Comparison between the Environments of Trados Translator’s Workbench （6.5.5.438） and the corresponding functions of Dйja Vu X（7.5.302）

Abstract As a cutting-edge trend of translating， Computer-aided translation （CAT） plays a significant role in the field. Among kinds of CAT softwares， Trados and DVu became the mainstream of the translating market since they were available in the market. By discussing the environments of two CAT softwares in this paper， translators’ efficiency would be improved to some degree in the future.

Key words Computer-aided translation； Trados； DVu

中圖分類號：H315.9 文獻標識碼：A

Nowadays， the industry of translation has entered upon a new era. An important division of translation is named computer-aided translation used by over 5，000 large corporations in the world that has proved CAT is more accurate， efficient， and cost-saving than the traditional human translation and computer translation. According to Professor Chan Sin-wai （2007）， academically， CAT has come of age after 25 years of development. As CAT is interactive （Prof Chan， 2007）， i.e.， in computer-aided translation， the computer program， such as Trados and DVu X， supports the translator who translates the text himself， making all the essential decisions involved， which is different from human translation translated by man and computer translation by machine.

After the brief introduction of the two main products （Trados and Dvu） in CAT systems respectively， this paper will compare the differences between the environments of Trados Translator’s Workbench 6.5.5.438 and the corresponding functions of DVu X 7.5.302 in terms of the interfaces， matches， terminology， formatting and concordance. By discussing the features of the two translating software， translators would grasp the different features of the two CAT software and their working efficiency would be enhanced satisfactorily.

1 About Trados and Dvu

Trados， released in Germany in 1984 is the most popular CAT system on the market. It has a revolutionary new user interface， giving greater productivity to meet increasing workloads. （Prof Chan， 2007） Trados is known as “sentence-memory” system as normally the basic unit of text in a TM database is a sentence. And Trados is actually a set of CAT programs including the Trados Translator’s Workbench， MultiTerm， WinAlign， Tag Editor and etc. When translating， Translator’s Workbench is running with the MS Word so that translators may translate or edit the text in the interface. The discussion will be focused on the environment of Trados Translator’s Workbench （6.5.5.438）.

Dvu， which is released in Italy in November 1993， was a product of Atril in Spain. It has the Standard and Professional editions for translators， and Workgroup edition for corporations. It is a customizable CAT system based on example-based MT， which means the exact matches and examples are interchangeable.

2 Comparison between Trados 6.5.5.438 and DVu X 7.5.302

2.1 Interface.

Trados： Trados Translator's Workbench and Word communicate via a specially designed document template， TRADOS6.dot. When this template is activated in Word， the Trados menu is added to the Word menu bar. Translator’s Workbench compiles the translation memory or “TM” that captures the translations as translators work. As a result， the same sentence never needs to be translated again. Translator may also arrange the interface of MultiTerm next to the Workbench， so that translator can see TM and terminology window on the screen at the same time.

Dvu： DVu X is not only a translation tool， but a highly customizable translation environment. DVu X presents a uniform interface， displaying only translatable text and protecting any coding information， when translators work with different formats of file.

2.2 Match （Exact， Fuzzy and No Match）：

During translating， translators look up the TM to find the matches that may be reused in the translation. And there are three kinds of matches in CAT system. The exact match refers to a match where there is no difference between the source sentence and a stored sentence in the TM. Fuzzy match means the source sentence is very similar but not exactly the same as the stored sentence in the translation memory. And no match means a match cannot be found in TM.

Trados： In Translator’s Workbench， the different color stands for different match， and translators may set it themselves. Also translator may arrange the percentage of being a fuzzy match. When translating， translators may notice the delimiting marks {0> and <0} inserted by Translator's Workbench into the document， or the match value between the current source segment. Once the delimiting marks were deleted， the format in the final text will be messy. When Translator’s Workbench finds no match for the source language， there appears a special color to remind translators and they can type in the translation. Or， translator can use the Concordance command to search for similar text in the translation memory， which will be discussed later.

Dvu： To do fuzzy matching， Dvu automatically examines the TM database， taking relevant fragments or sentences with a similar structure， to produce a translation from material that is embedded in other sentences. To have exact matches， Dvu provides a guaranteed match that indicates that the context comparison has already been carried out. What’s more， DVu X intelligently uses the translation memory， terminology database， and project lexicon to increase the quality of fuzzy matches by working with smaller segments and words. For close fuzzy matches， DVu X will often produce a perfect translation， in the translator's own style.

