A translation memory (TM) is a database that stores translations of your content from one source language into one or several target languages.
Each time you create a project, Smartcat creates a translation memory for it, inside which all related translations and edits will be saved. You are able to edit this translation memory as well as all other Linguistic assets.
If Smartcat finds a match in your existing translation memories, it automatically implements it into your new translation. You will be able to select and confirm the match or opt for automated translation results using the CAT panel.
You can adjust the pretranslation settings to have the segments containing translation memory matches confirmed automatically.
Each time you create a project, you can specify a client or department for it. The system will automatically enable the relevant TM from the ones that you have already created in Smartcat for this client or department.
If more than one previously created TM with identical parameters exists, they will all be enabled. The TM with the largest number of identical parameters will become the main TM and acquire the Write permissions. The other automatically enabled TMs will be read-only. This allows a translator to use not only the most closely related TM, but also the more general TMs.
In addition, if a TM with identical parameters and the language pair inverted is found, the system will also automatically enable it for the project.
You can also change TM settings in the Linguistic assets tab when setting up a new project or editing an existing project.
1. Go to the project Overview page and click on Linguistic assets.
In the window that opens, you will see a list of translation memories matching your language pair and your project.
2. Click Add. Select how you want to add a translation memory.
- Create new will open the window that will let you create a new translaction memory. Fill in the required info and click Save.
- Select an existing TM will open the list of TMs available for this language pair. Select the ones you need and click Add. You can use advanced search feature to sort all your existing TMs by subject, client, or project tag.
You can also search among additional TMs by ticking the respective boxes.
- The Upload option will let you import a TM from file as described in this article.
To disable a translation memory being used on the project, hover the cursor over it and click the on the cross icon.
Advanced TM use options
When the executor is working with the document, the system compares each sentence with those that were translated earlier and saved in the connected translation memory. The system offers translation options that match the current segment by 75% or more by default. You can choose a higher or lower threshold in the advanced pretranslation settings. The threshold value can be different for each TM.
You can also use several TMs for one project and save the new translations generated in the project in one of them. Just select the TM for recording new translations and tick Write.
