Low budget terminology tool Thread poster: langu2
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I am looking for a low budget terminology tool, any suggestions? I primarily need it for storing and collecting customer-specific terminology. It has grown to a size that Excel can no longer handle. Thank you!!
| | | | Michael Beijer 
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:53
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
| a few of the terminology tools available today | Jun 12, 2014 |
Hi langu2,
First of all, do you translate using a CAT tool? If so, I would actually recommend creating and using a glossary system built into your CAT tool. I used to have a separate terminology tool for my glossary (and still own a number of unused licences), but soon realised that it was annoying to have to keep switching to a second program to look up terms. Furthermore, it is very useful if your CAT tool is connected to your glossary, so it can tell you when there are any hits/m... See more Hi langu2,
First of all, do you translate using a CAT tool? If so, I would actually recommend creating and using a glossary system built into your CAT tool. I used to have a separate terminology tool for my glossary (and still own a number of unused licences), but soon realised that it was annoying to have to keep switching to a second program to look up terms. Furthermore, it is very useful if your CAT tool is connected to your glossary, so it can tell you when there are any hits/matches in the text you are translating. I am currently translating in CafeTran (http://www.cafetran.republika.pl/ ), e.g., which stores its glossaries in either simple tab-delimited text files or TMX files, so they can be as big as you like.
However, if you insist on using a separate tool, here are a few of the options out there (some of them cheap):
Local systems:
• T-Manager: (Microsoft Excel-based terminology tool, designed in Visual Basic) http://www.rafaelguzman.ie/resources/t-manager/index.php (free)
• ApSIC Xbench: http://www.xbench.net/ (€99/year; there is also a free non-UTF-8 version)
• AnyLexic (by AIT, the maker of TO3000): http://www.anylexic.com/en/ (€49)
• Lingo 4.0: http://www.lexicool.com/soft_lingo2.asp (€79.90)
• TermX Pro (by the maker of the GWIT dictionary): http://translex.co.uk/software.html + http://translex.co.uk/images/TermXPro.jpg (€79.95)
• tlTerm: http://tshwanedje.com/terminology/ (€120.00)
• MultiTes Pro (not sure what this is; might be interesting): http://www.multites.com/productsPRO.htm ($295)
Online systems:
• termbases.eu (online solution): http://www.termbases.eu/users/register/
• TermWiki (online system): http://en.termwiki.com/ ($9.95/user/month)(not sure I trust this company)
Hope this helps!
Michael
[Edited at 2014-06-12 21:42 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | "Real" Databases | Jun 12, 2014 |
I think the only realistic way to store huge numbers of lexicon/glossary items with additional information is using a DBMS. Lots of them are "free," like MySQL, SQLite, and H2, and lots of CAT tools can connect to them (like CafeTran, already mentioned by Michael) for search purposes. However, most CAT tools cannot use DBMSs for auto-assembly, so you'll need to convert the relevant parts of your Big One into TMX to... See more I think the only realistic way to store huge numbers of lexicon/glossary items with additional information is using a DBMS. Lots of them are "free," like MySQL, SQLite, and H2, and lots of CAT tools can connect to them (like CafeTran, already mentioned by Michael) for search purposes. However, most CAT tools cannot use DBMSs for auto-assembly, so you'll need to convert the relevant parts of your Big One into TMX to achieve AA. Avoid MS Access as it is limited to 2 GB.
Cheers,
Hans ▲ Collapse
| | | | ghislandi
Local time: 14:53
English to Italian
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Michael Beijer
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:53
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
| Reduced interoperability + increased layer of complexity due to DB language | Jun 14, 2014 |
Meta Arkadia wrote: I think the only realistic way to store huge numbers of lexicon/glossary items with additional information is using a DBMS. Lots of them are "free," like MySQL, SQLite, and H2, and lots of CAT tools can connect to them (like CafeTran, already mentioned by Michael) for search purposes. However, most CAT tools cannot use DBMSs for auto-assembly, so you'll need to convert the relevant parts of your Big One into TMX to achieve AA. Avoid MS Access as it is limited to 2 GB. Cheers, Hans
Although relational databases (such as MySQL, SQLite, etc) can be useful, keep in mind that using one will force you to learn its language as well as reduce the interoperability of your resources. A SQLite .db can only be opened in special programs, whereas a tab-delimited UTF-8 text file (such as this one) can be opened in all manner of tools: a simple text editor, Microsoft Word or a so-called CSV editor. You can’t just double click on your .db file and see its contents. You can only interact with it obliquely via, e.g., SQL queries, which can be very difficult to learn.