2.3 Terminology：

Terminology management software provides the translator a means of automatically searching a given terminology database for terms in a document， either by automatically displaying terms in the translation memory software interface window or through the use of hot keys to view the entry in the terminology database.

Trados： Translator’s Workbench searches a MultiTerm Termbase for known terms in a sentence. Known terms are marked with red bracketed lines in the source window and are displayed with the dictionary icon in the terminology window. Terminology recognition also works with a fuzzy matching algorithm， so that terms in the sentence are found even if they do not occur in the same form in the Termbase.

Dvu： During the translation， all relevant memory and terminology database records are displayed in real-time in AutoSearch window and they can either be automatically inserted into your translation or added with a single keystroke. Any displayed database entry can also be modified or even deleted from within the AutoSearch display.

2.4 Formatting：

Trados： Translator’s Workbench can find an exact or 100% match for the next sentence. For example， in a text， education program appears in italics in the source segment but is formatted in bold in the translation unit. Translator’s Workbench recognizes that the text is the same despite the difference in formatting and copies the formatting of the source segment to the text in the target segment， suggesting it as a 100% match.

Dvu： When translators work with different kinds of file formats， the supported formats， managing the databases， or building an SGML/XML filter， DVu X presents a uniform interface， displaying only translatable text and protecting any coding information. So translator will feel no worry about overwriting formatting and layout information.

2.5 Concordance：

A concordance gives a list of the occurrence of a particular word， a part of word， a combination of words， drawn from a text corpus presented in context. Concordances provide a means to look at how words behave and are used in a certain text or other texts， and to reveal the patterns of vocabulary， grammar， and style in these texts， also providing a）. the specific context for translator to settle on a translation equivalence with a specific word-sense； b）. the recurrent words of a given text type； c）. the words characteristic of certain text types. （Prof Chan， 2007）

Trados： The concordance feature allows translators to search the translation memory for segments that contain part of the sentence they are currently translating. Translator’s Workbench can display a number of segments from the translation memory that contain text similar or identical to the search text. For example， suppose translators know that they have already translated local branch. It would be useful to see all English segments from the translation memory that includes the phrase local branch， together with their translation equivalents.

Deja vu： DVu X has a feature called AutoSearch， where sentences， segments， and terms can be displayed with all the necessary context information and intelligently sorted according to relevance. Translators can choose to have AutoSearch display only exact matches or all matches that it can find， or decide whether or not complete sentences should be included in the AutoSearch window or whether they should be displayed in a separate window.

3 Conclusion

By comparing the disparities between the Trados Translator’s Workbench and Dvu in terms of interfaces， matches， terminology， formatting and concordance， this paper aims to familiarize the translators with two major CAT systems further so that the efficiency and productivity of translating will be enhanced significantly.

Notes：①The data and materials about Trados summarized from the user guide of Trados Translator’s Workbench， are retrieved from www. Translationzone.com In the following parts， it will not be explained repeatedly. Citation will be given when the documents are cited from the other places.②The data and materials about Dvu summarized from the passage overview of dvu are from the website www. Atril.com and in the following parts， it will not be explained repeatedly. Citation will be given when the documents are cited from the other places.

Reference

[1] In an Introduction to Computer-aided Translation， Lecture 1， CAT： Introduction to the Course， at The Chinese University of Hong Kong on September 8， 2007， Professor Chan Sin-wai.

[2] In an Introduction to Computer-aided Translation， Lecture 2， CAT： A Conceptual Perspective， at the Chinese University of Hong Kong on September 15， 2007， Professor Chan Sin-wai.

[3] In an Introduction to Computer-aided Translation， Lecture 3， CAT： Typological and Functional Perspectives， at the Chinese University of Hong Kong on September 22， 2007， Profession Chan Sin-wai.

[4] Atril. （2007）. Overview of Dvu. Retrieved December 2， 2007 at http：//www.atril.com/

[5] SDL Trados. （2007）. Downloads Area at Translationzone.com： Translator's Workbench User Guide. Retrieved December 2， 2007， from page 186 to 211 at http：//www.translationzone.com/en/Images/TranslatorsWorkbench_T655_en_tcm18-756.pdf.

[6] Wikipedia. （2007）. Computer-assisted Translaton. Retrieved December 1st， 2007， from http：//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-assisted_translation

[7] Wikipedia. （2007）. Terminology. Retrieved December 1st， 2007， from http：//en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Computer-assisted_translation#Terminology_management_software