3.2 - WinAlign v. bitext2tmx

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Alignment software

Alignment programs take completed translations, divide both source and target texts into segments, and attempt to determine which segments belong together in order to build a translation memory database with the content. Many alignment programs allow translators to manually realign mismatched segments. The resulting translation memory file can then be imported into a translation memory program for future translations.

WinAlign

WinAlign is one of the modules of SDL Trados suite. Unfortunately, it uses the core of SDL Trados 2007 edition which is not a part of freelance 2009 and later editions (fortunately, it is still a part of Professional editions loaded in this computer lab).

Thanks to this alignment software, even translators who only started using their CAT tool may relatively quickly built large translation memories. What the tool does is that it makes pairs of target and source language segments, which were previously translated, and imports them into a translation memory (TM). WinAlign uses the cross-platform exchange format (TMX) that is compatible with a majority of commercial and freeware CAT tools.

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Reflection #1: Why should you want to have a large translation memory?

 

bitext2tmx

 

This application is undergoing a process of development. At present, it can take two text files (*.txt), i.e. the source and target language texts, and used them to produce the same TMX format as WinAlign above. The resulting file may then be imported into a CAT tool of your choice and be used in future translations. Users are allowed to edit the text segments and save a TMX of the aligned files.

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Reflection #2: Why is it sometimes necessary to edit text segments that are automatically produced by text alignment tool?

 


For suggested answers to reflection questions click the following button: