Our technology and tools

What is a TMS?

A TMS is an acronym signifying a Translation Management System.

A TMS is simply an application that allows a translation provider to automate a portion of the translation process in order to save time, improve quality, and reduce overhead costs.

Most TMS software allows the provider to automate and streamline a part of the translation workflow and linguistic content. The client can send the content to the translator with the simple click of a button, and the translator can return it in the same way. Each translated segment is saved in a translation memory and can be reused if the source segment ever repeats.

TMS software can also be connect to a CMS (Content Management System) to allow a website to more easily be translated for an international market.

Any translator who needs to work on a TMS will be able to connect to the software remotely.

Thanks to the utilization of a TMS, the cost of localizing your website can be considerably reduced by automating a number of steps (including import, export, translation, proofreading, translation memory, glossary, quality control, etc.).

The documents to modify will be identified by the client directly in the TMS and the files will be automatically reintegrated into the CMS by a complete validation circuit.

TradOnline has worked via a number of TMS applications over the last few years.

Below, a list of some that we know particularly well:

• Transifex
• Smartling
• WebTranslateIt
• PhraseApp
• POEditor
• Localize

Please note: not all TMS applications provide the same features. It will be up to you to find which responds best to your particular needs if you don’t already use a specific application internally.

What is an LMS?

An LMS is an acronyme signifying a Learning Management System.

But LMS may also refer to a Language Management System, and that isn’t what we will be talking about below.

An LMS is a piece of software that allows a company to manage each employees training and further education.

One of the standards present in online learning is SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model). It is a market standard that allows various training media to be shared between multiple LMS applications available on the market.

Our translation agency has worked with SCORM content in the past and we’re ready to help you get your project off the ground!

Which CAT tools do we use at TradOnline?

We work with one of the best tools currently available on the market, memoQ Server Edition.

As not all of our translators have extensive experience with or fully mastered memoQ, we also use SDL Trados Studio 2017, another market standard in the translation sector, and a top competitor of memoQ.

Why do we use CAT tools such as memoQ ou Trados?

A Computer-Assisted Translation tool (CAT) allows us to improve the quality, and above all consistency, of translation, all the while reducing leadtimes and translations costs.

In short, they allow us to progressively create glossaries and translation memories that reinforce the quality and consistency of translations over time.

Advantage of memoQ Server:

• Allows multiple translators to work together on the same file at the same time while guaranteeing synergy in their translations thanks to a shared tanslation memory and term base and effective communication tools.
• Every segment translated and validated by a translator is immediately available to the other translators.
• Allows for precise quality control.
• Ability to treat a large number of file formats and implement adapted filters for even the most complex formats that isolate the content to be translated.
• Allows us to update translation memories and include client returns if necessary.

This all enables us to save time, optimize costs, and improve the overall quality of translations.

Feel free to call us if you’d like to learn more, we’ll be happy to go over all the possibilities afforded by our CAT tools. The numerous plug-ins and APIs provide a nearly limitless number of uses.

Want to know more about memoQ? Take a look and the publisher’s website, Kilgray.

Professional machine translation has made enormous leaps forward over the last few years, and, as such, we now offer our clients a machine translation with post-edition service. The role of the translator is to entirely proofread the text provided by the professional machine-translation software.

Advantages and inconveniences of this solution?

The two primary advantages of post-edited machine translation are:

• Reduction of costs: a reduction of around 20-40% compared to standard translations;
• Reduction of leadtimes: around 3 to 4 times faster turnaround.

The principal limitations and inconveniences of post-edited machine translation are:

• Standardization of the language: machine translation provides limited stylistic expression and it often provides a very basic translation (spelling, grammar, and meaning), and thus your translation will have difficulty standing out from the competition;
• The context must be very clear or you risk mistranslations: all the finer points of language, the secondary meanings, will be overlooked by the machine translation.

