Using translation software allows automation of routine operations and reducing the risk of errors due to the human factor. In our work, we use the following types of dedicated software:

1. Computer-Aided Translation Systems (CAT tools)

Translation memory (TM) is a database containing text previously translated by human translators. The program breaks the source text into segments, looks for matches in a translation memory, and presents such matching pairs as translation candidates. The translator can accept a candidate, replace it with a fresh translation, or modify it to match the source. In the last two cases, the new or modified translation goes into the database. Modern CAT tools solve the following problems:

A. To reduce the effort on translation of repetitive texts, such as technical manuals, and to provide faster translation services to end-users.

2. To ensure consistent terminology, when more than one translator is working on a single project. Virtually all modern translation memory systems allow to connect multiple translators to a server-based or in-cloud translation memory simultaneously.

C. To enable translators to translate documents in a wide variety of formats without having to own the desktop publishing software typically required to process these formats. Translation memory software converts files to a bilingual format (in most cases based on the XLIFF standard), where the initial formatting is represented by tags. This ensures that the translated file looks exactly as the original one.

	SDL Trados Studio 2017		Memsource
	MemoQ		Transit
	Across		Deja Vu
	SDLX		Wordfast
	MateCAT		SmartCAT

2. Automatic quality assurance (QA) and terminology control

Segmenting the translated files and converting them into a bilingual format opens up additional opportunities for the quality control automation. Comparing source and target segments allows to identify and completely eliminate the following types of errors:

A. Numeric errors.
B. Non-compliance with the glossary.
C. Omissions in translation.
D. Different trailing punctuation in the source and target segments.
D. Inconsistent translation.
E. Differences in formatting between source and target.
etc.

ApSIC Xbench

Verifika

3. Desktop publishing (DTP) and specialized software

Translators have to work with different file formats. In most cases, these are formats developed for desktop publishing (Adobe InDesign, Corel Draw, Adobe Photoshop), software development (Shockwave, PHP, HTML, XML, MS Help workshop) or engineering (AutoCAD). Here are some examples of formats we work with:

	Adobe Acrobat Reader (.pdf)		MS Help workshop
	Adobe FrameMaker (.fm, .mif)		OpenOffice (.odt)
	Adobe Illustrator		PageMaker
	Adobe InDesign (.inx, .idml, .icml)		PHP (.php)
	Adobe Photoshop (.psd)		Plain text (.txt, .csv)
	AutoCAD (.dwg, .dxf)		QuarkXPress (.xtg, .tag)
	CorelDRAW (.cdr)		Quicktime player
	HTML (.htm, .html)		Real Audio player
	LaTeX (.tex)		Rich Text Format (.rtf)
	Microsoft Excel (.xls, .xlsx)		Shockwave (.swf)
	Microsoft Power Point (.ppt, .pptx)		Software file formats (.dll .exe, .rc)
	Microsoft Publisher		Subtitles (.srt, .sub)
	Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx)		TradosTag (.ttx)
	Microsoft Visio (.vdx)		XML (.xml) including non-standard XML files

4. Proprietary Translation Management System

The system stores all information about our projects, vendors and clients.

5. Proprietary time tracking application for proofreaders and reviewers (EDITOR’S LITTLE HELPER)

Thanks to this application, we can measure the efficiency of our proofreaders and reviewers and, as a result, can assure high quality translation services.