What is a CAT Tool?

Project managers, human resource agents, and marketing professionals know translation is essential in today's business climate. A global workforce, customer base, and corporate presence all require the ability to communicate across languages. That's why the global translation service market is expected to reach $3 billion at some point in the next five years.

However, with the increased demand for translations comes an ever-growing challenge: how to ensure that translations are accurate and consistent? Hiring multiple translators might solve this problem, but it's too costly for many. Companies are turning to computer-assisted translation or CAT tools to help.

What is a CAT tool, you might be wondering? How does it work? And how can it benefit the business? Let's find out.

What are CAT Tools?

Some days, our translator hat is fun to wear. We feel in the zone, the material we are assigned to is interesting, and it poses cool challenges. Other days? It’s just boring, repetitive, almost mechanical work. Fortunately, since CAT tools came into the picture, human linguists are no longer burdened with the menial tasks of old.

It turns out that you can delegate the mind-numbing, soul-eating parts of your projects to a tool that’s always on the spot when it comes to language work. That’s the beauty of CAT tools.

Computer-assisted translation tools - CAT tools- software programs designed to help translators do their work quicker at a higher volume. CAT tools come with a broad set of features that can make translations easier and more accurate.

When working on a tight schedule, a translator can use a computer-assisted translation tool to finish the job quickly. For some translators, CAT tools have allowed them to more than double their per-hour output. CAT tools are widely used by professional translators, agencies, and publishers to make the translation process smoother.

They may not be glamorous. They don’t get to your computer with pink and golden ads or life-altering promises. But they do work. They have worked better and better for years now. If you achieve a medium-level know-how on as many of them, you are already winning. See also: The Top 5 CAT Tools for Translation Professionals

What Do CAT Tools Do?

Here it is the naked truth: CAT tools break your bulk work down into many small bits. Let’s take a creative license and boldly say: CAT tools chop up your body of work. There are no more monstrous and overwhelming paragraphs. Bits. Pieces. Sentences. Bite-sized segments you can handle one at a time. Rome was not built in one day. And your five-figure word count projects cannot be translated in only one swipe.

It stores the segments in a database called "translation memory." There, they can be reused, modified, or updated.

The next time when one of the stored segments is needed, the translator can quickly get it without having to re-translate. When the translated material is similar to one of the stored segments, the CAT tool can suggest a match. That reduces the translator's workload, so they don’t have to start from scratch.

The more content one translates, the more translation segments the software can reuse. That kind of automation helps one's translation work remain consistent and accurate. More than 85% of translators that have used CAT tools in the past say they're great resources that they "couldn't live without."

How do CAT Tools Work? (No cherry on top, Just the Facts)

When you open the tool, on one side you see the source text. On the other, an empty space waiting for your translation. With small variations, they all behave similarly. You might have preferences between the diverse tools, versions, interfaces, and features, but they are all ready and willing to make your work life easier, and more productive. As you translate, the tool remembers. All CAT tools, any CAT tool. Yes, they do remember and save translated content, even if after hundreds of segments, everything is a blur to you.

It saves every single unit you translate into a translation memory (TM for short). Next time you encounter similar sentences, the TM gets it for you and speeds up your process. They are also capable of detecting typos, dubious grammar, or omissions.

According to a recent Proz survey, roughly 9 out of 10 translators have used at least one CAT tool for their tasks.

There are multiple other functions available, including:

Memory Tools

Translation memories are the core feature of CAT tools. You can find words, segments, and even full sentences stored in these databases. You can refer to the memory segments when translating similar content for future projects.

These databases, however, don't contain only translation segments. They also contain style guides and glossaries in multiple languages. These tools provide you with an endless number of multi-language resources. Memory is really effective for repetitive content like guides, product descriptions, and NDAs, to name a few.

Terminology Management

When you're translating multiple pieces of content for a single organization - think web pages, employee manuals, and the like - maintaining the same terminology across the board is more important than you think.

With a translation memory management tool, using only company-approved terms is a breeze. Storing approved terms in a database allows you to quickly refer to them when needed. That way, a translator can ensure that all content translated for a given organization remains on-brand and follows the language guidelines to a t.

In-context Translation

At the dawn of modern translation technology, computers could only translate isolated phrases. That often led to literal translations that would only confuse the reader.

Thanks to in-context translation, you can now translate content while maintaining the text's original context.

You can get a preview of the translated text using a CAT tool and see how a text will look once exported. That minimizes the chances that a human translator will miss an error during a manual review.

