Poll: Do you have your own termbase with the terms you use/research in your work? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you have your own termbase with the terms you use/research in your work?".
This poll was originally submitted by Tomás Cano Binder, CT. View the poll results »
| | | | Allison Wright (X) 
Portugal
Local time: 09:38
| Yes, especially on longer projects. | Jul 5, 2011 |
It is a useful tool when fatigue sets in or when another job in a similar field comes across my desk.
It is nowhere near as organised as it might be, though.
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 10:38
Spanish to English
+ ...
I guess I'm just not professional in any accepted sense of the word. In anything other than translation of text per se, I am notoriously scatty and disorganised. My admin method could be summed up as "a wing and a prayer"...
I tend to keep interesting websites in my "Favourites" list, but never get round to classifying them, or any terminologies or glossaries I might have. I don't even know how to administer the one or two Wordfast glossaries I think I may have started somewhere, an... See more I guess I'm just not professional in any accepted sense of the word. In anything other than translation of text per se, I am notoriously scatty and disorganised. My admin method could be summed up as "a wing and a prayer"...
I tend to keep interesting websites in my "Favourites" list, but never get round to classifying them, or any terminologies or glossaries I might have. I don't even know how to administer the one or two Wordfast glossaries I think I may have started somewhere, and never seem to get round to finding out how to do that either... ▲ Collapse
| | | | Angus Stewart
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:38
Member (2011)
French to English
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I'm in the process of building a term base, as I encounter new terms. This should create efficiency savings in the longer term, as I won't have to look those terms up again. At the same time this will help me to become more organised and enhance the consistency of my translations.
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I keep several as simple tables in Word, supposedly with plans on transferring them to Multiterm, but they are really just as convenient as they are.
And invaluable!
'The Act is called...' Here I enter the official English titles of any Acts, Executive Orders etc. that I come across.
'The Drug is called ...' With registered names and the active ingredient, and possibly a note of whether the same registered name is used in the UK or that it is not.
... See more I keep several as simple tables in Word, supposedly with plans on transferring them to Multiterm, but they are really just as convenient as they are.
And invaluable!
'The Act is called...' Here I enter the official English titles of any Acts, Executive Orders etc. that I come across.
'The Drug is called ...' With registered names and the active ingredient, and possibly a note of whether the same registered name is used in the UK or that it is not.
Medical abbreviations... which I have been enormously grateful for. They are not all mine - I keep a careful eye on KudoZ and note them down too.
I have 70-80 pages of ministries, public departments and agencies, trade unions, organisations, universities and faculties, associations of every sort.
Some of these are 'historical', as the names are no longer current, but may turn up in translations anyway.
This comes into its own when I am asked to translate CVs - it can be quite a puzzle to find out what the various technical colleges and academies of art called themselves before they merged into something completely different...
Then there is the Terminology junk box, which is a chaotic 'yellow folder' on my computer. It contains lots of client glossaries and wordlists etc. that I have downloaded over the years. As a former librarian, I feel I ought to tidy it up, but in fact the 'Explore' function in Word is impressive, and finds safety regulations, tailoring terms, marine terminology, and specialist terminology on everything from glass and ceramics to poker!
These are all carefully backed up along with my TMs...
And if all else fails, I can always use them for KudoZ point grabbing ▲ Collapse
| | | | John Cutler
Spain
Local time: 10:38
Spanish to English
+ ...
I'd refer to them more as glossaries than termbases. I assume termbase has more to do with some program like TRADOS or Wordfast.
I've been building a glossary of pharmaceutical terms for the last 11 years. There's always something new to learn and add to it but, as others have mentioned, I tend to keep it in a Word document.
I also keep glossaries for other regular clients, especially the ones who use a lot of official names of agencies. If it weren't for these glossari... See more I'd refer to them more as glossaries than termbases. I assume termbase has more to do with some program like TRADOS or Wordfast.
I've been building a glossary of pharmaceutical terms for the last 11 years. There's always something new to learn and add to it but, as others have mentioned, I tend to keep it in a Word document.
I also keep glossaries for other regular clients, especially the ones who use a lot of official names of agencies. If it weren't for these glossaries, I wouldn't be able to remember from one time to the next how I translated the term. I, like Neilmac, haven't bothered to learn how to use the glossary feature in Wordfast, so for now my terminology will remain in simple tables in Word documents. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | The reasons behind the poll | Jul 5, 2011 |
Dear colleagues and nevertheless friends,
I suggested this poll several years ago. I am astonished it finally made it to the polls!
