is it worth bothering with MultiTerm? Thread poster: Andreas THEODOROU
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Hi all
One of my new year's resolutions was to master SDL Studio and MultiTerm. Previously, I had only been using Studio and admitedly not making use of all functinality on offer.
I have spent a lot of my free time and also work time in the last 2 weeks reading online help and this forum to learn how to fully use SDL Studio and Multiterm, and also playing around to understand their behaviour.
Yesterday, <... See more Hi all
One of my new year's resolutions was to master SDL Studio and MultiTerm. Previously, I had only been using Studio and admitedly not making use of all functinality on offer.
I have spent a lot of my free time and also work time in the last 2 weeks reading online help and this forum to learn how to fully use SDL Studio and Multiterm, and also playing around to understand their behaviour.
Yesterday, as posted on this forum I was importing Excel glossaries into Studio termbases and experiencing some bizarre problems.
Then, out of the blue, I was not able to open the termbase I had created the same day and which probably contained about 100 entries. This is the message I get when I try to open it:
"There was a problem opening the termbase at "C:/.." . Check that this is a valid termbase and that you have permission to access it."
So now I am wondering whether to continue persevering with MultiTerm. I have zero motivation to spend time maintaining termbases if I experience problems and/or they can become useless at the drop of a hat.
And judging from the threads on this forum, this is one seriously flaky program.
Can anyone give me a good reason to continue persevering with MultiTerm rather than using the tried-and-tested albeit low-tech Excel glossary ?
Andreas ▲ Collapse
| | | | Jerzy Czopik 
Germany
Local time: 14:39
Member (2003)
Polish to German
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| Of course it is | Jan 8, 2011 |
As you wrote yesterday you are able to import your Excel glossary into a new termbase created with the definition from the MT Convert process.
MultiTerm termbases are big help, especially in Studio, where they work together with the AutoSuggest feature.
| | | | Peter Linton (X)
Local time: 13:39
Swedish to English
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| MultiTerm pain and gain | Jan 8, 2011 |
MultiTerm is an excellent program, particularly for technical terminology. You can gain a lot by using it.
Unfortunately, creating a MultiTerm termbase can be a pain. But as Jerzy says, if you have an Excel glossary, you are halfway there, and it is worth the effort.
| | | | | Excellent tool | Jan 8, 2011 |
In terms of constancy, time saving, and better quality you will find MultiTerm as a great tool that you will never regret using it.
I used trados for years without MultiTerm, but after starting using it, I never stopped especially with big projects, and the ones that comes with many repeated terms.
Regards,
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Steven Capsuto
United States
Local time: 08:39
Member (2004)
Spanish to English
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| Absolutely yes | Jan 8, 2011 |
Two simple examples:
1) Last week I translated a highly technical 11,000-word text for a relatively new client who has no glossary yet. I spent hours researching the terminology, looking up terms as I translated the text and adding them to MultiTerm. As I worked my way through the source text, there was no need to try and remember which terms I had already researched: Trados alerted me every time they turned up. To speed up the translation process further, I also created MT entries ... See more Two simple examples:
1) Last week I translated a highly technical 11,000-word text for a relatively new client who has no glossary yet. I spent hours researching the terminology, looking up terms as I translated the text and adding them to MultiTerm. As I worked my way through the source text, there was no need to try and remember which terms I had already researched: Trados alerted me every time they turned up. To speed up the translation process further, I also created MT entries for long technical phrases that repeat in a lot of this client's documents. These are four- to seven-word phrases that I certainly know how to translate. However, by pulling them into my translation from MT as they cropped up in the text, I was able to work much faster and reduced the potential for typos.
2) When I started working for one of my major clients, they sent me a glossary of several thousand terms that their company uses often. It was in Excel format, with French in one column and English in the next. In the "olden days," I would have had to skim the glossary upon receipt and try to remember which source-language terms were in it; and then, while translating, I would have consulted the glossary only for words that rang a bell or that I couldn't figure out how to translate. Now, with MultiTerm, I just import the Excel spreadsheet and, as I translate, Trados alerts me any time one of the glossary terms pops up in the source text. Then I position the cursor where I want the term to appear and click a button to insert the term. And, of course, I can also add terms that aren't already in the client's glossary, and can document where and when I found them.
My only major complaint about MultiTerm (I'm using the 2007 version) is that it doesn't recognize that curly apostrophes and straight apostrophes are the same thing. When entering a source-language term that includes an apostrophe, I have to enter it in the termbase both ways to make sure it gets recognized. But that's a minor inconvenience compared to the time and effort the program saves.
[Edited at 2011-01-08 15:51 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Multiterm is very powerful, especially with autosuggest. You just have to learn to live with it, and disable java autoupdates!
| | | | Bill Harrison (X)
Local time: 13:39
Spanish to English
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I translate legal documents only. My experience is that there is no tool which replaces the nuances of language which only I can input. And the terminology is not that extensive.
I think this is not so much the case with technical translations however where a multitude of terms are much harder to remember.
So my answer would be probably Yes if you are a technical translator. No if you are a legal translator. Not sure about other areas of this fragmented and disorganize... See more I translate legal documents only. My experience is that there is no tool which replaces the nuances of language which only I can input. And the terminology is not that extensive.
I think this is not so much the case with technical translations however where a multitude of terms are much harder to remember.
