The ATA Chronicle - January/February 2023 - 34

RR
manner. A translation
memory stores whole
segments included in one
or several projects once
a linguist has confirmed
those segments. While
a termbase will show
preferred translations for
terms, a translation memory
will allow you to look
for previous translations
for whole paragraphs or
even for single terms or
expressions. Previous
translations may not always
be suitable for your current
needs, so the linguist will
have to decide. This decision
is based on the number of
previous entries that use the
same translation as well as
the context of each one.
Online Termbases in
Multilingual Projects
When you have different
translators working with
a termbase, most CAT
tools offer a setting that
allows you to moderate a
termbase from the moment
it's created. Moderating a
termbase means you have
to confirm any term entries
before they can be seen by
all the translators working
with that termbase. In
other words, you essentially
assume the role of a
terminologist.
As the old saying goes,
when you have too many
cooks in the kitchen things
can get messy eventually.
That's why it's strongly
recommended to use
moderated termbases
when working with several
translators, especially
if it's a large group, as
people will not only have
different preferences for
the translation of the same
term but will have a different
criterion as to which terms
should be added to your
termbase.
Figure 4: Entry ID Number field
Exporting Your Termbase
CAT tools allow you to export
your termbases. This is
useful because it allows you
to backup your termbase and
share it with other colleagues
who may be working
with different CAT tools.
Exporting also allows you to
quickly make changes to the
termbase outside the CAT
tool and import it back.
Exporting is particularly
useful when you're working
with several languages and
want to make many changes
simultaneously, as you can
quickly add, modify, or delete
all the information you want
and simply reimport it to
keep your termbase updated.
Always remember that if you
want to modify an existing
entry using this procedure,
you have to pay special
attention to the Entry ID (aka
Concept ID). (See Figure 4.)
Quality Assurance
One of the most powerful
uses of the termbase is
in conjunction with a
quality assurance (QA)
tool. These tools help us
automatically detect errors
in a translation. Most CAT
tools have an integrated QA
feature, but there are also
stand-alone tools, such as
XBench, Verifika, and QA
Distiller. These can be set up
according to your needs and
allow you to check things
such as the use of proper
punctuation, numbers,
spacing, consistency, and
terminology.
QA tools can be set to
show a warning if a term
from your termbase hasn't
been used. It can also be
configured so that it warns
34 The ATA Chronicle | January/February 2023
Quality Assurance
One of the most powerful uses of the termbase is in conjunction with a quality
www.atanet.org
http://www.atanet.org
The ATA Chronicle - January/February 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The ATA Chronicle - January/February 2023
