Translation Tools and Workflow

Nowadays, translating is not just a matter of finding the right word, but also of using the right technology. The Directorate-General for Translation of the European Commission, which is the largest and most complex translation service in the world, has therefore incorporated a unique set of translation tools into its complex workflow.

Thanks, among other things, to translation memory technology, the Directorate-General for Translation has genuine data sharing: translators can avoid re-translating what has already been done and give other colleagues the benefit of their work.

With all the requisite data at hand, translators can concentrate on their "core business", searching for the right word in a more efficient and less time-consuming way and practising the art of translation without the drudgery of having to perform repetitive tasks.

This booklet sets out to show how, under ideal conditions, documents are processed by the Directorate-General for Translation, from the day they arrive till the day they are finalised and delivered to the requesting department.

[The Electronic version of this booklet is dated from 2006 but is very similar to the 2008 printed booklet]

• Primary Source

European Commission: DG Translation: Translating for a multilingual community, 2004 http://ec.europa.eu/comm/dgs/translation/bookshelf/brochure_en.pdf

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