Tool category: memoQ Translators' Essentials

Translate PDFs with memoQ and TransPDF

Do you often translate PDF files? Do you encounter problems to keep file formatting? Have you ever translated a scanned PDF document? Many companies send out PDFs for translation. However, for translators, PDF is not an ideal format. memoQ's integration with TransPDF allows you to translate PDF documents (regular or scanned) easily. In the following, we outline how this integration can help your daily tasks.  To translate PDF documents, first you need to connect memoQ with TransPDF, a paid service for PDF conversions including OCR (Optical Character Recognition).

Benefits of Connecting memoQ with TransPDF

No need for manual preparation

Minimum loss of formatting

Correct sentence segmentation

Smooth integration through memoQ

Alternative to TransPDF

If you are working with a regular PDF file, you may request its source file from your client. However, there are cases when the source file is not available. If that is the case, you can use memoQ’s built-in PDF to DOCX converter that usually delivers satisfactory results. However, you should always check the Word target file as it may contain unnecessary tags and line breaks after conversion. If you are not satisfied with memoQ’s built-in converter, please try the integration with TransPDF.

Align PDF Documents with LiveDocs

If formatting is not an issue, you can align PDF documents in memoQ. If the source and target languages are in PDF format, memoQ’s built-in PDF filter is capable of converting them into plain text. This filter does not produce tags and is more tolerant to line breaks. To do so, you will need LiveDocs, a special module within memoQ that allows you to leverage previously translated material and reference files. Once on LiveDocs, follow these steps: 1. Select Add alignment pair 2. Click Add source documents 3. Click Change filter and configuration 4. Under General, select Import by converting to Plain Text 5. Repeat the same for target documents, or under Import document During translation, memoQ offers suggestions from your LiveDocs corpus. You can use these matches to save significant time with your translation. You may also have the opportunity to import a single PDF and use it as a monolingual reference to check for expressions or terminology.

Next:What is a Translation Memory?

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What is a CAT Tool or Computer-Assisted Translation Software?

The term CAT stands for Computer-Assisted Translation Tool. CAT tools have significantly changed the way how translators work and manage translation projects today. CAT tools split large multilingual documents into segments (phrases & paragraphs) which are stored in a database. This is called translation memory which means that previously translated material can be reused at any time. Nowadays, it is more common for enterprises and translators to use CAT tools to speed up their work and increase their productivity globally.

Why do You Need a CAT Tool?

Translate faster

Translators to meet increasing customer demands have to face shorter deadlines. Implementing a CAT tool, such as memoQ translator pro, into your daily translation processes can significantly accelerate your performance. Handle language repetition throughout your projects by leveraging existing translations from the translation memories. The more you translate, the bigger and smarter your translation memories will be.

Translate accurately

Regardless of the industry you work in, consistency and accuracy in terminology are the most critical aspects to deliver flawless translations. Beside translation memories, CAT tools have integrated term bases (for single words and expressions) that help project managers and translators to use consistent terminology across all projects.

What does it Look Like?

Let us show you the interface of memoQ translator pro, which consists of four different areas:

The ribbon

Commands in the top ribbon were placed according to the typical workflow of a translator.

The translation grid

Commands in the top ribbon were placed according to the typical workflow of a translator.

The translation results table

In the translation results table, memoQ offers you translation suggestions from the translation memories, term bases and live corpora. The HTML preview pane at the bottom provides preview to see how your current translation would look once exported.

Next:What is Translation memory?

Why Use CAT Tools?

This eBook explains the purpose and benefits of Computer-Assisted Translation, and more.

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memoQ translator pro

memoQ translator pro is a computer-assisted translation tool with various features to meet the needs of translators, enterprises, and language service providers. Download the free 30-day trial version now!

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A poor translation can have an immediate and disastrous impact on the acceptance of your product, and furthermore, it can easily become an embarrassment to your brand.

Translation Quality Assurance is a comprehensive tool that checks for machine-detectable errors while you translate in a translation management software.

Translation Quality Assurance is a key component of every project to deliver flawless translations; it usually comes as an integrated module with every translation tool or translation management system.

In memoQ, Translation Quality Assurance consists of two levels of quality review.While the Automatic Quality Control checks the text for possible mistakes during translation, the Linguistic Quality Assurance categorizes mistakes and create error statistics to provide structured feedback to translators.

How does Translation Quality Assurance Work in memoQ?

Automatic Quality Assurance

1- Warnings

A warning message can be a difference in punctuation between the source and the target segment, a missing number, a missing or misplaced inline tag, or a missing translation of a term that memoQ recognizes in the source segment. It could also be missing capitalization or extra space at the end of your segment. Warnings can also state if a translation is inconsistent or too long.

2- Errors

Error messages are usually related to tag inconsistency between the source and target segments, but can also show up for other reasons. You can fully control the behavior of automatic quality assurance, and you can even ask memoQ to treat some problems as errors rather than warnings.

Linguistic Quality Assurance (LQA)

memoQ can easily detect errors in documents, however, reviewers can also use Linguistic Quality Assurance models to give much more meaningful feedback about a translation. memoQ allows you to set up your own LQA model, which is usually a form that a reviewer fills in when reporting on an error. memoQ can handle popular standard models such as LISA.   Linguistic Quality Assurance models provide the following options for reviewing a translation:

Define what happens when there is an error: Use penalty points, specify severity (minor, major, critical), or require comments on errors .

Categorize and customize your feedback: You can define your own error categories for reviewing, or use the categories provided by existing models. Categories usually include translation accuracy, terminology, language, and consistency.

Define criteria to accept or reject translations (pass/fail).

Next:What is Translation Memory?

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Learn More About Translation Quality Assurance