Understanding Terminology

Question

Hi guys ... I still have to understand how to enter my data in Studio and how to use them ... 
 If I have an excel file like this With english abbrevaition in the first column, then english, italian and russian ... 
 ... well ... What should I do with this? What's the best way to su it ? 
 I can build a termbase, of course ... But what then if ... If I have the same file with longer sentences ... Can I use it to build a TM? Or a TB in the same way? 
 Should I build a TermBase? A Glossary? A Translation Memory? I know that TM are for sentences more, and TermBases for acronimes, words etc ... But, still don't understand very well how to organize my past translations to build a really good DB ... Thank You in advance. Pietro

Christine Bruckner · Accepted Answer

Hi Pietro, hi Paul, 
 I would use both, as Paul suggested: 
 - convert the Excel file into a MultiTerm termbase using Glossary Converter. You might want to do some cleanup before, like moving comments in () to a separate column 
 - import the English and Italian columns from the Excel file into a separate reference TM, using the Bilingual Excel file type in Studio. See also my article &bdquo; Tips and Tricks: Hidden features in SDL Trados Studio " (section &bdquo;The Bilingual Excel File Type") in Jost Zetsches Toolbox from Sept 2019. 
 Good luck! 
 Christine

Greta Magyar · Answer

Hello PIETRO SFERRINO

Indeed, termbases are multilingual, so you can have EN-IT-RU in your termbase and then you could use that termbase in translations with all combinations of these 3 languages (they don't have a direction).

Translation memories are bilingual, with a direction, so the EN-IT memory you create can be used only for EN-IT translations (by default, but if you add it as AnyTM then this restriction does not apply).

As for the termbase coversion:
In case you would like to columns with further details, so next to the column with the Italian terms you'd like to add an explanation for the terms, the Excel file needs to be modified further:
- Add >>L<< before the language name
- Add >>T<< before the other headers containing textual information
- The order of the columns should be: language > corresponding details in column > language 2 > corresponding details in column, like below:

Excel spreadsheet showing a termbase conversion with columns labeled in English, French, and Hungarian, including terms and their corresponding details.

As for synonyms, you can add them with the sign " | " between them:
Excel spreadsheet showing a column with English terms and their synonyms separated by a vertical line.

Hope this helps?

Best wishes,
Greta

Greta Magyar · Answer

This Excel file would definitely have to be cleaned up indeed.

So as for the first page, you would have to merge the columns per language.

You could use the Excel function =CONCATENATE
So here taking row 8 on your first picture as example, I understand B8 and C8 are synonyms, you into a new column, or a new page you could merge them with the following equation:

=CONCATENATE(B8," | ",C8)

And the end result will be:

colecisti | cistifellea

So it's joined as follows: B8+a space, a divider, a space+C8
And by the end of this cleanup you would have two columns, English with all the EN terms and an Italian column with all the ITA terms.

On the second page, this would be a bit more manual I think.
They would definitely have to be added to different columns, and the corresponding explanation in the next.

So:
Screenshot of an Excel file with columns labeled for English and Italian terms, showing the need to merge synonym terms using CONCATENATE function.

Please note the headers. >>L<<English means that this is the column containing the English language terms, >>T<<Explanation means that this is extra detail, in text form, to be added to the terms
- this is how the Glossary Converter will understand it correctly.

Please let me know if anything is unclear.

Greta Magyar · Answer

I fully agree with the powerfullness of termbases! 
 You can absolutely start with a new, empty TM and TB. 
 Just a quick overview of the two, as it might be best to see the difference between them: - The TM contains previously translated text in the form of sentence pairs. Each time you click into a segment in Studio, it will automatically look up whole the source segment in the TM to see if you have it in the TM, or something similar. So this works on a segment by segment basis, and it's automatically updated; each time you confirm a segment in the Editor it will be saved into the memory. This is your most important resource so you can build on your previous work, through instant reuse. 
 - The TB however is more of a consulting resource, not for instant reuse necessarily. It contains terms in different languages (in entries) and next to each term you can add further details, such as images, context information, status, to help you better define your terminology. For this you will need SDL MultiTerm. Each time you click into a segment in the Editor, Studio will look up the individual terms one by one in your termbase, and will show you in the Term Recognition window what is available, if you have a match. It will NOT be automatically inserted, you will have to decide to insert the term (you can use AutoSuggest for that, if you start typing the term Studio will offer you the rest and you can insert it with Enter). Therefore the termbase is not updated automatically as the TM. If you would like to add a term, select the source term, and also highlight its translation in the target segment, and then right-click on either and select 'Add New Term', which will add the term and its translation into the termbase, so you can reuse it instantly. 
 
 So you can absolutely start with empty TM and TB, and gradually add to it while working. You can use several TMs and TBs for each project. For TMs, you can decide which TMs you would like to update while translating (tick or untick the Update column in project settings), but as for termbases, the first TB in the list will be the one always updated, so but the TB in first in the list you would like to add your terms to. 
 You can create and manage TMs in Studio, and you can create TBs in Studio too, but to manage them like above, import and export content and so on you would need MultiTerm. 
 
 Best, Greta

Paul Filkin · Answer

PIETRO SFERRINO 
 PIETRO SFERRINO said: If I have an excel file like this With english abbrevaition in the first column, then english, italian and russian ... 
 For this I would use a termbase. You could add the acronymns as synonyms and also add a field definition to be clear about what each column is for. However, your abbreviations look more like autocorrect abbreviations to help with faster entry as opposed to real abbreviations. What did you enter the abbreviations for in the first place? 
 PIETRO SFERRINO said: I can build a termbase, of course ... But what then if ... If I have the same file with longer sentences ... Can I use it to build a TM? Or a TB in the same way? 
 Yes you could. Convert to TMX and then upgrade it in Studio. Longer sentences are probably better in a TM. 
 Maybe some of the guys in here who do a lot with terminology could offer better advice... Christine Bruckner , Alison Field , Jerzy Czopik , for example. I know there are a lot more users expert in this field so feel free to chip in...

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Understanding Terminology

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