Technology

Continuous investment in new technology

Nowadays global presence and time-to-market play an important role. Delivery times are getting shorter, and at the same time this must not have any impact on quality. Teamwork and consistency are key concepts. The usage of latest translation technology tools can assure that during the translation of the on-screen menus and user manuals of a television set, or during the translation of the user interface and online help of a software product, a team of project managers, language leads and translators can work on one centralized platform with full control over content. We at MTS MorphoLogic Translation Services are continuously investing in new hardware, software and language technology.

What are translation memories and how do they work?

A translation memory (TM) is a sort of database that increases efficiency by allowing the reuse of previously translated sentences and terms. It stores sentence pairs, meaning whenever a new sentence is translated, the original sentence is saved along with its translation. If a sentence that has already been translated comes up again — either in the same document or in a different one —, the TM offers the existing translation, indicating whether it is a complete (100%) or a partial match. The translator can then decide to use it or to modify it. This technology is especially useful when translating new releases of software or user manuals, especially in case that a considerable part of the material does not need to be translated all over again. Using a translation memory in such a case makes translating significantly faster, more accurate and cheaper, helps resolving abbreviations and using technical terms consistently, and so on.

Benefits of using translation memories

Reusability. Translation memories can not only be used throughout a translation project, but also when translating new or similar materials.
Speed. The reuse of existing translations speeds up the process for documentation that tends to be repetitive (such as software documentation, user manuals or technical guides) and for software applications and websites, which are frequently updated.

Teamwork. Translation memories can be shared live over any network, which means that several translators can work on the same project simultaneously to speed up translation. It also ensures the consistent use of terminology throughout the project, and that as soon as one translator enters a translation for a sentence, it is ready to be used by another.

Increased productivity. Productivity levels can be significantly improved compared to the work without TM support.

Cost-effectiveness. Total translation costs are reduced as no translation has to be entered twice.

Software localization tools

Beside the benefits above, using localization tools for software translation projects is even more important. The key to successful software localization is, on the one hand, preserving consistency and using exact terminology, and on the other, observing technical requirements such as:

  • assignment of hotkeys,
  • proper management of variables and the length of the interface texts,
  • proper management of different file formats (software resource files such as .exe, .dll, .res, tagged file formats like XML, HTML, and others).

Tools we use

We at MTS MorphoLogic Translation Services use the following industry-standard translation and localization tools, among others: