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How can I switch smoothly between default termbases?

Dan Lucas

It seems to me that SDL's conception of how termbases are used - i.e. as essentially static connections - does not reflect the fluidity with which translators can switch and shuffle termbases during the life of a project.

I translate a lot of materials in which the end client has very specific requests for what term to use for certain financial or engineering concepts. What this means is that I frequently want to save a term to a specific termbase that is not the current default termbase. For example, I might be in a situation (as I was just now) where I am operating with a company-specific termbase as default but I want to save a general financial term to my "general" termbase.

Currently the way I do this is to pick up the mouse, click on the Project Termbase Settings, select the termbase, click on the arrow button until it becomes default, click on the annoying (and for my purposes) pointless "language has changed" dialog box, click OK, add term, then go back through the whole procedure in reverse to change the default termbase to what it was before.

As I do this frequently it becomes a clunky and irritating operation that takes me right out of my translating flow.

I have two questions. First, are there any existing tools or plug-ins that allow me to switch termbases more quickly and easily?

Second, if no such tools exist, shouldn't there be something in Studio that allows this?

Essentially I'm envisaging of a ctrl-tab equivalent for termbases. You hit a key combination and a list of the project termbases pops up with the termbase after the current default selected, you either release the ctrl-tab equivalent key to select this (which becomes the default), or you keep hitting the hot key until you get the one you want, then release. Then you add your term and hit the ctrl-tab equivalent to return to the previous default. Vastly simplified over the current setup.

Oh, and we also need a setting to disable the popup warning of a language change. This morning I have three termbases, each Japanese/US English, but I get this warning every time they change. It serves no functional purpose in such a context.

Thanks,

Dan
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    Hi Dan,

    There are no tools that exist to support this and Studio doesn't support this in an easy way.  There are many reasons for this, not least the possibility for completely different termbase definitions and how they work with the terminology verifier.  The "fix" for this to be smooth and major change to the way the software currently works, and this I'm sure will happen in time.

    For now, I guess it may be possible using the terminology API to create a different mechanism for handling termbase, but this would need investigation and would not be trivial.

    So maybe the best solution I can think of for maintaining your translating flow is to use the Term Excelerator plugin so that you use Excel as your project termbase.  You can add terms quickly and easily and also add information about which termbase it is for to the term.  Then when the project is finished you just sort the spreadsheet by termbase and import the terms into their respective Multiterm termbases afterwards.  The Glossary Converter would make this very simple.

    You could also just create a project termbase to be the default and add a field for each of the additional termbases you have.  Then adding the term and selecting the appropriate field might be even faster.  Then at the end do the same thing, but export the multiterm xml using a filter to get the terms for each termbase separately.

    Hope that makes sense?

    Regards

    Paul

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

    ________________________
    Design your own training!
    You've done the courses and still need to go a little further, or still not clear? 
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    Hi Dan,

    There are no tools that exist to support this and Studio doesn't support this in an easy way.  There are many reasons for this, not least the possibility for completely different termbase definitions and how they work with the terminology verifier.  The "fix" for this to be smooth and major change to the way the software currently works, and this I'm sure will happen in time.

    For now, I guess it may be possible using the terminology API to create a different mechanism for handling termbase, but this would need investigation and would not be trivial.

    So maybe the best solution I can think of for maintaining your translating flow is to use the Term Excelerator plugin so that you use Excel as your project termbase.  You can add terms quickly and easily and also add information about which termbase it is for to the term.  Then when the project is finished you just sort the spreadsheet by termbase and import the terms into their respective Multiterm termbases afterwards.  The Glossary Converter would make this very simple.

    You could also just create a project termbase to be the default and add a field for each of the additional termbases you have.  Then adding the term and selecting the appropriate field might be even faster.  Then at the end do the same thing, but export the multiterm xml using a filter to get the terms for each termbase separately.

    Hope that makes sense?

    Regards

    Paul

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

    ________________________
    Design your own training!
    You've done the courses and still need to go a little further, or still not clear? 
    Tell us what you need in our Community Solutions Hub

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