Which GUI texts should be added to a glossary?

I want to make a glossary from the data of GUI texts already implemented in the product to make the translations consistent with the GUI texts.

The GUI data have both terms and sentences. And I wonder which entries I should include in the glossary.

One idea should be including only nouns/noun phrase in the glossary and sentences in a glossary.

 

But I have a concern about this policy. Some sentences that include a verb such as "Push OK" or "Delete" are very short and they are almost the same as the nouns/noun phrases.

 

They could be menu items in the GUI. Should I exclude these items? If I include "Next 5 (noun phrase)" and exclude "Delete (verb)" that are both in the same menu following the policy, it would sound not consistent.

 

Please let me know some best practice or your recommendation.

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  • Hi Paul,

    Now please let me add a specific example for my question.


    Suppose there is this GUI text on a Web application.

    "Install updates automatically"

    This GUI text is mentioned multiple times in a manual and we want to use the same translation consistently in the manual translation.

    Example:
    A: Please check if "Install updates automatically" option is on.
    B: If "Install updates automatically" option is off, you need to update the program manually following these steps.

    Do you think it's ok to add this GUI text "Install updates automatically" to some term base?

    Practically, having it in a term base should be useful to keep the translations consistent.
    If we have the entry "Install updates automatically" in a TM, it won't match any of sentences using the term since it is just a part of a sentence. And so, we won't be able to refer to it and use it to keep the translations consistent.

    But it is clear that the GUI text is not something to be called a terminology.

    Do you think it's ok to add it to some glossary, or do you have any alternatives to accomplish the same purpose without using a glossary?

    Thank you.

    Best regards,

    ImsorryDaveImafraidIcantdothat
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