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Translator Group Buying

TGB is a tool offered to give an opportunity for translators buying CAT tools and other software together to get a lower price and realize significant savings through group buying.

How does it work?

TGB campaigns have a target number, which is the number of people that need to sign up for the discount to be made available to everyone on the list of buyers.

If you see an offer you are interested in, you can sign up for it by clicking on the button that says "Join the group of buyers" at the end of the campaign. You can also tell your friends about it to make sure that the target is reached before the deadline.

Once you've signed up, you should receive a notification from [email protected] and further communications before the deadline is reached. If you haven't heard from the TGB team and the deadline is approaching, feel free to reach out. You will receive instructions for payment and all communications via email.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please reach out to [email protected]


What is a CAT Tool?

CAT stands for "Computer Aided Translation Tool". The terms "Translation Memory" and "TM" are sometimes used to refer to the same type of tool. A CAT tool is a computer program that helps a translator to work efficiently.

This is achieved through three main functions:

  • A CAT tool breaks texts into segments (sentences or sentence fragments) and presents the segments in a convenient way, to make translating easier and faster. In some tools, for example MetaTexis, each segment is presented in a special box, and the translation can be entered in another box right below the source text.
     
  • The translation of each segment is saved together with the source text. Source text and translation will always be treated and presented as a translation units (TU). You can return to a segment at any time to check the translation. There are special functions which help to navigate through the text and to find segments which need to be translated or revised (quality control).
     
  • The main function of a CAT tool is to save the translation units in a database, called translation memory (TM), so that they can be re-used for any other text, or even in the same text. Through special "fuzzy search" features the search functions of CAT tools can also find segments which do not match 100%. This saves time and effort and helps the translator to use consistent terminology.

Besides these main functions many other functions may be included in CAT tools, to make translating easier and increase productivity.

Introduction provided by Hermann Bruns.