Translation - art & business » Translation Theory and Practice »
Best MS Office Tools for Creating Reference Cards/Glossaries?
Thread poster: Mark Edmundson
Mark Edmundson
Mark Edmundson  Identity Verified
Local time: 17:13
French to English
+ ...
Oct 19, 2005

Hi everyone
I have my own opinions regarding this but I am not particularly competent at using Microsoft Access and would like to know a little more about its capabilities. I have heard from fellow translators that Excel is used a great deal to creat glossaries. Given that this is primarily a numerically based program, I am a little baffled by this. What are the distinctive advantages and disadvantages in your opinion of using Word, Access, or indeed Excel?
 
Hynek Palatin
Hynek Palatin  Identity Verified
Czech Republic
Local time: 18:13
English to Czech
+ ...
Whatever suits you Oct 19, 2005

I have heard from fellow translators that Excel is used a great deal to creat glossaries.


That's right.

Given that this is primarily a numerically based program, I am a little baffled by this.


Many people use Excel simply as a huge table unrestricted by page dimensions. And table is usually all you need for a glossary. Word might be better if you need to use formatting. Access is too complicated for most of the users.

But the best tool to create a glossary is a CAT.
 
Vito Smolej
Vito Smolej
Germany
Local time: 18:13
Member (2004)
English to Slovenian
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
check non-Office alternatives Oct 23, 2005

What are the distinctive advantages and disadvantages in your opinion of using Word, Access, or indeed Excel?


Excel's line is a natural analogon of a dictionary entry - at the first glance at least -. What you would need however is two things:

A. dictionary contents
B. means to look the items up

Item A you would need to amass yourself - or have software do it for you. See MultiTerm extract sale in Tools just to get an idea what it costs (it does cost, either in money or in your time). Check also Wordfast.

Item B - with time you will start to hat the recurring steps you need to do to get at the suggestion for translation - whatever office tool you would decide for. And have a look at Cat Tools in any case - wordfast for instance -.

A hint: CDROM vocabularies have both A and B.


Regards


smo

[Edited at 2005-10-23 12:20]
 


To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator:

Moderator(s) of this forum
Maria Castro[Call to this topic]
Nawal Kramer[Call to this topic]

You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request »

Best MS Office Tools for Creating Reference Cards/Glossaries?







CafeTran Espresso
You've never met a CAT tool this clever!

Translate faster & easier, using a sophisticated CAT tool built by a translator / developer. Accept jobs from clients who use Trados, MemoQ, Wordfast & major CAT tools. Download and start using CafeTran Espresso -- for free

Buy now! »
TM-Town
Manage your TMs and Terms ... and boost your translation business

Are you ready for something fresh in the industry? TM-Town is a unique new site for you -- the freelance translator -- to store, manage and share translation memories (TMs) and glossaries...and potentially meet new clients on the basis of your prior work.

More info »