How-To

Create a custom TM from an empty Translation Memory

The most efficient way to generate a Translation Memory is to upload an empty TMX file. MyMemory will process the segments in the Translation Memory just like your CAT tool would. This will let you get more accurate matches when translating with your favorite computer assisted translation tool.

Creating an empty TMX file with Trados

An empty Translation Memory is a TMX file which only contains the source text both in the source and target fields.

Empty translation memory
Each translation unit contains the same text both in the source (EN-US) and target (IT-IT) field.

It can be easily created using the Analyze feature in TRADOS Translator's Workbench:

  1. Launch TRADOS Translator's Workbench
  2. Click on Tools and select Analyse...
  3. In the window that opens up, click on Add... and add the files to translate
  4. Click on Analyse
  5. Once the analysis is finished, click on Export Unknown Segments... To get better results, you should change the match value from 85% to 99%.
  6. Save the exported unknown segments in a TMX file.

Export unknown segments

Filling your empty TMX file with MyMemory matches

  1. Log in to MyMemory from https://mymemory.translated.net
  2. Click on Download a TMX and a pop-up window will open.
  3. Choose a name for your Translation Memory, select the empty TMX to upload, the source and target languages and the subject of your document.
  4. You can choose to use only your own Translation Memories and to use Machine Translation for segments which have no matches.
  5. Click on Create memory.

Get a translation memory from an empty TMX

MyMemory will start processing your TMX file. You can check the status under the History tab. When your Translation Memory is ready, MyMemory will send you an email alert.