Microsoft glossaries. The end? Thread poster: Oliver Walter
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Oliver Walter 
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:04
German to English
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A few weeks ago Microsoft put new versions of its multilingual glossaries on its FTP site:
ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/developr/msdn/newup/Glossary
The text file listing the filenames in the French glossary (and, I suppose, the others) says:
"Note: This is our last release to the general public of Microsoft's software string files (a.k.a "Microsoft glossaries") in... See more A few weeks ago Microsoft put new versions of its multilingual glossaries on its FTP site:
ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/developr/msdn/newup/Glossary
The text file listing the filenames in the French glossary (and, I suppose, the others) says:
"Note: This is our last release to the general public of Microsoft's software string files (a.k.a "Microsoft glossaries") in this format and at this FTP site. In the future, Microsoft intends to launch a Community Engagement Portal where members of the general public will be able to search for Microsoft terms and software strings and have the opportunity to engage with Microsoft terminologists and moderators on terminology and language quality matters."
To me, this implies that the glossaries will then not be available for download and we will have to search at the 'Engagement Portal' for each term that we are interested in.
If we complain about the ending of the downloadable-glosary to MS I imagine the reply (if any) will say it's because they are now too large. The French one is 88 MB and the German one is 103 MB.
However, the smallest ones are for Telugu, Albanian, Farsi, Kannada, Nynorsk, Punjabi and Urdu (about 1.5 MB each).
Oliver ▲ Collapse
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Puicz (X)
Local time: 01:04
Swedish to English
Hi Oliver,
I entered this on another posting: It would be nice if anagrams could be written out in full just once, so that everyone knows what is under discussion.
The person initiating a discussion is only like to get 20% feedback if people cant understand at a glance what a discussion revolves around.
(Unfortunately, I'm not as terminology savvy as I might be!)
Un saludo,
Mike
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Oliver Walter
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:04
German to English
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TOPIC STARTER | I largely agree. | Dec 10, 2005 |
Puicz wrote:
Hi Oliver,
I entered this on another posting: It would be nice if anagrams could be written out in full just once, so that everyone knows what is under discussion.
The person initiating a discussion is only like to get 20% feedback if people cant understand at a glance what a discussion revolves around.
(Unfortunately, I'm not as terminology savvy as I might be!)
Un saludo,
Mike
Hello Mike: As you've probably seen by now on the other forum where you posted, FTP is File Transfer Protocol. To a large extent that didn't matter for the real message of my posting, though I agree with you in liking to know the meaning of everything that is in a posting.
For the abbreviated names of Internet protocols, it's not so clear whether they should be written out in each posting. Would you want to see "HyperText Transfer Protocol" in each posting that has a HTTP URL (Universal Resource Locator)?
BTW if you feel so inclined, send me an email to say why you changed your "name" to puicz.
Oliver
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Hynek Palatin
Czech Republic
Local time: 01:04
Member (2003)
English to Czech
+ ...
I agree that people shouldn't post cryptic messages. But I believe that the meaning of FTP is quite obvious to those who use MS glossaries (ie. those who have something to say to the subject).
Oliver, thanks for pointing this out. I wouldn't have noticed the information. I guess we'll just have to see if the portal is useful and if the glossaries really won't be available for download.
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| Thanks Oliver | Dec 10, 2005 |
I hadn't heard about this new version. Now it's safely downloaded to my disk.
Thanks for the info,
Andrea
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Puicz (X)
Local time: 01:04
Swedish to English
Hi Oliver,
Your point taken about Http. I suppose it depends on how many fish in the technological pond you want to scoop, the minnows such as myself, or the carp (which doesn't stop me carping). But my point still holds: if people can't see at a glance what the topic is, they'll click on somewhere else in fickle cyberspace.
The puicz thing could remain a mystery....
Stay well,
Mike
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Puicz (X)
Local time: 01:04
Swedish to English
By the way Oliver, thanks for the Microsoft link. These Excel files could be useful if youre translating something with a heavy basis in technic al computer language. How do you use them yourself? They are pretty massive, all taken together. Do you put them together into one massive file?
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| I managed to break them down. | Dec 11, 2005 |
I converted them into text format using XGrep. I then managed to remove all the useless information with Powergrep. This was a long, drawn-out process, so I don't think I'll bother getting the new versions, as they probably haven't added that much.
I still have about 3 files of about 45Mb for French and Spanish. I do most of my glossary searching with Copernic desktop search. If one comes up from the Microsoft glossaries, it cannot be opened from within Copernic or from with Yahoo D... See more I converted them into text format using XGrep. I then managed to remove all the useless information with Powergrep. This was a long, drawn-out process, so I don't think I'll bother getting the new versions, as they probably haven't added that much.
