Technology

Why does a translation company need special software in the first place?

Software helps us at all the stages of the process: translation, quality assurance and project management. By delegating repetitive operations to machines, we free up our human employees’ availability for more challenging and creative tasks, offering you the best quality at a lower cost.

Translation

We are capable of handling most of the current Computer Aided Translation tools (CAT-tools): SDL Studio, MemoQ, WordFast, DejaVu, Memsource, Passolo, Smartcat and more…

If you never heard about them, this is how they help us deliver best results for you every day:

Segmentation

During translation, the text is divided into fragments: phrase by phrase, the original appears on the left and the translator types the translation on the right. This allows translators to work faster and remain focused, one sentence at a time. This feature is also useful to find all segments containing a specific word to change the initial translation, if necessary.

Translation memory

Another powerful feature of CAT-tools. Clients can send us a list of approved terms even before the text to be translated and be sure that the translation will be in accordance with their preferences. Otherwise, we build our own termbases for every client to have the terms approved and use them consistently in further projects. We ask once and remember your answers.

There are special applications to process terminology, often developed by the same teams that create major CAT-tools.

Terminology

Another powerful feature of CAT-tools. Clients can send us a list of approved terms even before the text to be translated and be sure that the translation will be in accordance with their preferences. Otherwise, we build our own termbases for every client to have the terms approved and use them consistently in further projects. We ask once and remember your answers.

There are special applications to process terminology, often developed by the same teams that create major CAT-tools.

Formatting
Last, but not least: since the working file contains both the original and the translation, if the file was of a compatible format and/or prepared correctly, the translator doesn’t need to spend time with formatting. The program would simply replace one text with another, leaving the formatting intact. Minor adjustments may be expected in the layout due to length variations in different language versions of the same text.
Quality assurance

We always use a “second pair of eyes” – a human revisor – to check each translation work. After revision, the text is submitted to an automatic quality assurance process. QA tools for translation are similar to the spellcheckers we all know and love, but with wider functionality. Aside from spelling and grammar mistakes, they can catch such issues as:

  • Missing spaces and double spaces
  • Tags inconsistencies that could interfere with formatting
  • Missing or non-translated numbers
  • Non-translated segments
  • Identical segments with different translation
  • Different segments with the same translation

Of course, there’s always a human behind the machine, making decisions and applying or ignoring the software’s suggestions.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

To keep track of the status of each project, translators’ and revisors’ availability, progress, invoices and payments, we use Plunet – an advanced piece of project management software.

It allows us:

  • To store all the necessary information about our employees and remote specialist in one secure and accessible place
  • To follow every project through all its lifecycle, from entry of the document to receiving payment from our satisfied client.

But Plunet is not only good for us. As a client, you can:

  • Receive unique credentials to access our system and check the status of your project yourself.
  • Be sure the information about your project is password protected and you are the one to decide who to share it with.
  • Stay updated almost in real time and also consult previous orders, including billing details, if such a need arises.