If you are not in the translation industry some terms can puzzle you what it really means. Let us clarify them.
CAT tools
CAT is an acronym coming from computer-aided translation. Some also call it computer-assisted translation. CAT tools are software programs packed with features which improve efficiency and quality, cut turnaround times and facilitate translators, proofreaders, and project managers.
Desktop publishing
Applications to prepare documentation for publication. Specific software (such as FrameMaker, PageMaker and QuarkPress) to combine and rearrange text and images and creating digital files.
Glossary
Glossaries are structured dictionaries of terms with their translations into one or more languages. When used together with CAT tools, glossaries allow companies to keep their terminology consistent across their content.
Language pair
The source and target languages represent the language pair. If the document has to be translated from German into Hungarian, the language pair is German-Hungarian
Localization
There are two senses in which the term “localization” is commonly used. The first one is broader than “translation” in that it also involves adapting the message to a local context, for example avoiding phrases that might be culturally insensitive in the target language. In this sense, this term is very close to transcreation. In the second, and more practical sense, “localization” refers to translating in tech-heavy domains, such as software, video games, or websites. In this sense, it also includes the “adjacent” areas such as connecting source- and target-language repositories to a CAT tool or a TMS, making the necessary format conversions, and so on.
Machine translation
Machine Translation (MT) or automated translation is a process when a computer software translates text from one language to another without human involvement. Engines approach translation either on a word-by-word basis, or they “learn” by having seen a large number of text examples and they try to find the typical patterns in the mapping of source and target text.
Pre-editing
A process by which a text is edited prior to translation in order to clarify ambiguous terms and increase translatability.
Post-editing
A process by which one or more humans review, edit and improve the quality of machine translation output.
Proofreading
Practice of checking a translated text to identify and correct spelling, grammar, syntax and coherency and integrity errors. Proofreading is carried out by a second linguist or translator.
Revision
The revision step is a bilingual examination of the target text against the content in the original language. Revision is often referred to as a bilingual check. It is performed by a second linguist who is proficient in the subject area.
Quality Assurance (QA) check
A process designed to ensure translation quality, in which specific processes followed with the purpose of minimizing errors.
Source language
The source language is the language we translate from. For example, if you have a document in German which needs to be translated into Hungarian, then the source language is German.
Style guide
A style guide is a document detailing the approaches and conventions a given company or translation agency requires their translators to adhere to. This may include using formal vs. informal language, spelling preferences (e.g. American vs. British English), avoiding the