Not that our use of translation memories and glossaries with post-edited machine translations allows TradOnline to propose solutions optimizing the costs and leadtimes of translation services to our clients with recurring and voluminous demands. The results are only improved when we allow for the “training” of the translation engine. This step allow the translation engine to be specifically aligned with the standardized terminology of a specific sector or field.

What is desktop publishing (DTP)?

Dektop publishing is the creation of documents destined for printing using specific page formatting software.

Our service includes both translation and page formatting to provide you with an identical document for your media.

TradOnline boasts a desktop publishing service that will save you time on the internationalization of your communication and advertizing media.

We are able to treat your InDesign projects, and of course, for any other types of file formats, don’t hesitate to ask!

In what instances are we able to offer a desktop publishing service?

Multiple cases exist:

• The source project was created using InDesign. In this case, we will treat a direct .idml export file. We will provide you with a complete file including the full font and link pack including a .indd file, and the imdl source and translation. Our service can even verify the resizing of text elements to fit into your scheme. We will provide you with a low-definition PDF to validate the design before sending you the final native files and high-definition PDF ready for printing.
• The source file was created in another desktop publishing application (Illustrator, etc.). We will translate the text on Word before manually reintegrating the contect. As with the previous instance, we will provide you with a low-definition PDF to be validated before final delivery of the native file and high-definition PDF.
• The source file is a non-editable PDF. First, we will have to extract the text before eventually translating the source content via Word. The finalized content (PDF and Word document) will be sent to out so that our designer can reproduce an identical file. Obviously this solution is more time-intensive and thus more costly. We therefore recommend our clients verify if they can obtain the native files before moving forward with this solution. This will save you both time and money!

Final validation of the press-ready document

When we undertake a desktop publishing project, we systematically send you a low-definition PDF for final corrections and validation of the page formatting before sending you the press-ready PDF. We undertake to finalize all demands in one to two communications between the client and our graphical designer before providing you with the press-ready fil.

If you are going to be processing your desktop publishing project internally, we ask that you sendn us a low-definition PDF as well that our translators may verify that the translations are complete and correct in the final product. Although this step may be very quickly accomplished, it remains, nevertheless, a critical step to ensure that the line-breaks are correct and that the product adheres to your graphical charter. It is all the more important for non-latin alphabetic languages (Cyrillic, or Korean for example).

See also:

• InDesign Translation

Faced with the complexity of organizing conferences with on-site interpretation services, more and more of our clients have been looking into alternative solutions.

And alternative solutions are available today on the market, notably with remote interpretation. Conference goers need only install an app on their smartphone that will allow them to follow along with the conference in their language.

What is interpretation?

The solution we offer allows the team at TradOnline to choose the best interpreter for your needs. Therefore, our clients can continue to use, remotely, the same interpreters that they have already come to know and trust.

It is also a less expensive alternative as there are no travel fees on top of the service. Despite being a more ecological solution, it does require the same preparation time for the interpreter.

What are the pre-requisites for using remote interpretation software?

This service is available whatever the number of participants at your conference or meeting (depending on your internet speed and Wi-Fi availability). This allows you to considerably reduce the cost for interpretation equipment.

When you decide to move forward with remote interpretation, we recommend you ensure you inform your event-goers before the conference so they can download the app upstream.

You must also verify network availability in your conference hall (so perhaps avoid more exotic locations that risk being dead zones!) This is perhaps the main reason that a number of interpreters haven’t yet taken fully to this new technology. If your Internet goes down, what options do we have available? Well, there isn’t much we can do really. And if your conference doesn’t have much oration, it will certainly be hard for the interpreter to do their job!

It’s up to you to take these warnings into account before making your choice according to your specific needs.

Finally, the software seems to work flawlessly, but we still have only a small sample size on its use. For this simple reason, we aren’t ready to call this a one trick fix for all simultaneous interpretation need. But if you’re ready to discuss if it’s a good fit for you, contact us!