memories come in: to allow deliver on time and within budget.

Specialised software is indispensable to maintain the formatting consistent with that of the original material. All the character, paragraph, colour formatting, styles, etc. in the source file are “tagged”, conveniently hidden from the translator, who works without the clutter, focused on the meaning of the text, and only after the actual translation is finished, the software seamlessly takes care of converting it back, with all the bolds, italics, headings, tables, headers, footers, etc. in their proper places. This not only guarantees the original appearance, but also shortens significantly the formatting work, which can be quite time-consuming, depending on the volume and type.

The software also allows quickly and easily to calculate the volume and provide a precise estimate of the delivery times.

Our most commonly used software includes:

• TRADOS 2007 (up to v8.2), SDL Trados Studio 2009, 2011, 2014, 2015 and later (incl. SDLX, Synergy, Passolo 2009), memoQ Professional, memSource, Across, Transit 3.0, Transit XV, Catalyst 8.0, DéjàVu, WimTrad, Idiom Worldserver, Wordfast, Wordbee,
• Microsoft applications: MS Localisation Studio 4.8, MS Helium 6, MS JetStream;
• Client-provided software: XLIFF Editor, Taipan, Localisation Toolbox, PoEdit, Linguistic Toolbox

The specialised software also has some very useful quality-assurance functionalities for technical checks on the translation, which are virtually impossible to do manually—it also improves the level of our services considerably.

Two of our most commonly used such tools are Xbench and Linguistic Toolbox—they allow us to proof the text after editing, “catching” errors which are often missed in manual proofreading, such as terminology inconsistencies, number mismatches, spelling errors, untranslated segments, double spaces, repeated words, etc.