CAT Tools Essentials
Get productive in Trados & memoQ, translation memory, termbases, match rates, and tags, so agency work stops feeling intimidating.
CAT tools are the professional translator's workbench, and fluency in one is effectively a requirement for agency work. Get productive fast: understand what a CAT tool really does (it is not machine translation), how translation memory becomes a compounding asset, how to read exact and fuzzy match rates that drive your pay, and how to handle termbases and tags without breaking files. You will finish able to take a document through the full CAT loop and slot into agency workflows with confidence.
What you'll learn
- Understand what a CAT tool does and why agencies require one
- Work confidently with translation memory and termbases
- Read fuzzy vs exact match rates and what they mean for your pay
- Handle tags and formatting without breaking files
- Use segmentation, concordance, and QA checks like a pro
- Get productive fast in Trados or memoQ
Course content
- 1. What a CAT tool actually is (and what it is not) (14 min)
- 2. Translation memory: your growing asset (15 min)
- 3. Match rates: exact, fuzzy, and what they pay (15 min)
- 4. Termbases: consistency at your fingertips (14 min)
- 5. Tags and formatting: do not break the file (15 min)
- 6. Segmentation, concordance, and getting productive (15 min)
Related courses
- The Translation Quality Framework — Adequacy vs fluency, error typology, and a repeatable self-QA: the foundation every translator needs.
- Terminology & Style at Scale — Build and use glossaries and style guides that keep a big job, or a whole team, reading like one confident voice.
- Revision, Review & Proofreading to ISO 17100 — The roles the standard actually defines, necessary versus preferential changes, a six-pass revision routine, and how to price the work properly.