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GLOSSARIES

PowerGlot databases were shortly described in the previous (Basics) section. This chapter teaches you how to do most common operations on glossaries.

Glossaries are a crucial tool if you plan on automating part or all of you translation work with PowerGlot. They are powerful tools but need to be crafted with great care for maximum efficiency.

A glossary basically consists of terms. Each term defines a source text and a translation, with various options. Once youÕve created a glossary, you can use it to have PowerGlot perform automatic translations of those terms.

 

CREATING GLOSSARIES

To create a new glossary, simply select the New glossary item from the File menu. This creates an empty glossary, ready to be filled with terms. You can also create a glossary from an already translated database. This process is described in the Databases section of this manual.

A new, empty glossary is shown in the picture below.

 

Once you have created a new glossary, the first thing to do is to select the source and target languages. This is especially important when you create a glossary to translate terms accross two different script systems (i.e. Roman and Japanese), because PowerGlot uses the Source Language and Target Language informations to determine which font to use when displaying and editing terms.

As in the Database Settings window, you can only select those languages for which a script system is installed on your machine. As an example, if you donÕt have the Arabic script system on your machine, you wonÕt be able to select the Arabic or Persian languages.

 

OPENING GLOSSARIES

To open a glossary, double-click its icon in the Finder, or drop it on the PowerGlot icon. You can also select the Open glossary... item from the Tools menu in PowerGlot.

If you try to open a glossary which defines terms for a script system not installed on your machine (you probably donÕt have the proper language kit installed), the software informs you that you can only look at the glossary, not modify its terms (unless the glossary is empty).

 

ADDING TERMS TO GLOSSARIES

To add a new term to a glossary, simply enter the text in the Translate: and To: fields, check the appropriate option boxes, then click the Add button. The new term is inserted at the end of the terms list.

 

SAVING GLOSSARIES

To save a glossary to disk, select the Save item from the File menu. You can also save your glossary under another name, using the Save as... menu item. The next save operation will then be done to this new file.

When you close a glossary window, PowerGlot asks if you want to save it in the case you have modified something but not saved.

 

PRINTING GLOSSARIES

At any point in your work, you may need to print a glossary. Simply select the Print... item in the File menu. DonÕt forget to select the correct page setup before by selecting the Page Setup item in the File menu. The glossary is printed as it actually appears on the screen.

 

USING GLOSSARIES

Once you have created a glossary, you can use it to automatically translate terms in a database. This process is described in the Automatic translation with glossaries in the Databases section of this manual.

Remember that after creating a glossary, you must save it to the disk before using it. A good way of doing things is to create a few glossaries containing the most common terms (for example the menu titles and items common to most programs, the name of most common buttons in dialog boxes, and so on). You can also use a glossary built by PowerGlot from a previously translated database to automatically translate a new version of a software youÕve already worked on. This process is described in the Using previously localized versions of the Advanced topics section of this manual.