I still have about 3 files of about 45Mb for French and Spanish. I do most of my glossary searching with Copernic desktop search. If one comes up from the Microsoft glossaries, it cannot be opened from within Copernic or from with Yahoo Desktop Search, but they can be opened fairly quickly by Wordpad (not Notepad), and then I can find it using the Find/Replace function.
[Edited at 2005-12-11 12:02] ▲ Collapse
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Oliver Walter
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:04
German to English
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TOPIC STARTER | They're not really so huge | Dec 11, 2005 |
Puicz wrote:
By the way Oliver, thanks for the Microsoft link. These Excel files could be useful if youre translating something with a heavy basis in technical computer language. How do you use them yourself?
I must admit I have very little real use for them at present. I assume they are the sort of thing a technical translator "must have".
They are pretty massive, all taken together. Do you put them together into one massive file?
Yes, they are in huge zip files. But, when you look at the contents of the zip file, it consists of a large number of (relatively) small files, one per "application" or program.
Example: in the German zip file, which is 103 MB in size and contains 234 files totalling 821 MB when unzipped:
* the largest file is 62 MB, and contains terms for WindowsServer2003SP1;
* the smallest is 46 kB, for the PortableMediaCenter;
* the file for WindowsXPServicePack2 is 54 MB, for Word 2003 it's 2.6 MB, etc.
Each of the terminology files is in "csv" (comma-separated value) format (for input to a spreadsheet program) explained in a text file that is included in the zip archive. They contain at least 5 columns of data:
source term, translation, string category, platform, productname
Best wishes from Oliver
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Luca Ruella
United States
Member (2005)
English to Italian
+ ...
FTP is such a common and widely-known term that it would be useless to write it in full. it would be like writing FBI or USA. No offence. I think we will end up looking up terms in the new microsoft tool as we currently do with EurodicAutom.
Doens't sound too bad to me.
Puicz wrote:
Hi Oliver,
I entered this on another posting: It would be nice if anagrams could be written out in full just once, so that everyone knows what is under discussion.
The person initiating a discussion is only like to get 20% feedback if people cant understand at a glance what a discussion revolves around.
(Unfortunately, I'm not as terminology savvy as I might be!)
Un saludo,
Mike
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Vito Smolej
Germany
Local time: 01:04
Member (2004)
English to Slovenian
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER | back to the point... | Dec 15, 2005 |
it looks like, when it comes to streamlining the localizing area. that , well, Microsoft had it. As Germans say "hat die Nase voll" - has the nose full. What can I say...
For me the message looks like "when it comes to the target localisation, from now on everybody to his own devices."
I actually do not mind, my bigger concern is keeping abreast of local shifts in the usage of alternatives.
What's the experience elsewhere so far?
smo... See more it looks like, when it comes to streamlining the localizing area. that , well, Microsoft had it. As Germans say "hat die Nase voll" - has the nose full. What can I say...
For me the message looks like "when it comes to the target localisation, from now on everybody to his own devices."
I actually do not mind, my bigger concern is keeping abreast of local shifts in the usage of alternatives.
What's the experience elsewhere so far?
smo
[Edited at 2005-12-15 20:45] ▲ Collapse
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aitteam
Ukraine
Local time: 02:04
English to Ukrainian
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Puicz wrote:
By the way Oliver, thanks for the Microsoft link. These Excel files could be useful if youre translating something with a heavy basis in technic al computer language. How do you use them yourself? They are pretty massive, all taken together. Do you put them together into one massive file?
Microsoft's glossaries aren't really glossaries. They contain software strings translated from English into other languages.
These are useful when translating texts making reference to text in Word or Windows or other Microsoft products.
It's possible, with some minor tweaking, to import them into e.g. a Trados translation memory.
Klas
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Oliver Walter
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:04
German to English
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TOPIC STARTER | Interesting product, but... | Dec 28, 2005 |
Vladimir Pedchenko wrote: You might consider using our tool WinLexic from http://www.winlexic.com for interpreting the glossaries or downloading them. We regularly update it to be compatible with new versions of Microsoft Glossaries.
It looks like a possibly interesting product for translators with a frequent need for the sort of information that is in the Microsoft glossaries. After a quick look at the "help" available on the product's web site, it seems to me that the help is not suitable for new users - it appears to be written for users who are already familiar with what it does and only need reminders of the details.
Even if that was not the intention, it is my conclusion.
Oliver
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