1.Trados is not machine translation software, but translation memory software.
When it comes to translation software, many people will think of translation software such as Kingsoft Express and Orient Express. Although there is a certain market for these softwares, and some people brag about them, I am not optimistic. The characteristic of these translation softwares is to input English or Chinese into their input interface and get their translation immediately. However, this can only be a layman. Anyone who knows a little about foreign languages can see that its translation is donkey's head, not horse's mouth. Once I translated a piece of computer information with Kingsoft Express. It translated the library into a library, and there were many inexplicable mistakes. I will never use this software again. Even if it is used occasionally, it is only used as a translation reference.
Trados is a computer-aided translation (CAT) software, also known as TM: Translation Memory (TM) software. What is translation memory? In short, the work done by translators is stored with the tools provided by Trados and put into two main databases (memory banks), one is sentence database (made with WinAlign tool) and the other is terminology database (that is, Multiterm). When doing translation work, Trados will remind you and help you as long as it is in the sentence base and terminology base. In Trados, exactly the same sentence is called 100% perfect match, which is automatically inserted into translation without requiring you to translate it again. For similar sentences, it uses a method called fuzzy matching to give a reference translation for translators to choose and modify. Trados can automatically replace numbers, abbreviations, dates, times and units of measurement. For example, if there is April 20th, 2004 in the existing sentence database, when the date (May 3rd, 2005) appears in the translation, it will be automatically replaced by May 3rd, 2005.
2. To use Trados, you must have a sentence library and a terminology library.
Some people only know how to use Trados, thinking that having Trados can improve work efficiency and translation accuracy. He doesn't know that if there is no sentence base and terminology base, it is impossible to improve work efficiency and achieve accurate translation. This is because translation memory software has not been widely known in China, and it is believed that with it, everything will be accessible. This is a vague understanding, which the author must clarify.
In foreign countries, many translation companies and enterprises use Trados (in Germany, there is also a widely used translation memory software called Transit). When they ask you to use Trados for translation, they will also provide you with reference text (sentence database) and terminology database. The biggest advantage of using translation memory software is that many translators can work at the same time through the network. They can enjoy the glossary online, and one translator's translation can be used as a reference for others, so that many people can work simultaneously and efficiently.
Another advantage of Trados is that when translating long materials, you can use Concordance to find the translated terms and sentences in your memory when you encounter the same or similar parts that have been translated before. You don't have to do this work, Trados is done automatically. In the process of translation, it has automatically stored the words, terms and sentences you translated.
3. The production of sentence material database
There are two important tools to use Trados, one of which is WinAlign. Many articles introducing Trados ignore WinAlign, and only introduce Trados and Multiterm. In fact, in my opinion, WinAlign is a more important tool in Trados than Multiterm. Its function is to make a sentence library. When you have finished translating some materials, don't put them on the shelf, but spend some time making a sentence library with WinAlign. This job seems simple, but in fact it is very important.
Using WinAlign to make a sentence database needs an original text and a more accurate translation. If you are in a hurry and some translations are not accurate enough, I suggest you look at these translations carefully when you are free. There are two columns in WinAlign, one is the original text and the other is the corresponding translation. WinAlign's task is to align the corresponding original text and translation respectively. The original text and refined translation should be stored in RTF format of Word documents. Word allows users to input and output files with special RTF format. Just select the Save As command and select RTF format in the Save Type. RTF is the abbreviation of Rich Text Format, which is used as the extension of format file. The RTF file format was created by Microsoft Word. It is designed to transfer data between different programs. One of its advantages is that the format information of the file will not be lost or destroyed. RTF format is used in WinAlign, which is to align sentences by recognizing these formats.
Sometimes automatic alignment can't get good results, so manual alignment is needed. Manual alignment mainly uses the following menu items: there are split segment items, editing segment items and connecting segment items under WinAlign's editing menu, and there are file pair statistics items, submission items and marking completion items under WinAlign's alignment menu. After automatic alignment, use the file pair statistics menu to check the alignment results of file pairs. You may find that there are several matches of high quality units, several matches of medium quality units and several matches of low quality units. According to my experience, there is a small amount of low-quality unit matching, which does not affect the final use effect. Of course, the more high-quality units are matched, the better. There is another item with the number of 1: 2 and 2: 1 unit, which indicates the sentence correspondence between the original text and the translation 1:2 and 2: 1. According to my experience, it is best not to have the correspondence between the original text and the translation 1:2 and 2: 1. The method is to divide the sentence materials with the above-mentioned segmentation segments, or to merge the sentence materials with the connecting segments. Finally, in the statistical results, it is best to completely correspond to the sentence of 1: 1. The Edit Line Segment project is used to modify the translation during alignment. If you are satisfied with the result of Align, don't forget to use Commit to confirm. If there is no confirmation, when translating with Trados, the relevant columns of Trados Workbench will appear garbled or vertically arranged Chinese.
Some people may think that the above is too vague, please don't get bored, these are the places that are prone to problems.
4. Making terminology database
Another important tool of Trados is Multiterm. Many articles have introduced the method of making terminology database, so I won't say more. I want to say a few questions:
The origin of item (1)
24 dictionaries translated by Kingsoft can be found online. These dictionaries are completely arranged in tab format and can be made into English-Chinese/Chinese-English terminology database according to your needs.
(2) the scale of terminology database
According to my experience, the vocabulary should be neither too big nor too small. Someone once asked me if I should put all the terms together, and my answer was wrong. Because if it is too big, the running speed will slow down; However, if it is too small to be used, it will take a lot of time to convert between terminology databases. Generally speaking, similar majors can be put together, such as mechanical major and automobile major.
(3) Import 3)Multiterm 5 terminology database
In addition to quoting the methods introduced in the article, you can also find a software called Trados Dictionary on the Internet. With this software, you can easily make the terminology text arranged in comma, tab, space or control text format into a format that can be directly input into Multiterm 5.5, and make a Multiterm 5 vocabulary.
(4) Making Multiterm iX terminology database.
Then use the migration tool to migrate the Multiterm iX terminology database converted into XML format. However, I can't import the migrated XML file under Windows XP. As in Windows 98, we can't import files into Multiterm iX terminology database, so we have to spend a whole day typing more than 200,000 words in Windows 98. If an expert successfully imports under Windows XP, please advise.
Finally, in fact, when using Trados to do translation work, the function of sentence material library is far greater than that of terminology library. Please friends must cherish the fruits of their labor, which is a valuable wealth!