Translation Memory

A translation memory, or TM, is a software program designed as an aid for human translators. Translation memories are also known as translation memory managers (TMM).

Translation memories are typically used in conjunction with a word processing program, a terminology management system, a multilingual dictionary, and even raw machine translation output.

A translation memory consists of a database of text segments in a source language and their translations in one or more target languages. These segments can be individual words or multiword phrases.

Research indicates that many companies producing multilingual documentation are using translation memory systems

Translation Memory tools

Trados - translation memory tool.

Foreign Desk- translation memory tool.

Déjà Vu - translation memory tool.

OmegaT - a free translation memory application written in Java intended for professional translators. Compatible with other translation memory applications (TMX Level 1).

SDLX - translation memory tool.

STAR Transit - editor/translation memory tool.

WordFast, a small, fast, effective translation memory program developed by Yves Champollion. Not free anymore.

IBM TM/2, Star Transit or Alpnet's proprietary TSS/Joust,

Among other good things, those "client-independent" programs provide really user-friendly translation memory and contextual search features, import any files you ask them to and re-export them as ready-to-go documents with all formatting and graphics in places.

Main Benefits

Translation memory managers are most suitable for translating technical documentation and documents containing specialized vocabularies. Their benefits include:

· Ensuring that the translated documents are consistent, including common definitions, phrasings and terminology. This is important when different translators are working on a single project.

· Accelerating the overall translation process; since translation memories "remember" previously translated material, translators have to translate it only once.

· Reducing costs of long-term translation projects; for example the text of manuals, warning messages or series of documents needs to be translated only once and can be used several times.

For large documentation projects, savings (in time or money) thanks to the use of a TM package may already be apparent even for the first translation of a new project, but normally such savings are only apparent when translating subsequent versions of a project that was translated before using translation memory.

How Do Translation Memory Tools Work?

Many of us have used Internet translation similar to that provided by AltaVista's Babel Fish in an attempt to translate an email or unknown text. We quickly realize that while it may give us an idea of the underlying message and prove to be a quick low-cost solution, it is anything from perfect. Machine translation is no match for a real person right?

A segment is a string of text, usually a sentence, but in some languages a segment may be a whole paragraph.

Translation memory tools store previously translated segments in a database, enabling translators to work more efficiently and reducing the need for retranslation. When translating a new document, these tools find and retrieve identical or similar matches of these segments for reuse. The results are returned with a rank or score according to the percentage of similarity between the text being translated and the match found.

An exact match (100%) is returned where there is no difference or variation between the two strings.

A fuzzy match is returned where the strings are very similar but not identical. The same string that uses different formatting can return a fuzzy match.