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Termbases

A termbase is a database containing terms and term-related information. The terms may be single words or short phrases in multiple languages representing industry or company terminology.

Use MultiTerm to edit termbase definitions, back up, reorganize and encrypt local termbases. For server-based termbases useMultiTerm Administrator, which is delivered as part of Trados GroupShare.

When you create a termbase, you have to specify:

  • Which languages the termbase supports
  • What data you want the termbase to hold
  • How termbase fields are organized to create termbase entries

All of this information is stored in the termbase definition. Once a termbase has been created, you can edit the termbase definition and save it to an *.xdt file that can be shared with other users.

Termbase types
Termbases can be local or server-based:
  • A local termbase is one that you create on your own computer for your own personal use.
  • A server-based termbase is one that is created on a server computer. These are termbases that can be shared by several users and can only be created by MultiTerm Administrator.
Termbase data
MultiTerm is a concept-oriented system, which means that each termbase entry corresponds to a single concept. A single termbase entry contains all the terms that describe a concept, as well as any additional information associated with that concept, for example, a definition. You can specify terms in any number of languages for each concept.
Termbase languages
Most termbases contain terminology data in a range of different languages. Each time you open a termbase in MultiTerm, you specify which language you want to use as the source language.

MultiTerm uses the specified source language terms to sort and search the termbase contents. Because termbase languages are used in this way, they are referred to as termbase languages.

When you are browsing, searching, importing or exporting terms you can specify both a source and target language. Your language selections determine:
  • The order of languages in the Entry pane
  • The terms returned by searches
  • The terms included in import and export processes

When you are searching a termbase, you can search for terms using any of the languages used in the termbase.

Termbase structure
Termbases are structured using:
  • Termbase definition
  • Termbase entries
  • Levels and fields for termbase entries
  • Termbase objects
Termbase definition
This specifies the number and type of termbase fields that are present in each termbase entry. It also defines:
  • The level at which fields appear in an entry
  • Field settings (for example, whether a field is mandatory)