Open source Tools for Translators

Gone are the days when professional translators were only dependent on their computer hardware and basic software necessary for doing the translation. Access to dictionaries and tools that support translation memories are available. Proprietary licensed software available for Translation Memory and Terminology Management. But they are costly and freelance translators who are starting to venture into translation profession could not afford. Not anymore, as free open source software (FOSS) is nowadays available and is an easy option for the translation community all over the world. There are several toolkits available for the interested translator to get their job done quickly, efficiently with a consistency of term usage possible

CAT (Computer Aided Translation) Tools

Language translation and localization process with a high level of quality are possible by using computer assisted translation (CAT) tools. As the name implies, CAT tools help translators perform the tasks of translation, bilingual review, and monolingual review as quickly as possible and with the highest possible consistency through reuse of translated content (also known as translation memory).

Translation memory and terminology recall are two central features of CAT tools.

They enable a translator to reuse previously translated content from old projects in new projects. This allows them to translate a high volume of words in a shorter amount of time while maintaining a high level of quality through terminology and style consistency. This is especially handy for localization services, as text in a lot of software and web UIs is often the same across platforms and applications.

Tools to check out are

1. OmegaT: OmegaT is a computer-assisted translation tool written in the Java programming language. This open source tool is intended for professional translators.

OmegaT has the following features:

• Fuzzy matching
• Match propagation
• Simultaneous processing of multiple-file projects
• Simultaneous use of multiple translation memories
• User glossaries with recognition of inflected forms
• Document file formats include: Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx) XHTML and HTML
• Open Document Format (LibreOffice, Apache OpenOffice)
• MediaWiki (Wikipedia)
• Unicode (UTF-8) support: can be used with non-Latin alphabets
• Support for right-to-left languages
• Integral spelling checker
• Compatible with other translation memory applications (TMX, TTX, TXML, XLIFF, SDLXLIFF)
• Interface to Google Translate

2. Anaphraseus: Anaphraseus is a tool for creating, managing and using bilingual translation memories in any languages. It can also export/import files in the Unicode UTF-16 Translation Memory Exchange (TMX) format.

3. Zanata: Zanatais an open source translation platform written in Java that offers translation memory, an online translation editor, and workflow integration.

4. Subtitles Translator Wizard: Subtitle Translation Wizard enables to translate and edit It supports SubRip (.srt), sub (MicroDVD), Sami (.smi) ,SubViewer (.SUB) and SubViewer 2.0 formats.

Subtitle Translation Wizard allows its users to extract and save subtitle text from both the original and the translated subtitle. Mix subtitle texts can also be extracted and saved. Subtitles can also be merged together.

Surely there will be many more options. The above are some of the useful tools for the translator to have.