Desktop Publishing

Desktop publishing, or DTP for short, is one of the final phases of the translation process. DTP is the process that involves formatting a translated text so that it retains the same layout as the original.

Once the translator completes the job, the translated text will go to a DTP specialist who imports the text into a DTP program like InDesign. Then, they modify the translated text so that the layout looks as identical as possible to the original.

Top Features of CAT Tools

If you've ever used an advanced text editor, then you shouldn't have any problems using a CAT tool. Such tools are pretty straightforward and user-friendly. There are many different CAT tools on the market. While there are some big and small differences between them, the core features remain the same. Let's look at the top computer-assisted translation tool features.

Translation Memory (TM)

A record of previously created translations is called translation memory, or TM for short. Translators can use the function to split big multilingual documents into smaller fragments and store them in a database.

The next time a translator uses the translation management system and recognizes an identical match (full match) - or even a similar one (fuzzy matching) - in a new translation project, it will automatically suggest the translation.

As mentioned earlier, when you're dealing with content that has repetitive technical jargon, the CAT tool is indispensable. Translation memory will save time, energy, and money.

Term Base

Term base, often called a translation glossary, is a database that contains definitions or instructions for the use of translated terminology. That sounds a bit complicated. What does it mean?

Well, a term base is similar to a dictionary containing a list of words and phrases relevant to a company, organization, or institution the translator works with. The feature is there to ensure the accuracy of used terms.

Taking a break every few minutes to look at different terms can be quite time-consuming. That's why some CAT tools allow users to access the term bases within the software. The translators can use the term base without constantly switching between windows, needlessly clicking away.

Quality Assurance

Text editors like Microsoft Word and Google Docs have had spell checkers and grammar tools for nearly two decades at this point. So it's only natural that CAT tools possess certain quality assurance (QA) capabilities.

A QA tool will go through the text and find missing words, deviations from approved terminologies, and numeric mismatches in seconds. The QA feature will scan through the text and look for any potential errors or typos. It also provides suggestions on areas you can improve to make the translation more accurate.

Any text should go through the QA process before it's sent to the client. With QA, translators can rest assured that they've done their job at the highest possible quality.

Real-time Collaboration

Using a cloud-based CAT tool, a translator can collaborate with other translators, proofreaders, managers, and even customers in real-time. That allows the translator to receive input from other participants without having to wait to write an email and wait for a response.

Translators can finish a portion of the translation work, share it with a collaborator, and decide together whether the tone, wording, and context are correct. Certain tools even allow you to coordinate with different team members, give them tasks, and assign due dates too.

Machine Translation

Machine translation is a function that relies on artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically translate any text. You can use machine translation to quickly translate a text without human intervention.

When you need a few dozen pages translated quickly, machine translation can come in handy, since it's much faster than traditional translation methods.

Of course, having speed often means sacrificing accuracy. That's why you should always double-check the translation with a professional translator or use post-editing services to adjust the machine-translated text.

Machine Translation vs. Computer-Assisted Translation: Know Your Allies

Let me say this loud and clear: CAT tools are not machine translation. If you’re thinking, “Oh, so it’s like Google Translate but fancier,” stop right there.

After all, they both involve computers and can help you translate faster - so is there any actual difference between the two?

While in the translation industry, the terms machine translation and computer-assisted translation are clearly defined and not used interchangeably, people outside the industry often get confused between the two.

Machine translation (MT) is an automated translation where software processes a written text and translates it into another language. It allows the translator to give their input and customize the text for a better result. MT can translate any text quickly but requires proofreading and editing afterward.

Machine translation tries to do all the work for you. It’s fast, sure, but it’s also awkward, soulless, and frequently wrong. It doesn’t care about nuance. It doesn’t care about tone. It doesn’t care about you.

CAT tools, on the other hand, are your partner, not your replacement. They don’t generate translations out of nowhere. They give you suggestions, help you organize, and let you stay in full control of the final product.

Translation software helps a translator create a database of translated segments, which can be reused and shared. It's not a translation substitution but a translator's aid.

While MT focuses on getting the translation done fast, CAT tools help to make the post-editing process less time-consuming.

That said, if you’re feeling adventurous, most CAT tools let you integrate machine translation into your workflow. It’s like letting AI take a rough stab at things, but you’re still the one calling the shots.

Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) Tool Benefits

A CAT tool can seemingly handle everything from creating a visual translation memory to post-editing machine translations.

