SDL MultiTerm 2007 - prepairing an Excel file for multiple source and target terms Thread poster: Sebastijan P
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Hello!
I have a question about preparing an Excel file for import to MultiTerm.
The basic structure is quite clear:
|EN|EN|DE|Comments|[various]|
Also if you try to add more than one English term or more than one target term, you insert columns in Excel and name them "EN" and you get a MultiTerm entry with more synonyms.
Is there a better way to to this? What if you have multiple source terms and multiple target terms + comments an... See more Hello!
I have a question about preparing an Excel file for import to MultiTerm.
The basic structure is quite clear:
|EN|EN|DE|Comments|[various]|
Also if you try to add more than one English term or more than one target term, you insert columns in Excel and name them "EN" and you get a MultiTerm entry with more synonyms.
Is there a better way to to this? What if you have multiple source terms and multiple target terms + comments and other info. Excel file becomes one big mess.
Any idea?
Thank you!
Sebastijan ▲ Collapse
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Jerzy Czopik 
Germany
Local time: 16:09
Member (2003)
Polish to German
+ ...
| Excel file is not what you want | Dec 4, 2008 |
but the termbase. So the Excel file is just means to get the termbase.
And I'm afraid there is no other way to get a well structured termbase as preparing an Excel file according to what you said.
Or you prepare more then one Excel file and create a proper import model for them.
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Sebastijan P
Slovenia
English to Slovenian
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TOPIC STARTER | Any workaround? | Dec 4, 2008 |
Jerzy Czopik wrote:
but the termbase. So the Excel file is just means to get the termbase.
And I'm afraid there is no other way to get a well structured termbase as preparing an Excel file according to what you said.
Or you prepare more then one Excel file and create a proper import model for them.
Thank you Jerzy for your answer!
So is there any workaround for this? I would Expect that Trados would prepare some kind of template for importing terms.
For example: Excelling MultiTerm from an Austrian company Kaleidoscope does a fine job but it's only for editing a TermBase not creating.
Limiting import to such simple layout is quite.. hm..lame?
Kind regards,
Sebastijan
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Jerzy Czopik
Germany
Local time: 16:09
Member (2003)
Polish to German
+ ...
| There is no general workaround | Dec 4, 2008 |
And TBH this is just a assistance method of creating a termbase, so be happy it is still possible instead of calling it somehow lame.
Or would you say creating a termbase from scratch is easier?
Now, to create a database structure you need, you must either create a database and fill it with data by hand (quite togh job I would say) or create a single Excel file with the necessary structure. Or you also could create multiple Excel files and use the import definition then to get them i... See more And TBH this is just a assistance method of creating a termbase, so be happy it is still possible instead of calling it somehow lame.
Or would you say creating a termbase from scratch is easier?
Now, to create a database structure you need, you must either create a database and fill it with data by hand (quite togh job I would say) or create a single Excel file with the necessary structure. Or you also could create multiple Excel files and use the import definition then to get them into you database.
Without knowing exactly what you are aiming to do no one will be able to give you a workaround for that. ▲ Collapse
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| lame or not lame? | Dec 5, 2008 |
I think Sebastijan's comment on lameness does reflect the views of many users of this forum. Importing from Excel in previous versions of Multiterm was simple, a matter of minutes. This summer I spent hours, no days, trying to import a mulitlingual Excel file into MT2007 and failed miserably, as did the fellow professionals who tried to help me, basically because the Convert utility is so fallible.
I work in IT myself, and can generally get any application to do what it claims to do. But ... See more I think Sebastijan's comment on lameness does reflect the views of many users of this forum. Importing from Excel in previous versions of Multiterm was simple, a matter of minutes. This summer I spent hours, no days, trying to import a mulitlingual Excel file into MT2007 and failed miserably, as did the fellow professionals who tried to help me, basically because the Convert utility is so fallible.
I work in IT myself, and can generally get any application to do what it claims to do. But this one defeated me! What hope does the translator with average IT skills have?
The situation does seem to reflect a lack of interest on the part of SDL, and I have read many comments especially - but not only - from freelancers who say they would love to use MT but do not because of the hassle involved. ▲ Collapse
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| a new niche perhaps? | Dec 5, 2008 |
following on from my previous post, it does occur to me that many translators may well be willing to pay for a service to convert glossaries from Excel to MT - I know that I would quite happily pay say 100 euros for someone with the knowhow to take it off my hands, and if it does only take a few minutes, then that is great money to be making...
