A whole range of computer-assisted translation programmes are available. You can find a historical overview of these CAT tools here. EVS Translations has talked to its team of in-house translators and would now like to present an overview of the benefits and potential for optimisation of digital translation tools. The star of the day is Transit from STAR AG, a software manufacturer and translation service provider. And being both a software manufacturer and translation service provider means that the developers understand precisely the needs of users and, not least thanks to the company’s 30 years of experience, know exactly which features and functions are needed.
In addition to over 200 working languages, Transit offers a standardized user interface for all supported formats (including MS Office, HTML, XML, resource files as well as DTP and layout programmes such as InDesign, FrameMaker and Visio). The user interface is also available in nine languages. Instead of “just” making it easier for translators to do their work, Transit pursues an integrated approach with functions for each process step. It provides various functions and features for not only translation and proofreading but also project management, project preparation (e.g. alignment) and terminology management.
Four useful features of Transit NXT
- Report manager: how much of the text in the project has already been translated? This report function avoids duplication and saves resources.
- Extensive terminology support: including dictionary assignment by customer, field of activity or topic, terminology extraction and a terminology check for consistency and allowed/disallowed terms.
- Bilingual (dual) concordance search with highlighting: certain words, phrases or whole sentences can be checked for concordance (in both the source and target languages) and are highlighted.
- Format check: avoiding duplicate spaces, ensuring consistent punctuation between source and target languages, maintaining consistency of translation with identical source sentences, markups for automated monitoring of typographic features such as italics, bold, superscript and subscript – this feature scrutinizes every tiny detail.
Where there is light, there is also shadow – some downsides of CAT tools
Although Transit has some positive features, no CAT tool is perfect. The in-house translators here at EVS Translations would like to see quicker processing times for the terminology check on large terminology databases and large volumes of text. It would also help to have “fuzzy” translation matches displayed automatically in the fuzzy match window. This would save time and improve consistency. Different countries have different ways of writing dates and times, which means that localisation errors are always a potential problem. An improved format check (see point four of the practical features) could prove useful here.
It should be noted that Transit is a useful tool for computer-aided human translation. It has many strengths and some potential for improvement, but it is impressive in its handling of large and small translation jobs, day in and day out.
Four benefits that clients enjoy when working with EVS Translations
- All translators and proofreaders have been professionally trained in the use of STAR Transit CAT tool (and others).
- Whenever problems arise, our translators and proofreaders receive quick and proactive support from our internal IT department and the translation engineers in our translation technology department.
- Customer-specific dictionaries ensure consistency of terminology.
- Once exported from the translation memory system, documents are properly formatted in the target language.
Do you have further questions about the use of CAT tools, or do you need support in the implementation of translation projects? We at EVS Translations will be happy to assist you.
Contact our UK team on +44-115-9 64 42 88 or e-mail uktrans@evs-translations.com.
Contact our USA team on +1 404-523-5560 or e-mail usa@evs-translations.com.