Your job is translating a 200-page user manual. Without a CAT tool, you’d be crawling through every page, translating one sentence at a time, praying you didn’t forget what you called “power switch” back in section three. A true and utter nightmare many of us, lone wolfs, have been through.

With a CAT tool? It’s like this:

Productivity

Let's get the biggest and most-obvious benefit out of the way. Whether you're a business owner in need of large volumes of translated text or a professional linguist translating multiple projects at once - a translation management system is there to boost productivity.

Without proofreading, translation software can do the job of several people in a fraction of the time. And just how much one's productivity can increase? Freelance translators report that their productivity can increase anywhere between 40% and 60% by using a CAT tool.

Consistency

CAT tools can help you maintain consistency throughout your translation projects. Every company has a set of approved terms and phrases. These terms are used for in-organization manuals as well as on customer-facing websites, brochures, and ad campaigns. Keeping everything consistent can be challenging, especially for an inexperienced translator.

No matter the volume, industry, or language combination, a CAT tool can help you maintain consistency. These translation tools can store branded terms, approved by the company owners, in a database. Professional translators can refer to them at any time they want. That way, the translator won’t have to worry about getting it wrong, and the higher-ups can rest easy knowing all of their content is consistent.

Flexibility

Did you know that for 75% of employees, flexibility is the biggest workplace benefit? Regarding translation, CAT tools help linguists be more flexible with their schedules and client base. The translator doesn't need to spend all of their day sitting behind a desk in an office.

The translation tools allow you to add team members, reviewers, and others to work on projects in real-time. They're also accessible across multiple platforms. You have a desktop, mobile, and web version.

So, while they make it easier to work on translations, they also provide the flexibility needed to get them done quickly and efficiently.

Quality

Although CAT tools allow you to speed things up significantly, that's not their only purpose. A major benefit is their ability to help you deliver higher quality products with less effort. In simple terms, you can improve your translation quality without wasting time.

How? If you're translating content within the same industry, you're probably using the same phrases, tone, and style over and over again. By referencing internal language databases integrated into the CAT tool, you can easily pick up these nuances and improve the quality of your translations.

Cost-effectiveness

Frankly, freelance translators aren't cheap. A professional translator will charge between $0.10 and $0.20 per word. That means even a modest project might cost you a lot. And if you need translation on an ongoing basis, the costs can quickly become unaffordable.

Investing in translation software can help you save money in the long run. With a CAT tool, the translator doesn't need to retype the same phrases several times in similar documents. These phrases are already stored in the tool's database. You can handle more projects with fewer people and at a lower cost.

How to Choose a CAT Tool (Without loosing your mind and your savings)

The world of CAT tools is huge. You’ve got free ones, expensive ones, simple ones, over-engineered ones—it’s a lot. So how do you pick?

That's why we're going to talk about some of the most important factors to consider when getting a CAT tool.

Decide on a Budget

While you can find free CAT tools out there, you need to be aware that most cat tools require a fee. Free CAT tools can be a great option for small businesses, but if you're looking for something with more features, you'll need to choose one of the paid CAT tools.

That's why it's important to understand what features you'll need and how much funds you'll be able to spend. Consider what payment model would be most suitable for your needs.

In the beginning, the investment might seem a little bit high. However, it will pay off in saved time, efficiency, and translation quality.

Define Your Goals

Do you need to translate in-house documents for internal use? Are you translating marketing content for an international audience? Do you need a specialized tool for medical translations?

These are all important considerations when choosing a CAT tool.

You should take time to outline your needs and define what you'll use the CAT tool for. That will help you narrow down your choices and find a tool that suits you best. Work out who'll use the CAT tool the most and ask them what kind of features they need to get the job done.

Look for Integrations

Every tool you add to your translation workflow needs to complement it perfectly. It needs to bridge the existing gaps, optimize the process, and help improve the translation quality.

That's why you should always look for integrations when shopping for a CAT tool.

Different integration levels are available on the market. There are solutions that work better with eCommerce software and ones that work better with accounting apps. Your choice will depend on your specific needs, so check what integrations the CAT tool offers.

Do a Back-check

You're probably doing your best to find the perfect CAT tool for your business. But you can't just trust the claims a copywriter hired by the company made in the product's marketing campaign. You need to do your homework and see what real people have been saying about the tool.

The easiest way to do this is to look up written and video reviews. You can find them on the company's website, YouTube, industry-specific blogs, as well as forums. Read what other users say about the product, and check out both the positive and negative comments.