DVX2/3, for example, stores its resources in some form of relational database. I think it's an Access .db, and you can get at your data using SQL commands. However, it is also notoriously slow and many people wish Atrl had used another DB format.
Compare this with my main CafeTran glossary, which counts around 400,000 entries, many of which contain a ton of metadata, which is stored as a simple (25 MB) tab-delimited text file. I can work with this glossary attached to my CafeTran project with no slow-downs whatsoever. Furthermore, if I want to edit its contents all I need to do is right-click and open it in my CSV editor, which will present me with a beautifully clear, visual view of the data, very similar to how a file looks when opened in Excel. That is, I can filter and sort on columns and rows and do all kinds of cleaning and maintenance operations, all without having to learn anything about SQL or another .db language.
When it comes to translation memories and translation memory collections, however, I completely agree with Hans: a relational database is absolutely indispensable. There is simply no way to access and edit a TMX collection of 30,000,000 TUs without resorting to some kind of database. TMLookup (which uses an SQLite database) is a good example of what is possible with large TMX collections. It is even much faster than TMX handling in e.g. memoQ, DVX2/3, SDL Studio, etc. My TMLookup ‘default.db’ is 25GB on disk, but this doesn't matter: disk space is cheap these days and what matters is how blisteringly fast it is once loaded in the program.
So, in a nutshell, my recommendation would be:
• termbase: tab-delimited UTF-8 text file (under approx. 400,000 entries)
• translation memories: relational databases (virtually unlimited # of entries)
Michael
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 15:53
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| What do you want the tool to do? | Jun 14, 2014 |
langu2 wrote:
I am looking for a low budget terminology tool, any suggestions? I primarily need it for storing and collecting customer-specific terminology. It has grown to a size that Excel can no longer handle.
Do you use any CAT programs? What do you want the terminology program to be able to do? How do you normally look up words in the glossary? Do you also use the glossaries in an automated fashion to do quality checking? Do you mean that Excel can't handle it or do you mean that you struggle to handle it in Excel (i.e., how many entries are we talking about here)?
| | | | 2nl (X)
Netherlands
Local time: 15:53
| I avoid using databases with write-access | Jun 15, 2014 |
Michael Beijer wrote:
So, in a nutshell, my recommendation would be:
• termbase: tab-delimited UTF-8 text file (under approx. 400,000 entries)
• translation memories: relational databases (virtually unlimited # of entries)
Michael
I agree with Michael and would go one step further:
Personally I even avoid using databases with write-access. Database corruption is always a risk, as you can read here in recent postings in the Proz technical forums. So I let CafeTran (my CAT tool of choice) save the TM in TMX file format.
| | | | | db corruption | Jun 15, 2014 |
2nl wrote:
I agree with Michael and would go one step further:
Personally I even avoid using databases with write-access. Database corruption is always a risk, as you can read here in recent postings in the Proz technical forums. So I let CafeTran (my CAT tool of choice) save the TM in TMX file format.
I wonder how often that really happens. When I was writing TMLookup, I read some of the specs and features on the SQLite db engine, and from what I've read it's pretty much impossible for the db to get corrupted. In some rare cases, you may lose incomplete updates (i.e. if your computer crashes halfway through an operation you'll be left with the db as it was before the operation). That's about it. The death of your hard drive is much more likely than spontaneous db corruption. Of course other CATs might use more fragile database formats or do some crazy/silly things with their dbs that make this a more real danger.
As to the OPs question, hard to tell until he specifies his needs/preferences. If he uses a CAT, it would be best to go with the built-in tool. If not, TMLookup and Xbench are free options and they can handle millions of entries, with fairly sophisticated search features. Adding entries one by one is not that convenient in either tool, though. Xbench is better than TMLookup in this regard, so I would recommend xbench. If you set up tab separated text files that are auto-updated, it's easy to add new terms. Not as convenient as MultiTerm for Trados users, but not bad.
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2nl (X)
Netherlands
Local time: 15:53
| | Databases and databases | Jun 16, 2014 |
2nl wrote:
For instance, this recent posting:
I don't think that in this case, the poster is referring to a DBMS but to an XLIF "database." The word "database" can be used for many formats, which is why I prefer DBMS for "real" databases.
Cheers,
Hans
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