SDL MultiTerm

SDL MultiTerm

Developer(s)	SDL Language Technologies
Stable release	SDL MultiTerm 2014 / September 30th 2013
Operating system	Windows
Type	Terminology Management
License	Commercial
Website	www.translationzone.com

SDL MultiTerm is a terminology management tool providing one solution to store and manage multilingual terminology.

History

MultiTerm was launched in 1990 by Trados GmbH^[1] as a terminology database for translation professionals. Trados was acquired by SDL in 2005,^[2] with MultiTerm being renamed SDL MultiTerm.

About SDL MultiTerm

SDL MultiTerm Desktop is the desktop terminology management tool from SDL. It can be used by translators and terminologists as a standalone desktop tool to manage all your terminology, or it can be integrated with SDL Trados Studio to increase translation productivity and accuracy.

Features

SDL MultiTerm allows the user to:

• Customize termbases with descriptive fields to provide more information about the term^[3]
• Insert digital media files and hyperlink to URLs to terms in the termbase^[4]
• Store an unlimited number of terms in unlimited languages
• Import and export terms from different technology environments, such as Microsoft Excel,^[5]
• Integrate with SDL Trados to improve translation consistency^[6]

Components of SDL MultiTerm

• "MultiTerm Desktop"

MultiTerm Desktop is a database application that allows the user to create, manage and present terminology. Terms can be added and searched in a wide variety of languages, allowing for consistent use of brand terms.

• "MultiTerm Extract"

MultiTerm Extract is a tool used to create glossaries of terminology using existing translated documents. The software does this by using a statistical algorithm to examine the frequency of terms at a sub-segment level.^[7] This allows translators to build project glossaries without having to manually search for the terms.

• "MultiTerm Widget"

MultiTerm Widget is a lightweight application designed that allows you to highlight a word from any application on your desktop and retrieve its meaning and translation immediately from your project glossaries and translation memories.^[8]

System requirements

SDL MultiTerm 2015 Desktop is a Unicode application and can therefore be used only on Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 10. SDL recommend at least a Pentium® IV-based computer with 1 GB RAM.^[9]

Criticism

Entering terms individually is a time consuming process.^[10] This is somewhat circumvented by the use of MultiTerm Widget to pre-build the glossary. Contrary to certain claims, the TBX interchange format (ISO 30042:2008) is not supported. Support for terminology relations is primitive.

External links

• www.translationzone.com - Official MultiTerm website

References

1. "History of SDL Language Technologies". Retrieved 2012-10-09.
2. "History of SDL Language Technologies". Retrieved 2012-10-09.
3. Esselink, Bert. A Practical Guide to Localization. p. 380. ISBN 9789027219565. Retrieved 2012-10-09. In addition to entering equivalents, a user can enter a variety of user defined attribute fields or graphics in the records...
4. Hacken, Pius ten. Terminology, Computing and Translation. p. 227. ISBN 9783823361374. Retrieved 2012-10-09. It is also very easy to insert graphics into the termbase.
5. Fox, Jayne. "Trados Users: Why bother learning how to use MultiTerm". Retrieved 2012-10-09. If you have a glossary in Excel, you can also convert and import this into MultiTerm, so that the terms will be recognised as you translate within Trados. Again, it’s very easy to insert the terms into your translation.
6. Fox, Jayne. "Trados Users: Why bother learning how to use MultiTerm". Retrieved 2012-10-09. However, a good termbase is a great asset and can save a lot of time. Once it’s set up it’s easy to add terms as you translate. If any of the saved terms are in the source text, MultiTerm will recognise these and display them for quick insertion into the target text. This means that the terminology in the translation will be consistent, increasing the translation quality.
7. Omar, Che; Haroon, Haslina; Ghani, Aniswal Abd. The Sustainability of the Translation Field. p. 366. ISBN 9789834217969. Retrieved 2012-10-09. SDL MultiTerm Extract makes use of a statistical extraction method to determine the frequency of the appearance of candidate terms.
8. "SDL MultiTerm 2009 Widget - Software Informer". Retrieved 2012-10-09.
9. "SDL MultiTerm Desktop for Translators". Retrieved 2012-10-09.
10. Hacken, Pius Ten. Terminology, Computing and Translation. p. 222. ISBN 9783823361374. Retrieved 2012-10-09. Entering terms individually into TRADOS MultiTerm IX is a very laborious process.