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Raisa Murto is Production & Quality Manager at Sandberg Translation Partners Ltd, a translation company specialising in the Nordic languages and English. She has an MA in Translation from University of Turku, Finland.
ver 80 per cent of all respondents in Elina Lagoudakis TM Survey of 2006 said they used TM systems, some because their employer or client demanded it, but 71 per cent of them out of personal choice. A translation memory tool is a useful aid to the professional translator, but choosing one is not an easy task. How do you know which one is best suited for your purposes, works with the file formats you need to handle, is compatible with the tools you are requested to use and will serve you in the future as well? Is investing in one tool enough, or will you need several? This article discusses whats out there for you to choose from and proposes some basic questions to consider when you are thinking about which translation tool to choose. With a little internet research, you can find at least 20 translation tools that all promise to help you reuse your old translations and save you money with new work. Many products on the market contain not only a translation memory component, but also terminology
management tools, glossary and QA checkers, project management facilities and other auxiliary tools that you might be interested in. Some translation tools such as Alchemy Catalyst and SDL Passolo are specifically designed for translating software strings. And aside from the commercially available products, there are also a host of tools created by translation companies or end-clients, free to the user but meant to be used exclusively for translating projects from that company: Logoport from Lionbridge and PIXS from Panasonic, to name just two.
Atrils Dj Vu is another tool thats been around the block a few times, and for many users, the current version Dj Vu X is the tool of choice. In freelance circles, Wordfast has long been a favourite, partly because it was free and partly because it was compatible with Trados in Word. If you have used Wordfast in the past, you should note, however, that the recently launched Wordfast Pro is completely different, with both a new interface and translation file format from the classic version 5.5, which is still on the market but not for free. Lionbridges Logoport is used by thousands of translators across the world, but because it can only be used for translating work from Lionbridge, it is not one of the tools that you could freely choose to use; many find themselves using it out of pure necessity, along with various commercial tools. Recently, several tools have come on to the market that promise to do the same or nearly the same as the old solutions, but more cheaply. There are indeed many translation tools that cost less, are lighter and contain much more recent technology than the main commercial products, and although they might not have all the same extras or be compatible with the same file formats as the big ones, they might be just the ticket for you.
Many freelancers working for translation companies eventually find themselves using several different tools
a few examples of these tools. Apart from choosing a tool that can handle the file formats you encounter the most in your work, the key acronyms to look out for are TMX, XLIFF and TBX for true compatibility across the different tools. TMX is short for Translation Memory eXchange, and it is an open XML standard for the exchange of translation memory data between translation memory tools as TMX export files. XLIFF is short for XML Localisation Interchange File Format, and it is designed for enabling the exchange of more complex file formats between the different tools. TBX is short for Termbase Exchange Format, and its the equivalent format for exchanging glossary files.
Locally or remotely?
The traditional way of using a translation memory, locally on your own computer, is now complemented in many tools by a centralised approach, whereby translation memories are stored on your or your clients server and used online. This means that TM content is instantly available to all other translators working on the same project. Some translation tools allow for both local and remote access, depending on the project and the clients needs.
Making a choice
For many, the decision will hinge on who they work for. If your clients, whether they be a translation company or an end-client, do not use or require you to use a specific tool, you are free to choose the one that pleases you to start getting the benefit of your own work and leverage from past translations. New tools come on to the market constantly, and new versions of old tools make the old versions obsolete, but before you rush out to buy a new tool that a client has asked you to use, or to update your current version, its a good idea to think about exactly what you need to do with your tool, and what other translation tools yours needs to be compatible with.
Recently, several tools have come on to the market that promise to do the same or nearly the same as the old solutions, but more cheaply
6 ITI BULLETIN March-April 2009
1 www3.imperial.ac.uk/portal/pls/portallive/docs/1/7307707.PDF
file formats such as TTX with Trados and TXML with Wordfast Pro. Some tools designers have intentionally designed their product to be compatible with Trados and handle TTX format MemoQ (reviewed in the NovemberDecember 2008 ITI Bulletin), Heartsome and Swordfish are just
There are an array of TM tools on the market, including (top) Wordfast and (below) MemoQ
www.iti.org.uk
CAT tools
SDL Trados is preparing to launch their all-new SDL Trados 2009 later on this year, which is designed to replace both Trados and SDLX
full version. Lite versions with restricted functionality are also available for tools such as MetaTexis, Similis, MemoQ and Idiom WorldServer.
User-friendliness?
With the exception of Transit XV, which makes use of a collection of previously translated files and their source files, most translation tools store your translations as segments in their translation memory so that you can reuse them later. The basic functions can be learned within a relatively short space of time, and many tools use an easy table format with the source text on the left-hand side and the translation on the right-hand side. However, commands and keyboard shortcuts will not be the same across different tools, and learning advanced features might require meticulous research and a keen intellect. Because of this, limiting yourself to only one or a few tools might seem like a good idea, but it might also mean that some work will pass you by because you dont have the tool required. Many
freelancers working for translation companies eventually find themselves using several different tools. In the 2006 TM Survey, just over half of the respondents using TM tools said they used multiple tools, while just under half said they found a single tool is enough. Of course, TM systems and file formats develop fast, and these figures might very well be different from three years ago. For pure userfriendliness, many users swear by Dj Vu and SDLX, the old favourites, while others are impressed by newcomers such as MemoQ and MetaTexis. Heartsome is popular across the Atlantic.
your client requires? Even if you can use the TM your client sends you as a TMX export, you might not be able to send them back the translated file in the correct format for them. Keep an eye on licensing options as well. Some tools only allow you one licence on a single computer, while others allow you to install and use the application on several computers simultaneously (your desktop and laptop, for example). Will the package that you purchase allow you to use the auxiliary tools as well, or will you have to pay extra for different modules?