I think I asked this when I started to make the internal termbase in our team (using Multiterm). I found it so tremendously useful that I wanted to know how many people used the same approach.
I find that your own termbase (in whatever shape) is tremendously usef... See more Dear colleagues and nevertheless friends,
I suggested this poll several years ago. I am astonished it finally made it to the polls!
I think I asked this when I started to make the internal termbase in our team (using Multiterm). I found it so tremendously useful that I wanted to know how many people used the same approach.
I find that your own termbase (in whatever shape) is tremendously useful since:
- It allows you to document when and why you chose a translation for a new term, with useful reference information (law, a standard, a document on the matter from a respected research institute, a respected dictionary...)
- It allows you to avoid duplicate research: you only research once.
- It helps you keep track of terminology changes requested by your customer in previously translated materials, so you hit the nail all the time with the exact terminology they want and not accepted synonyms.
- It helps you quickly counteract bad/inconsistent editing by the end customers: when the end customer edited your term to something else several months ago and they edit it differently today, you can easily prove that you used the term they requested earlier, and your work cannot be considered in error.
- It allows you to create printed internal dictionaries with plenty of interesting information, for open-book exam situations, for instance.
It will be very interesting to see what the end result will be at the end of the day!
Thanks to all answerers! ▲ Collapse
| | | | isabelmurill (X)
Local time: 10:38
English to Spanish
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neilmac wrote:
I guess I'm just not professional in any accepted sense of the word. In anything other than translation of text per se, I am notoriously scatty and disorganised. My admin method could be summed up as "a wing and a prayer"...
I tend to keep interesting websites in my "Favourites" list, but never get round to classifying them, or any terminologies or glossaries I might have. I don't even know how to administer the one or two Wordfast glossaries I think I may have started somewhere, and never seem to get round to finding out how to do that either...
I recognize myself here!!! Same with admin method, paperwork, favourites list, and to this I will add backup copies, invoices and similar "very important matters".
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Thayenga
Germany
Local time: 10:38
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
I keep my terms in a pretty well organized Word document. At the same time, I'm beginning to create various "glossaries" for my clients in Word Fast. It comes in quite handy and saves a lot of time.
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neilmac wrote:
I guess I'm just not professional in any accepted sense of the word. In anything other than translation of text per se, I am notoriously scatty and disorganised. My admin method could be summed up as "a wing and a prayer"...
I tend to keep interesting websites in my "Favourites" list, but never get round to classifying them, or any terminologies or glossaries I might have. I don't even know how to administer the one or two Wordfast glossaries I think I may have started somewhere, and never seem to get round to finding out how to do that either...
My case is exactly the same as Neilmac, the only difference being the terminology notes and other details that I write on a notebook for every project. But I imagine he does the same, too!
| | | | m_temmer
Local time: 02:38
English to Dutch
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I have my translation memories and for my EU work there's IATE and Eur-Lex too. That's plenty for me.
| | | | Aude Sylvain
France
Local time: 10:38
English to French
+ ...
Yes, I maintain Termbases with MultiTerm and I find them incredibly useful.
While my initial aim was to avoid searching the same term several times and improve consistency, I now use these bases more and more, also, for one the other points Tomas cited, that is to keep tracks of specific customers' requirements with regards to terminology (accepted/'forbidden' terms).
For some clients, I would then work (in Studio) with 2 Termbases, the general one and the client-spe... See more Yes, I maintain Termbases with MultiTerm and I find them incredibly useful.
While my initial aim was to avoid searching the same term several times and improve consistency, I now use these bases more and more, also, for one the other points Tomas cited, that is to keep tracks of specific customers' requirements with regards to terminology (accepted/'forbidden' terms).
For some clients, I would then work (in Studio) with 2 Termbases, the general one and the client-specific one - and possibly a third one, topic-related.
[Edited at 2011-07-05 13:21 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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John Cutler wrote:
I'd refer to them more as glossaries than termbases. I assume termbase has more to do with some program like TRADOS or Wordfast.
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Termbases are essential for me as a technical translator.
I find terminology management one of the most useful features of CAT tools.
Adding terms easily and then inserting them directly, all within the Editor view improves my accuracy and my efficiency.
| | | | Reed James
Chile
Local time: 04:38
Member (2005)
Spanish to English
| Termbase, glossaries and websites | Jul 5, 2011 |
I have an extensive glossary I manage with Lingo. It is tab delimited so it is always ready to be "plugged into" any CAT software. I also save almost all web searches (e.g. KudoZ and Wikipedia) in Evernote. That way I can search my own private offline database instead of referring to the Internet every time.
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