Does anyone know of such a service (or would anyone like to have a go?)
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Sebastijan P
Slovenia
English to Slovenian
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TOPIC STARTER
Hi Anthony!
Yes, I agree with your comment.
And while we are on the subject.
I started as a freelance translator and was quite happy with CAT tools I used.
I moved to team translation/LSP level and every day I struggle with basic level of options CAT tools offer us. I knew I was not alone in this and I talked to other LSP and they all deal with the same problem: basic stuff works, the minute you try to do something more advanced with a tool, yo... See more Hi Anthony!
Yes, I agree with your comment.
And while we are on the subject.
I started as a freelance translator and was quite happy with CAT tools I used.
I moved to team translation/LSP level and every day I struggle with basic level of options CAT tools offer us. I knew I was not alone in this and I talked to other LSP and they all deal with the same problem: basic stuff works, the minute you try to do something more advanced with a tool, you hit a wall. And that is why so many LSP must employ an IT/programmer to work on API's for Trados. Unfortunately I have no programming skills and working with a programmer is a must for me .
The MultiTerm-Excel combo is a good example. It's fine if you compile your own glossary, with not a lot of terms and with not a lot of languages/synonyms. But what if you have tons of Excel dictionaries with 10.000+ entries and lots of languages. In this regard I find the Freelance/Professional/Server editions totally irrelevant and absurd price difference is in my opinion not acceptable (OK, this is off topic, I know).
I hope that in the future Freelance vs. Professional/Misc. will actually include something more for those not working on a freelance level.
Kind regards,
Sebastijan ▲ Collapse
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Sebastijan P
Slovenia
English to Slovenian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Kaleidoscope? | Dec 5, 2008 |
Anthony Green wrote:
following on from my previous post, it does occur to me that many translators may well be willing to pay for a service to convert glossaries from Excel to MT - I know that I would quite happily pay say 100 euros for someone with the knowhow to take it off my hands, and if it does only take a few minutes, then that is great money to be making...
Does anyone know of such a service (or would anyone like to have a go?)
Austrian company Kaleidoscope offer some MultiTerm Solutions e.g. Excelling MultiTerm. But it is only for editing and not adding/creating glossaries.
I talked with some CAT developers and it appears that with the new Trados Studio (coming out in mid 2009) full support for TBX will be available for MultiTerm which means that we *could* expect third-party add-ins for creating/editing termbases.
And also by-bye .ttx.
Kind regards,
Sebastijan
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Jerzy Czopik
Germany
Local time: 16:09
Member (2003)
Polish to German
+ ...
| I'm not an IT professional myself | Dec 5, 2008 |
but I can quite well convert an usuall Excel sheet with several hundred entries into a MT glossary within minutes.
Creating a billingual glossary from an Excel sheet with two columns takes maybe two minutes. The more complicated the structure the more time you need.
I think the truth is really somwhere in between. Neither are the tools good enough nor are our skills.
Thinking about one of the most popular programs worldwide - namely MS Word, can you say you are able to use it i... See more but I can quite well convert an usuall Excel sheet with several hundred entries into a MT glossary within minutes.
Creating a billingual glossary from an Excel sheet with two columns takes maybe two minutes. The more complicated the structure the more time you need.
I think the truth is really somwhere in between. Neither are the tools good enough nor are our skills.
Thinking about one of the most popular programs worldwide - namely MS Word, can you say you are able to use it in full? I'm quite certain no, most of us use only some 5% of all possibilities of Word. And those are very simple. If you start thinking about field codes or usage of VBA in Word, it stops to be easy. No, this is quite complicated - and without studying help files or manuals you will not be able to deal with those.
And really, I don't see a big difference to Trados (BTW, not only Trados - other CAT tools are by no means better - either you CAN use them or you have to learn, and not everything is easy). One should also be honest enough to admit, that using of Word is intuitive, because for what we use it basicaly is simple typing, and using Trados (CAT in general) is not easy anymore as we first need to get a grasp of what it is for and how it really works.
Same applies to Multiterm - when you buy a dictionary on CD-ROM, most probably you will be at once able to search terms in it. But will you also be able to use other functions? Maybe you will even not notice they are there... ▲ Collapse
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