Translation memory is just a different approach to translation. It provides the tools to control the whole translation process. Translation editor of a translation memory tool (or a CAT tool) is optimized to do translations. As text editors are optimized to edit text, they are not the best tools to do translations. Translation is much more than just "replacing a source text with a translated text ". That is why translation is much more efficient within the translation editor of a tm tool/CAT tool.
Translation memory tool role in translation process:
- evaluates size of the translation project/task,
- provides editor optimized for translation activities,
- provides QA features (like numbers check, translation length check).
Let us compare a typical translation process using text editor to the same process using translation memory tool.
As a result of translation process we receive a translated document.
As we can see, while translating using translation memory tool, we do not only get the target document, but also a translation memory database that we can use in translating. With every future translation we update the database we have just created.
While preparing a document for translation, tm tool goes through all sentences in source documents and checks if there is any sentence/expression similar in the translation memory database. If found, it is put in the document.
When preparing file for translation detail log is created by translation memory tool. Log file contains statistics information like number of words/characters in each category: new segments, 100% matches, fuzzy matches.
