Terminology Database Concepts

A terminology database allows you to manage commonly used terms and phrases as well as terms and phrases that must be translated in a particular way (for example, a company tag line or feature name). Terminology databases are made up of multilingual entries, which have approved terms for specific languages.

You can use native WorldServer terminology databases (TDs) or MultiTerm terminology databases (termbases) to manage your terminology. Terminology databases are useful when you are working in a WorldServer translation workbench, where you can click the terminology database button for a particular segment to view applicable terminology database entries. This helps in translation consistency and efficiency.

Most of the operations described in the terminology database topics apply to both TDs and termbases. Those that require write access (adding a term, changing the status of a term, and so forth) are only available for WorldServer TDs from within WorldServer. To perform these operations for a MultiTerm termbase, you should access the termbase from within MultiTerm itself.

The following definitions must be understood when working with terminology databases, entries, and terms.

• A terminology database (sometimes known as a "term database" or "termbase") is an organized record of controlled vocabularies and, optionally, their standard translations.
• A terminology database entry is a collection of terms in one or more languages representing a single concept.
• A terminology database term is an element of a terminology database entry representing a single concept in a single language.
• An attribute provides additional information that can be attached to a term or term entry. Attributes have types like: “Text Field,” “Selector,” “Date,” and so on. Term and term entry attributes are defined on a global basis for terminology databases; however, when you create a terminology database, you can use attribute masking to determine which attributes apply to that terminology database.

You view termbases by navigating to the Tools > Term Databases page. Select a link in the Name column to see the individual Term Database: <TD> page. The WorldServer online help "Using Translation Memories and Terminology Databases" section describes how to perform the following activities.

• Use either a browse or search facility to find entries. From the search result set you can:
  • Delete selected entries
  • Delete all entries in the result set
  • Export all entries in the result set
  • Create a validation project for the terms or term entries in the result set
• Work with the status of individual terms within entries.
• Propose entries.
• Add entries.
• Import a Delimited File: Simple Format, a CSV: Advanced Format, a MultiTerm 5 format file, or TBX file.
• Export entries to a Delimited File: Simple Format, CSV: Advanced Format, a MultiTerm 5, or TBX file.
• Purge the terminology database, deleting all entries and history.
• Create a project for validating new and updated terms or term entries.