To lend ease in translation customization, SYSTRANLinks offers a complete
Dictionary Manager, thereby providing a means for improving translation results
through the formation of multilingual user dictionaries. User dictionaries are
user-created collections of subject-specific terms that are analyzed prior to
being integrated directly into the translation process.
To adapt translations to specific terminological needs, it is possible to:
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Reserve words that should not be translated: DNT entries
(Do Not Translate). DNT entries are used to circumvent the translation of
company names, proper names, locations, trademarks or any titles or expressions
that should not be translated.
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Create multilingual entries to modify current
translations by giving equivalencies or adding new words. You can give a
technical equivalent for a general word, define the specific meaning of a word
with multiple possible translations, or add words that are not part of
SYSTRAN's standard dictionaries (Not Found Word).
Creating a new user dictionary is the first step towards translation
customization. To create a new dictionary select "New" in the "Dictionary"
menu. You will then need to give a name to the dictionary. This name should be
chosen to reflect its terminological content. Eventually you will be asked to
choose the type of the dictionary, which will depend on how you wish to manage
its content:
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Mono-target entries: this type of dictionary is appropriate when the terminology
for each language is independently managed by different persons. Dictionary
content is entered as bilingual entries. For example there is a set of entries
for English to French, another for English to Spanish, etc.
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Multi-target entries: this type of dictionary is the recommended one. It is
appropriate when the terminology is managed in a more organized and centralized
manner. It reduces the required amount of user input as there is a set of
entries per source language and not per language pair. For example there is one
single set of entries for English to French, Spanish and German instead of one
for English to French, another for English to Spanish and yet another for
English to German.
A dictionary belongs to
one owner and
one
group. It is readable by every member of the group but it can be modified only
by its owner or by the group administrators.
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Our free service is limited to 2 dictionaries per user whereas SYSTRANet
Corporate has no such limitation.
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If several user dictionaries have been created,
you need to "Open" a dictionary in order to view and update its properties and
entries. Use the "Dictionary" menu and select the "Open" item. If no dictionary
has been opened you will automatically reach this page when trying to use the
other elements of the "Dictionary" menu.
Once a user dictionary has been opened,
the "Dictionary properties" page can be opened by using the "Dictionary" menu
and selecting the "Properties" item. This page sums up the properties of the
user dictionary. If you own the dictionary, you will be able to modify these
properties and add or modify its content.
The "General information" section contains the following items:
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Name: the name you gave to your dictionary and which describes its content.
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Type: the type of the dictionary which can be either "mono-target" or
"multi-target" (see "Creating a new
dictionary").
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Owner: the email address of the person who created the dictionary.
-
Group: the name of the group that can view and use the dictionary. For all the
dictionaries you have created this will be your own private group, the name of
which is your email address.
You can change the name, type and group of the dictionary by clicking on the
"Modify" icon. You can also delete the dictionary by clicking on the "Delete"
icon to remove the user dictionary and all its entries from SYSTRANLinks.
The "Entries" section lists all the different types of entries that are
contained in the user dictionary. For multi-target dictionaries the entries are
grouped by source language; for mono-target dictionaries the entries are
grouped by language pair. For each type of entry the following information is
given:
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Type: for a multi-target dictionary it is the name of the source language. For a
mono-target dictionary it is the name of the language pair.
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Status: it is "compiled" if the entries have been successfully compiled by
SYSTRANLinks and are ready for integration into the translation process.
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Total entries: the total number of entries (both multilingual and DNT entries).
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Multilingual entries: the number of multilingual entries.
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DNT entries: the number of DNT entries.
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Source: by clicking on this icon you will see the entries in text form (even if
you uploaded an Excel file).
For each type of entry there is also a "Modify" icon that allows you to
view and modify the content. You can also remove the entries from the
dictionary by clicking on the "Delete" icon.
You can access this page either by selecting "Entries" in the "Dictionary" menu
or by clicking on the "Modify" icon on the
"Dictionary properties". First, select the type of entries. The
Dictionary Manager will automatically reload the page and display the current
content in a text box. You can either modify the entries in the text box, or
choose to upload a file with the new content. The former should only be used
when there are few entries. The latter is the recommended solution. If both are
used only the uploaded file will be taken into account.
There are three possible formats:
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Microsoft Excel file (recommended): the entries must be on the first sheet, with
the first line being the list of the
two-letter language codes (one column per language, first one being the
source). Then there should be one entry per line. For Do Not Translate (DNT)
entries, just fill in the first column. For multilingual entries the source
entry should be in the first column and its various translations on the same
line in the adequate column (depending on the language.
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Plain text: enter one entry per line. Do Not Translate (DNT) entries should be
given "as is". For multilingual entries you need to specify the language by
adding <xx>
before the entry which is the two-letter
language code. Multilingual entries
-
Bilingual plain text: this applies only to entries of mono-target dictionaries.
For each bilingual entry, enter source=target
. DNT entries should be given "as is", without their corresponding meaning.
Detailed information on how to code and optimize the dictionary entries is
available online at http://www.systransoft.com/Support/Dicts/.
Example 3. Multi-target dictionary - Microsoft Excel format for English to French
and Spanish entries
Example 4. Multi-target dictionary - Plain text format for English to French and
Spanish entries
For the same entries as in the preceding example, here is the corresponding
plain text version. Both the Excel source and the plain text version will of
course give exactly the same translation results
"Apple" (proper noun)
"Virgin Mega Store" (proper noun)
<en> "NATO" (noun) <fr> "OTAN" (noun) <es> "OTAN" (noun)
<en> "all rights reserved" (sentence) <fr> "tous droits
réservés" (sentence)
<es> "derechos reservados" (sentence)
<en> "web based" (adjective) <fr> "en ligne" (adjective)
<en> an interface <es> una interfaz
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Example 5. Mono-target dictionary - Microsoft Excel format for English to French
entries
Example 6. Mono-target dictionary - Plain text format for English to French
entries
For the same entries as in the preceding example here is the corresponding plain
text version. Both the Excel source and the plain text version will of course
give exactly the same translation results
"Apple" (proper noun)
"Virgin Mega Store" (proper noun)
<en> "NATO" (noun) <fr> "OTAN" (noun)
<en> "all rights reserved" (sentence) <fr> "tous droits
réservés" (sentence)
<en> "web based" (adjective) <fr> "en ligne" (adjective)
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Example 7. Mono-target dictionary - Bilingual plain text format for English to
French entries
For the same entries as in the preceding example here is the corresponding
bilingual plain text version. This format is completely equivalent to the other
plain text format but can obviously be used only for mono-target dictionaries.
"Apple" (proper noun)
"Virgin Mega Store" (proper noun)
"NATO" (noun) = "OTAN" (noun)
"all rights reserved" (sentence) = "tous droits réservés"
(sentence)
"web based" (adjective) = "en ligne" (adjective)
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