Translation tools are the software programmes designed to translate text, as well as the CAT (computer-assisted translation) tools. Cat tools help human translators by providing translation memory, management of dictionaries, glossaries or terminology databases and several other aids.

Translation memory is a very useful feature of CAT tools. It identifies previously translated text segments, to avoid repetition of work and to ensure translation consistency. It accumulates all the original material as well as all that has been translated. Explained with technical words, it is a database where pairs of source and target language portions are saved.

As the translation work progresses, identical and similar passages are revealed by the memory, giving the translator the choice of using those segments exactly as they have been previously translated or to modify them.

Long documents often include many portions of identical text. Other features facilitate project management when many languages as well as translators are involved in the same job. Automatic correction and spell checking in various languages are features common to computer word processing systems such as Microsoft Word or WordPerfect that may also be part of CAT tools.