Some people think that translation memories (TMs) are something to do with machine translations but in fact, they are unrelated as they are word processing products which aid translators and translation services when they are translating documents.
The software surveys the document and breaks it up into groups which it has identified as having been exactly repeated. This is referred to as an exact match or if it is almost identical it is referred to as a fuzzy match.
TM software products manage automatically any preferred vocabulary as well as specialist terminology through presenting a client’s chosen terms to the translator so they can be included where it’s appropriate.
They have been given the name translation memory tools as any preferred terms are kept secure in a memory file which allows them to be accessed for any projects into the future. As time passes the software accumulates knowledge about the language a client prefers so that the productivity of the website marketing translation services increases.
Apart from memorising information modern TMs do have specific features that check numbers, for example, have been properly translated and decimal points have been inserted in the correct places.
Using TMs does capitalise on time and clients get a cheaper translation as when a piece of text is repeated the TM prompts the translator with a possible translation so it saves the translator extra time checking over the document and manually performing all the translation.
The document handed to the website translation service has to be in a computer file format, such as a page from a website or a word processor document. TMs like materials which are made up of numerous repeated or partly repeated chunks of text like instruction manuals.
The main advantages are it’s cheaper because translation companies offer discounts when there are pieces of texts that have been duplicated and the whole translation can be completed more quickly so the translator can get on to another translation project.