A translation memory is a linguistic database that continually captures your translations as you work for future use.

All previous translations are accumulated within the translation memory (in source and target language pairs called translation units) and reused so that you never have to translate the same sentence twice. The more you build up your translation memory, the faster you can translate subsequent translations, enabling you to take on more projects and increase your revenue.

Translation memories should be used by anyone who localizes content from one language into another. They are most effective when translating documents with a high level of repetition.

Translation memories are also very helpful when translating content out of context. An increasing number of organizations rely on Content Management Systems (CMS)to manage their information. A CMS allows individual blocks of text, rather than entire documents, to be created/edited and then published in a variety of different formats. A translation memory helps to make this process quicker and more consistent.

Furthermore, even if a translation memory is not being used, the dedicated translation environment would allow you to extract text from the source file and focus on localizing the text without worrying about the tags. For example, with an HTML file, all of the coding will be hidden so you do not have to waste time searching through unnecessary lines for the text that requires translation.