What are translation memories in CAT tools

In CAT tools, translation memories are databases that consist of stored segments of translated texts. Each entry in a translation memory includes a pair of the original text and its translation.

When you open a new document in a CAT tool, the analysis with a translation memory checks if any part of the text has already been translated, looking for an identical or almost identical match in the source text.

It is especially useful for these types of translation that contain a lot of repeated sentences and phrases. They make the translation process much faster and more efficient. The suggestions from translation memories can be either accepted or rejected.

Translation memories are built on the basis of a translator’s completed translations.

Translation memories in memoQ translator pro

To go to the Translation memories section, open a project and click Translation memories on the left side of the screen. Then, on the top part of the screen, you can:

click Create/Use New to create a new translation memory to be used in the project
click Register Local to register a local translation memory for memoQ to use in projects (the preferred file format is .mtm)
click Clone to make a copy of the selected translation memory
click Properties to display the properties of the selected translation memory
click Delete to delete the selected translation memory
click Use In Project to use the selected translation memory in a particular project
once you have done that, to remove the selected translation memory from a particular project, click Remove From Project
click Settings to display the settings on how the selected translation memory will be used in a particular project
click Set As Working to set the selected translation memory as the working translation memory, where all new translations are stored when the translator or reviewer confirms a translated segments
click Set As Master to set the selected translation memory as the master translation memory, where memoQ stores translation during the Confirm And Update Rows operation
click Edit to open and edit the selected translation memory
click Import to import a file (.csv, .txt, .tsv, .tmx, or .sdltm)
click Export to TMX to export the selected translation memory to a .tmx file
click Repair Resource to repair the translation memory to improve lookup speed
click Synchronize Online to synchronise the translation memory by creating or updating a local copy

Translation memories in Trados Studio

To go to the Translation memories section, click Translation Memories on the left side of the screen. Then, on the top part of the screen, you can:

click Open to open a new translation memory (an .sdltm file), a server-based translation memory, or a language resource template
click New to create a new translation memory (an .sdltm file), a server-based translation memory, or a language resource template
click Import to import a translation memory (.tmx, tmx.gz, .sdlxliff, .ttx, .itd, or .sdlalign)
click Export to export a selected translation memory to a .tmx file
click Migrate Local TMs to Cloud to migrate a local translation memory to a cloud server
click Align Documents to select a translation memory and the documents (a single file pair or multiple files) to align, or to open an alignment file (.sdlalign)
click Create AutoSuggest Display to select a translation memory and create a new AutoSuggest dictionary
click Commit Changes to commit pending changes to a particular translation memory

Links

Translation memory settings in memoQ translator pro