Termbases are a great way to boost the number of matches you get from your TMs by storing terminology and other chunks of text that appear inside various segments in different contexts, and do not therefore always produce a match from the TM. Termbase matches are recognized and displayed automatically by SDL Trados Studio without the need to search, and you can insert them into your target segment at the press of a key or button. Termbases are created in SDL MultiTerm, which is the terminology component of SDL Trados Studio.
To get the best out of MultiTerm, it is a good idea to familiarize yourself with the way it organizes terminology before you start using it.
Some translators use termbases to store and instantly match not just terminology per se, but any string of text that appears frequently in different segment contexts, whether it is a common collocation or a technical term. This is not the traditional approach to using termbases, but it can speed up your work by helping you to avoid retyping text strings that occur frequently in the material that you are translating.
Unlike file-based TMs, MultiTerm termbases can include more than two languages. When you select a termbase for use during translation, SDL Trados Studio will automatically pick out the language pair that matches your bilingual document. You do not need to specify sublanguages. For example, the termbase language French will give termbase matches for bilingual documents whose language is either French (France) or French (Canada).
In a MultiTerm termbase, a field containing meta-information about terms, such as a definition, note, or examples of usage, is referred to as a descriptive field.
Descriptive field information can be added to term entries and displayed back on three levels known as entry classes, shown in the following screenshot, and explained following the screenshot. This knowledge is indispensable when you create and interact with a termbase.
The entry classes in MultiTerm term entries are as follows:
- Entry level: Information that applies equally to all of the languages and all of the terms (including any synonyms) in the entry. In our example, the field Subject is assumed to be the same no matter what the language, and to apply equally to any terms and their synonyms that appear in the entry, so that the subject Business covers all of the terms under both English and French, and any other languages.
- Language (or index) level: Information that applies to one of the languages, including any synonyms in that language, but not to the other languages. The information under English in the Notes field applies to both English synonyms, but not to the French entry.
- Term level: Information that applies to a particular term but not to its synonyms. The English synonyms working group and working committee have been given different statuses to guide translators as to which term to use.
This section takes you through the process of creating a simple termbase in MultiTerm, focusing on the key knowledge required at each stage.
To create a termbase in MultiTerm, perform the following steps:
- To open MultiTerm on Windows 7, choose Start | All Programs | SDL | SDL MultiTerm 2014 | SDL MultiTerm 2014 Desktop (or double-click the icon on your desktop). On Windows 8, click the SDL MultiTerm Studio 2014 icon on the desktop or the Metro screen.
- In MultiTerm, choose File | New and, on the right, click Create Termbase (or press Ctrl + Alt + T from anywhere else except the File tab) as shown in the following screenshot:
- When prompted, save the termbase under an appropriate name and folder with the extension
.sdltb, and then, in the Termbase Wizard, click Next. - In the Termbase Definition screen, you will choose a termbase definition. This defines the structure of the termbase (including what languages, descriptive fields, and entry classes the termbase contains, and how they interrelate). Choose Create a new termbase definition from scratch, as shown in the following screenshot:
- In the Termbase Name screen, type a Friendly Name. This is the name by which the termbase will be displayed later when you select it in SDL Trados Studio and MultiTerm, so make sure it identifies your termbase properly. It is generally a good idea to use the same name as the one that you entered as the filename for the termbase.
- In the Language Fields screen, add the desired languages by choosing a language in the list and clicking Add, as shown in the following screenshot. Repeat this process for each language that you want to add, and then click Next.
- In the Descriptive Fields screen, add the desired fields. In our example, we add a Notes field to allow us to freely add any desired information about the entry, and a Subject field that will contain a predefined list of subject areas, as shown in the following screenshot:
To create a field for entering any desired text: Under Field label, type the name of the field (such as
Notes) and click Add. Descriptive fields are set, by default, to have the data type Text, which means that you can type in any combination of text, numbers, or other characters in that field when you create term entries later on.To create a predefined list: Under Field label, type the name of the field (such as
Subject) and click Add. On the right, select the name of the newly added field and click Properties. From the Data type list, choose Picklist. To add a new item to the picklist, click the green plus symbol button, double-click in the first row below Picklist, type a name for the item (such asBusiness), and press Enter, as shown in the following screenshot. Repeat this process for each item that you want to add. When you add another entry to this list, you will not need to double-click in the row, as the cursor will already have moved down ready for you to type the next entry.
- Click OK to return to the Descriptive Fields screen. When you have set up all of the desired descriptive fields, click Next.
- In the Entry Structure screen, shown in the following screenshot, you will decide the level at which you want your descriptive fields to be available to add and display information. On the right, in the Available descriptive fields pane, select a descriptive field. On the left, in the Entry Structure pane, select the desired entry class, and click Add. If you have placed a descriptive field at the wrong level and want to remove it, select the descriptive field on the left-hand side and click Remove to move it back to the Available descriptive fields pane.
In the example in the following screenshot, the Notes field has been added at all three levels, and the Subject field at Entry level only. See the preceding section, Essential information about MultiTerm termbases, for the logic behind these choices.
- If you are adding a picklist field, you can choose whether or not to allow the selection of multiple options from the list (for example, if a term belongs in both Business and Medical subject areas). Under Entry structure, select the name of the field, and then, under Field settings, select Multiple. Otherwise, you will only be able to select one picklist option when adding entries to the termbase.
- In the Wizard Complete screen, click Finish to create the termbase.
To modify your termbase definition after creation, such as if you want to add more languages, or new options to a picklist, you must open the termbase in MultiTerm.
In MultiTerm, choose File | Open Termbase (Ctrl + O), and at the bottom left, click the Termbase Management button shown in the following screenshot:
In the Catalog Categories window shown in the following screenshot, under the name of the termbase, select Definition, and then from the Home tab or right-click menu, choose Edit:
This opens a wizard similar to that used to create the termbase. Follow the wizard and make your changes.