CAT工具的有用性
这篇文章最初出现在 翻译是一个艺术博客 本文经许可转载.
我发现很多人只在重复的文本中使用CAT工具. 这当然是他们最初开发的目的. 现代CAT工具, however, have so many other useful features that it’s worth considering using them for non-repetitive texts as well.
Here are some of the reasons why I use my CAT tool for most of my texts, even creative texts:
Terminology
当客户给你提供一份术语表时,这是很好的, but I personally hate having to go back and forth between my translation and a terminology list, 尤其是当你最终得到不止一个列表时(这并不罕见), 根据我的经验). 如果您在CAT工具中导入术语列表, you will automatically be notified if a term is available in the list and you can easily insert it in your translation. You can also easily edit your terminology list or add new terms to the list.
Consistency
即使文本不重复,一致性仍然很重要. The concordance feature in your CAT tool allows you to search for words or phrases so you can check how they were translated before. This is also very useful in case you haven’t got a terminology list (yet).
质量控制
如今,CAT工具提供了越来越多的质量控制选择. 你可以让人检查一下你的翻译, 除此之外, 正确的标点符号, 数字转换, 标签和一致的术语. If, like me, you tend to mix up numbers (typing 1956 instead of 1965 for example), 很高兴知道你再也不用担心这个了, 因为当你犯了错误时,你的CAT工具会警告你.
参考资料
Ever received a 200-word translation job which came with about ten different bilingual and monolingual reference files and going through all those reference files took almost as long as actually translating the text? I have… CAT tools offer alignment options and ways to import reference files which help you efficiently find the information you need in those reference files while you’re translating.
Formatting
Clients love it when you are able to deliver their prettily formatted Word document or PowerPoint presentation in exactly the same format. 使用CAT工具时, you don’t have to bother with the formatting: you can focus on the text while working in the CAT tool and when you are finished you can export your translation in exactly the same format. I’ve found this is especially useful for PowerPoint presentations containing lots of diagrams with text boxes: instead of having to edit every single text box separately to enter your translation, all you need to do after you have exported your translation is go through the slides to check whether the text fits in the boxes and adjust their size if needed.
Backup
You always have a backup of your translations and because each segment is saved after you have translated it, you will never lose more than one sentence of your work if your computer crashes. I discovered the advantage of this very soon after I started working with a CAT tool years ago: just when I was about to save my 1.5-page translation to send it to the client, Word crashed and my Word file was corrupted. 如果我没有用电脑辅助工具的话, 我就得重新翻译一遍, but now I was able to take the original source file and have it pre-translated using my TM.
Planning
My CAT tool always knows exactly how much progress I’ve made: it indicates the percentage of translation/proofreading I’ve completed and for exact figures I can run an analysis at any time. 我发现这对大型项目特别有用.
Updates
Here’s one I forgot when I initially wrote this post: How many times do your clients send you an updated version of the source text, preferably when you’ve just finished translating the original version and without using Track Changes? No problem if you’ve translated the text in a CAT tool: you simply re-import the text, pre-translate everything that is the same and you will only have to go through the sentences/segments that were changed (and your CAT tool even marks the differences between the original and the updated text). 如果有必要,您还可以使用CAT工具跟踪所有更改.
These are the reasons I use my CAT tool for pretty much every translation I do. One downside, 尤其是对于更有创意的文本, is that, by default, CAT工具会根据句子将你的文本分成几段. 大多数CAT工具, however, allow you to define different ways of segmentation and I have found that paragraph segmentation, 而不是句子分割, 对于有创意的文本效果更好. 段落分割会导致匹配结果更少, 所以不推荐重复的文本, 但由于创造性文本通常都不那么重复, 比赛不是真正的问题.
Author bio
Percy Balemans graduated from the School of Translation and Interpreting in Maastricht, the Netherlands, in 1989. After working with a translation agency as an in-house translator for a few years, 她曾担任技术撰稿人和文案撰稿人, 信息设计师, web editor, 还是一家信息技术公司的培训师.
In 2007 she set up her own business as a full-time freelance translator, 把英语和德语翻译成荷兰语, 专攻广告(创译), 时尚与美丽, art, 旅游和旅游业. She is a Chartered Linguist and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL), 永利登录网址(ATA)会员.
更多信息请访问她的网站: www.pb-translations.com.
It is true that CAT tools can be wonderful aids in translation and they are especially helpful when technological issues occur like the ones you mentioned. When applied, they do in fact act as a live saver to one’s workflow when we take into account the hectic nature involved with translation. You have provides some good tips and techniques for use with these types of tools. 它总是很值得思考的东西. 很高兴看到这篇文章.
非常感谢你们
谢谢你的评论! 永利登录网址很高兴您发现这些信息有用.