Use the Free Trial

Once you create a shortlist of language service providers and software localization tools you're interested in, it's time to give them a test run. Start by signing up for a free trial. This way, you can see how the CAT tool works in real life and if it's worth investing in.

There are also free CAT tools, so you don't even need to sign up for a free trial. With a free translation memory tool, you can experiment with basic management system functionalities, file formats, and linguistic quality assurance.

With free trial, you can also check out the user interface and help sections to see if the software is something you'd like to work with.

The best CAT tool is the one that makes you feel unstoppable and, more importantly, the one that better fits your corner in the sun within the industry.

The Future of CAT Tools: Smarter, Faster, More Human

Here’s what’s coming: CAT tools are getting smarter. With AI and machine learning, they’re learning to predict your style, suggest better translations, and adapt to the way you work.

Collaboration is getting smoother, too. Cloud-based tools let entire teams work on the same project at the same time, no matter where they are.

But no matter how advanced they get, CAT tools will always be just that—tools. They don’t replace your skill or creativity. They amplify it.

With A Nice Bow on the Top

CAT tools won’t write poems. They won’t capture the soul of a language. But they will make your day-to-day work simpler, and faster. They’ll free you from the endless grind of repetitive tasks and let you focus on the part of translation that actually matters: the human part.

So, if you’ve been on the fence about trying one, stop overthinking. Pick a tool. Start small. And watch how quickly your work transforms. Another way to follow would be the Victorian way.

Because here’s the truth: CAT tools aren’t the future of translation. They’re the present. And they’re waiting for you to catch up.

Best CAT Tools on the Market

So now that you know how to pick a fully featured CAT tool, it's time to look at a few translation management system providers out there. All of these CAT tools come with features like translation memory, terminology management, project and workflow management, quality assurance, file format support, multilingual capabilities, and more.

• Bureau Works - An innovative CAT tool that helps translators, agencies, and corporations manage translation projects efficiently. The platform prioritizes translators by offering a cockpit equipped with a glossary, translation memory, machine translation, and ChatGPT. These resources aid translators in making informed decisions and achieving optimal results.

• SDL Trados Studio - A powerful CAT tool that offers a wide range of features, including automated translation options, full-text search capabilities, and multiple translation memories, to name a few.

• memoQ - A popular CAT tool that allows you to quickly search, edit and manage multiple projects. It offers software localization, full-text search capabilities, as well as terminology management tools.

• Smartcat- Smartcat is a powerful translation resource management system that allows you to manage, analyze, and track projects from start to finish. Reportedly, the tool helps users achieve an 80% reduction in translation costs.

Empowering Human Translators With Machine Translation

With the population increasing, Internet penetration rising, and cross-sea trade blossoming, the translation industry will continue to expand. Working with people from different cultures, backgrounds, and languages is an avoidable part of the business world.

That's why knowing what CAT tools are and how they can help you is important. Using your own CAT tool can help you speed up translation projects, maintain consistency across all outputs, provide flexibility, and even save money in the long run.

With Bureau Work's technological framework, you can continuously deliver high-quality translations, no matter your industry. The framework has the translation know-how of experienced language service providers, and it's easy to use.

Questions for the Localization Community

I had the chance to talk to a Jiaqian Wang, Project Manager for a US based translation company.

A project manager at a localization company that specializes in pharma, utility services, and environmental sciences. She shared her views on the queries below after working in this industry for several years: 

1 - How has using CAT tools improved your workflow, and what challenges are still there despite the uncountable tools?

“The most important aspect of using a CAT tool is likely leveraging the Translation Memory. This allows Language Service Providers to provide clients with quotes that include calculated discounts and gives linguists a clear estimate of the workload. When TMs are well-maintained, CAT tools ensure consistency with ease. Repeated segments are automatically populated once the first instance is translated.Regarding workflow, some CAT tools such as Phrase allow you to create project templates with certain workflow in selected languages, which come in handy for clients with repeated same-type requests.Challenges: TM maintenance, some file types not supported, CAT tool does not work very well with right to left languages (biggest).”

2 - What strategies do you use to ensure consistent terminology across multiple translators and projects?

“We use per-client term bases, I make comparisons on my own and, in case of doubt, we send inquiries to linguists or clients.”

3 - With the growing role of machine translation, how do you see the balance between human expertise and automated tools evolving?

“MT+MTPE will probably be the industry norm, with human expertise as the quality gatekeeper.”

4 - How do you see the integration of AI technologies (e.g., ChatGPT or neural machine translation) reshaping the use of CAT tools in the localization industry?

“It will boost productivity and reduce human error.”