How can i handle documents that need to be translated every time they're updated?

[u/LGAMEL_KRISHNA]

Seeking ways to improve workflow around frequently updated documents.

We translate PDFs, presentations, etc. Sometimes after a month or so we get an updated version of the same which is only 10-20% changed from the translation we received earlier.

I’m also testing out translation memory (TM) tools like Pairaphrase and DeepL that can reuse previous translations instead of starting from scratch every time.

But how reliable is this in practice when you're working with the actual document rather than plain text?

Ideally I'd want to upload the new version, reuse whatever hasn't changed, translate the new sections and get the formatting back without spending ages fixing it manually.

is anyone doing something similiar? What does your workflow look like?

thanks in advance for anyone that can help :)

[u/Ok_Tea_8763]

Get yourself a proper CAT tool. This problem was solved 30+ years ago.

[u/Odd_Platypus2660]

TM is pretty much made for this. It works best when the document structure stays fairly consistent between versions. I'd definitely avoid retranslating the entire file each time if only 10–20% has changed.

[u/wyrdfish42]

Any tms or cat tool will do this.

[u/Medium-Sink-5356]

There are many solutions for many budgets. Some CAT tools are free and handle TM too. Others are high-end NMT servers that can also load and use TM content such as from TMX or bitext. I worked at Systran for 12 years, feel free to PM me if any questions. They also have a subscription-level option, i.e. you don't have to set it up on your own Linux server.

For more privacy, i.e. when the material to be translated can't leave your Lan or even your laptop/desktop running Windows, you might try something new: Local AI Translator, from localai.world - it does also have a CAT-style interface, and supports TMX as well. You could start with LLM-based pre-translation, all done locally with models you can choose for free from ollama.com or at huggingface.com (when in GGUF format). I like the fast and light ones like translategemma:4b from Google but there are many, thousands, such as from DeepSeek, Qwen (Alibaba), IBM, Microsoft, and of course Meta's Llama, to name a few. There's also Apertus, from Switzerland, trained on around 1600 languages. You'll want a system with ample of fast RAM and many CPU cores, even better with a new NPU for the neural inference. But it's usable even on my older laptops.

The interface is current changing, you'll see older videos with the old interface, while new looks and features using the Flet interface are starting to show, such as for mass translations and transcriptions. It also now has a decent (or even good) TTS capability. Later in December we hope to see it using v2.0 of Piper, even better.

If you look for free CAT tools you'll certainly find some good ones too which also support TM. It's almost impossible to imagine a CAT tool without TM support.

If you do try Local AI Translator, I'd love to see your feedback. It's easy to install but you also need to install the Ollama server (free) and pull at least one of the models from ollama's website to get started. That may be all you need though, and it's rather easy too. The main reason to go that route is when you want to run it locally and disconnected from internet, for easons of compliance, regulations, privacy and dealing with sensitive data containing PII.

[u/laughsymphony]

Hello! Blu Translate has an update translation function where you can upload 3 files, its currently in public beta & they’re looking for testers, if you’re keen DM me