MemoQ

memoQ is a proprietary computer-assisted translation software suite which runs on Microsoft Windows operating systems. It is developed by the Hungarian software company memoQ Fordítástechnológiai Zrt. (memoQ Translation Technologies), formerly Kilgray, a provider of translation management software established in 2004 and cited as one of the fastest growing companies in the translation technology sector in 2012 and 2013. memoQ provides translation memory, terminology, machine translation integration and reference information management in desktop, client/server and web application environments.
History.
memoQ, a translation environment tool first released in 2006, was the first product created by memoQ Translation Technologies, a company founded in Hungary by the three language technologists Balázs Kis, István Lengyel and Gábor Ugray. In the years since the software was first presented, it has grown in popularity and is now among the most frequent TEnT applications used for translation (it was rated as the third most used CAT tool in a Proz.com study in 2013 and as the second most widely used tool in a June 2010 survey of 458 working translators), after SDL Trados, Wordfast, Déjà Vu, OmegaT and others. Today it is available in desktop versions for translators (Translator Pro edition) and project managers (Project Manager edition) as well as site-installed and hosted server applications offering integration with the desktop versions and a web browser interface. There are currently several active online forums in which users provide each other with independent advice and support on the software's functions as well as many online tutorials created by professional trainers and active users.
Before its commercial debut, a version of memoQ (2.0) was distributed as postcardware.
Configuration.
As of 2018, all supported memoQ editions contained these principal modules:
There are also other supporting features integrated in the environment such as spelling dictionaries, lists of nontranslatable terms, autocorrection rules and "auto-translation" rules which enable matching and insertion of expressions based on regular expressions.
Supported source document formats.
memoQ 2015 supports dozens of different file types, including: various markup and tagged formats such as XML, HTML, XLIFF, SDLXLIFF (SDL Trados Studio's native format for translation), OpenDocument files; plain text files; Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint; and some Adobe file formats, such as PSD, PDF and InDesign. To know more about supported formats and languages in memoQ, see this link: Languages and file formats.
Handling of translation memories and glossaries.
The translation memory (TM) format of memoQ is proprietary and stored as a group of files in a folder bearing the name of the translation memory. External data can be imported in delimited text formats and Translation Memory eXchange format (TMX), and translation memory data can be exported as TMX. memoQ can also work with server-based translation memories on the memoQ Server or, using a plug-in, other external translation memory sources. memoQ Translation memories are bilingual.
In translation work, translation segments are compared with translation units stored in the translation memory, and exact or fuzzy matches can be shown and inserted in the translated text.
Glossaries are handled by the integrated terminology module. Glossaries can be imported in TMX or delimited text formats and exported as delimited text or MultiTerm XML. Glossaries can include two or more languages or language variants. Term matching with glossary entries can be based on many different parameters, taking into consideration capitalization, partial or fuzzy matches and other factors. Terms to be avoided can be marked as "forbidden" in the properties of a particular glossary entry.
Integration of machine translation and postediting.
memoQ has integrated machine translation and postediting into its translation workflow. With the selection of appropriate conditions and a plug-in for machine translation, machine-generated translation units (TUs) will be inserted if no match is found in an active translation memory. The translator can then post-edit the machine translation in the attempt to make sense of it. memoQ includes plug-ins which support the several MY systems. Other MT systems can be integrated via the application programming interface (API).
Interoperability with other CAT tools.
The designers of memoQ have followed a fairly consistent policy of interoperability or functional compatibility with similar software tools or processes involving translation by other means through both the implementation of standards such as XLIFF and TMX, handling proprietary formats of other translation-support tools and providing exchange formats easily handled in other environments.
Implementation of standards.
Like many other translation environment tools, memoQ implements some standards, both official and de facto, for sharing translation files and reference information.
These include: XLIFF, XLIFF:doc and TMX for translation files; TMX and delimited text (not a standard, but a common format) for translation memory data import, TMX for export; and TBX, TMX, XML and delimited text for terminology import, XML and delimited text for export.
Proprietary format support.
Proprietary formats for other environments which are supported to various extents include Star Transit project packages (PXF, PPF), SDL Trados Studio (SDLPPX, SDLXLIFF), older Trados formats (TTX, bilingual DOC/RTF) and Wordfast Pro (TXML). In the case of project package formats, translation file and translation memory exchange generally work well, but other package information such as terminology or settings data may not be transferable. With translation file formats there are also some limitations associated with particular elements, such as footnote structures in bilingual DOC/RTF files from Wordfast or Trados Workbench.
Terminology export also supports a configuration of the proprietary XML definition used by SDL MultiTerm.
Exchange formats.
memoQ supports a number of bilingual exchange formats for review and translation: