What Is Computer Aided Translation?

Computer-assisted translation also known as Computer-Aided Translation (CAT) is a type of translation in which a human translator translates texts by making use of computer software designed to support and speed up the translation process.

Computer-assisted translation comprises of both simple and complicated tools like:

• Spell checkers, can be setup into word processing software, or add-on programs.
• Grammar checkers, can also be set up into word processing software, or add-on programs.
• Terminology managers, enables the translator to maintain his own terminology bank in an electronic form.
• Dictionaries on CD-ROM, can be unilingual or bilingual.
• Terminology databases, can be available on CD-ROM or through the Internet.
• Full-text search tools (also known indexers), will enable the user to examine already translated texts or reference documents of different kinds.
• Concordancers, are programs which will restore details of a word or an expression and their corresponding context in a monolingual, bilingual or multiligual corpus, like a bitext or a translation memory.
• Bitexts are the recent development, and are the result of combining a source text and its translation, which can then be evaluatehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifd with a full-text search tool or a concordancer.
• Project management software enables linguists to design complex translation projects, allocate different tasks to different people, and follow up the progress of each of these tasks.
• Translation memory managers (TMM) tools includes a database of text portions in a source language and their translations is made in one or more target languages.
• Systems which are partly automatic as in machine translation, but enables user decisions for indefinite cases. These are often called as human-aided machine translation.