So my answer would be probably Yes if you are a technical translator. No if you are a legal translator. Not sure about other areas of this fragmented and disorganized profession. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Aude Sylvain
France
Local time: 14:39
English to French
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| absolutely / apostrophe issue | Jan 9, 2011 |
I agree with everything that was said up to now.
It is a powerful tool and definitely more practical than the Excel method (in particular for Autosuggest and for the reasons outlined by Steven).
One more reason to use it might be that it recognises derived forms very well (singular/plural of course, but also similar words like administration/administrator, to take the simplest example).
@Steven,
Steven Capsuto wrote:
My only major complaint about MultiTerm (I'm using the 2007 version) is that it doesn't recognize that curly apostrophes and straight apostrophes are the same thing. When entering a source-language term that includes an apostrophe, I have to enter it in the termbase both ways to make sure it gets recognized.
I use Multiterm 2009 and work in EN-FR. I never met that problem with apostrophes. If you have the possibility to move to MT2009, this might be worth trying. I mainly use Studio, but MT2009 also works fine with Trados 2007 if that is your concern.
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Roy OConnor (X)
Local time: 14:39
German to English
| Well worth it, but here are one or two suggestions | Jan 9, 2011 |
Hello, Andreas
For years now I have been using many different versions of MT and Trados, putting up with the difficulties of the MT/Trados interface and largely finding my own solutions. It has ALWAYS been worth it. Using Trados without MT would be like typing with only one hand.
I have had similar problems as you with the latest setup (Studio and MT2009), especially with the terms in some termbases not being flagged up as recognised in the Studio editor and with import... See more Hello, Andreas
For years now I have been using many different versions of MT and Trados, putting up with the difficulties of the MT/Trados interface and largely finding my own solutions. It has ALWAYS been worth it. Using Trados without MT would be like typing with only one hand.
I have had similar problems as you with the latest setup (Studio and MT2009), especially with the terms in some termbases not being flagged up as recognised in the Studio editor and with imports apparently corrupting termbases in this way. In the end I bought some support from SDL. They suggested that I turn off UAC (I have Vista OS) and enter SDL Trados and SDL Multiterm as exceptions in my Kaspersky Anti-Virus program. Since then Trados has run vey reliably. I suggest you try this too, if you have a similar system configuration.
Also I suggest you try a very simple test termbase just with English and Greek and with just a couple of fields for the target terms. Enter a few terms manually and if they are recognised by the Studio Editor, try a small Excel import into the termbase. As has been pointed out already, it is very important to make sure you spell the fields correctly, i.e. as used in your termbase.
BTW, accordig to SDL it is very important to respecify the termbase as the one required (Add termbase) in the Studio TB settings, if you have made changes to the termbase, e.g. through imports, etc. Apparently this affects the fuzzy detection.
Hope this helps!
Roy ▲ Collapse
| | | | | thanks for responses | Jan 9, 2011 |
thanks for feedback
so I will persevere
| | | | Aude Sylvain
France
Local time: 14:39
English to French
+ ...
Bill Harrison wrote:
I translate legal documents only. My experience is that there is no tool which replaces the nuances of language which only I can input. And the terminology is not that extensive.
I think this is not so much the case with technical translations however where a multitude of terms are much harder to remember.
So my answer would be probably Yes if you are a technical translator. No if you are a legal translator. Not sure about other areas of this fragmented and disorganized profession.
Hi Bill,
I am not sure I agree with you here re legal. I am also specialised in Legal, and I do find MultiTerm extremely useful for legal works. MT may (and often will) miss nuances of course, but its only role is to suggest translations, it is up to the translator to decide whether these are correct/appropriate or not in the context concerned.
I enter as many details as needed in each MT entry (context, domain and sub-domain, source of the information, AE or BE etc.) and am quite pleased with the application in legal translations.
Same with financial translations.
I totally agree with you though that the more technical terms you have in your field, the more MT comes handy.
Have a nice day all!
| | | | S E (X)
Italy
Local time: 14:39
Italian to English
| I second Steven Capsuto's reasons for using MultiTerm | Jan 10, 2011 |
I work primarily with academic and literary texts and some corporate documents. MultiTerm is my favorite thing about Trados!
I use MultiTerm 2009, and in pretty much the same ways described by Steven Capsuto:
For academic and literary material, I use it to keep track of researched, specialized terms, including sources used and shades of meaning in my termbase entries.
For corporate documents, I use it to enter frequently used words and phrases so that I do ... See more I work primarily with academic and literary texts and some corporate documents. MultiTerm is my favorite thing about Trados!
I use MultiTerm 2009, and in pretty much the same ways described by Steven Capsuto:
For academic and literary material, I use it to keep track of researched, specialized terms, including sources used and shades of meaning in my termbase entries.
For corporate documents, I use it to enter frequently used words and phrases so that I do not have to type them over and over (and over). This speeds my work and makes the repetition in corporate documents less boring.
And for all of the material that I work on, I use MultiTerm to almost automatically ensure terminology consistency throughout the translation.
In the rare cases in which a client sends me a glossary, I feed this to MultiTerm for the same benefits described by Steven Capsuto: these glossary terms simply make themselves known to me throughout the translation process. It's great and especially useful when there are multiple glossaries to be used in hierarchical order (ugh)!
I have never had to import a really huge file into MultiTerm, and so my usage of it might be categorized as "light". But I find it a joy to work with and can't imagine going without it!
Ciao! ▲ Collapse
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