How many Terminology databases??
Thread poster: Alex Boladeras
Alex Boladeras
Alex Boladeras  Identity Verified
Indonesia
Local time: 08:46
English to Spanish
+ ...
Mar 8, 2006

Hi!

I'm new to Déjà Vu. For the moment I 'm using the trial version but (almost certainly) will buy the full version when the former expires. I normally work in two language pairs, namely: Spanish English and English Spanish, so I think I'll need two translation memories and two translation databases. My question is: can I build the SPA-ENG Terminology Database and Memory and "reverse it" at the touch of a key so that I have the ENG-SPA equivalents without having to work double? I
... See more
Hi!

I'm new to Déjà Vu. For the moment I 'm using the trial version but (almost certainly) will buy the full version when the former expires. I normally work in two language pairs, namely: Spanish English and English Spanish, so I think I'll need two translation memories and two translation databases. My question is: can I build the SPA-ENG Terminology Database and Memory and "reverse it" at the touch of a key so that I have the ENG-SPA equivalents without having to work double? I hope I expressed myself clearly! This is the classic type of questions that are more easily asked in person!

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Alex
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Yolanda Broad
Yolanda Broad  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 20:46
Member (2000)
French to English
+ ...

MODERATOR
"Big Mama" concept Mar 10, 2006

I'm answering because no one else appears to be leaping in with some real expertise. So you'll have to make do with my own partial knowledge. However, there is one principle I can state with authority: one MDB and one TB per language pair.

Since one specifies clients and subjects when one creates a project, there should be enough delimitations in your basic TM and TB to accomodate all the data that gets entered. And this means everything will be available for any future work you
... See more
I'm answering because no one else appears to be leaping in with some real expertise. So you'll have to make do with my own partial knowledge. However, there is one principle I can state with authority: one MDB and one TB per language pair.

Since one specifies clients and subjects when one creates a project, there should be enough delimitations in your basic TM and TB to accomodate all the data that gets entered. And this means everything will be available for any future work you do: no sense "wasting" a perfectly good translation. If it turns out that you need to translate a particular segment otherwise in a different field, no problem: that translation will be saved in the TM, too. Do select the most recent entry option, so the new version comes up the next time you encounter the same text in the new translation.

As for reversing TMs and TBs: I did that once in DV3. The problem was that I added more material in the new language pair, and, because I continued to build my databases, the only way I was ging have the new entries available to me when I went to translate another project in the previous language was is to convert the whole TM back. Not a major problem back then, but my FR>EN TM is 161 MB (a modest size compared to what some folks have). Reversing that size TM would take many hours to process! Besides, I don't see anything in the manual explaining how to do that kind of reversing in DVX.

But, according to the DVX "Help" manual, "You can now simultaneously associate two terminology databases or translation memories with your project, and then define your order of preference." So maybe there would be a way to have both a Y>X and an X>Y TM going at the same time. I haven't tried: I stopped translating into FR and SP when I stopped getting regular work in the Third World development field.

Let's hope someone who's had a need to reverse TMs will notice this thread and have something to add.
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Victor Dewsbery
Victor Dewsbery  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 01:46
German to English
+ ...
Reversing databases in DVX Mar 10, 2006

Been there, done that.
No problem.

In fact, on occasion I have had jobs in opposite directions (GER-ENG and ENG-GER) open simultaneously and drawing on the same "Big Mama" (and terminology database/TDB) at the same time.
The language ***direction*** is defined by your project. You can't work in both directions in the same project. But you can easily define a new project with the opposite language direction and draw on the same database. You can then switch from one proj
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Been there, done that.
No problem.

In fact, on occasion I have had jobs in opposite directions (GER-ENG and ENG-GER) open simultaneously and drawing on the same "Big Mama" (and terminology database/TDB) at the same time.
The language ***direction*** is defined by your project. You can't work in both directions in the same project. But you can easily define a new project with the opposite language direction and draw on the same database. You can then switch from one project to the other as you need to. Several times an hour if you need to. And your latest material is always at your fingertips, even in the opposite language direction.
(Back in the DV3 days, reversing a sizeable database took a couple of hours. And as Yolanda says, there was always the problem of how to update the database if you added new material in both language directions at more or less the same time).

The multiple database option has a different purpose (for me, anyway). Sometimes I get an MDB from a client (or as a resource from the Internet), and I don't want to contaminate my own MDB with material which is only useful for a specific job or is uncertain in quality. Or I get a TDB from a client or the Internet. So I can activate this database as the second database (and mark it as "read-only"). Or in some rare cases, I want to send a job to a separate MDB and not my "Big Mama" (e.g. because the client wants me to use freaky vocabulary, or because the client threatens to throw me to the courts if any material, however out of context, ever gets seen by anyone else.)
With DVX Professional (the version I have), you can have 2 MDBs and 2 TDBs attached to any project. With DVX Workgroup you can have even more. (Any version of DVX "lower" than Professional is not very useful IMO.)

One fly in the ointment of the "bi-directional" MDB approach: some people choose not to use this option because they sometimes get source texts which they consider badly written, and they don't want sentences from these texts to be found and suggested by DVX when they are working on projects in the opposite direction. This doesn't worry me (in fact I consider it an advantage that DVX can find genuine "source file" material, and I have to check it myself anyway), but it is worth mentioning, so that you can decide what approach is best for you.
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Alex Boladeras
Alex Boladeras  Identity Verified
Indonesia
Local time: 08:46
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Big thank you! Mar 10, 2006

Dear Yolanda and Viktor,

A big thank you for your advice.

Take care!

Alex


 
Alex Boladeras
Alex Boladeras  Identity Verified
Indonesia
Local time: 08:46
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
DVX Training Mar 10, 2006

Hi,

I forgot to ask this question: other than the (incredibly large) Manual or the Getting Started Guide, can you suggest other ways of getting fully acquainted with the software? How did you do it yourselves?

Thanks in advance!

Alex


 
Victor Dewsbery
Victor Dewsbery  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 01:46
German to English
+ ...
Documentation and mailing list Mar 10, 2006

I learned it by looking at the documentation when necessary, and by asking questions (and watching other people's questions) on the DV list at Yahoogroups.

Actually, that was for DV3. I got my oar in on DVX before most other people 'cos I somehow weaseled my way into the beta tester group - I think that was mainly because I asked awkward questions on the DV list, and perhaps also because I occasionally gave coherent answers to a couple of questions that others asked on the group.... See more
I learned it by looking at the documentation when necessary, and by asking questions (and watching other people's questions) on the DV list at Yahoogroups.

Actually, that was for DV3. I got my oar in on DVX before most other people 'cos I somehow weaseled my way into the beta tester group - I think that was mainly because I asked awkward questions on the DV list, and perhaps also because I occasionally gave coherent answers to a couple of questions that others asked on the group.

Addresses that may be helpful:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dejavu-l/
(Or to subscribe by e-mail: [email protected] )
http://necco.ca/dv/ (a collection of hints and explanations by a DV user)
http://support.atril.com/ (with the "knowledge base" and with links to the representatives in various countries)
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Yolanda Broad
Yolanda Broad  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 20:46
Member (2000)
French to English
+ ...

MODERATOR
I had a good guiding hand helping me learn DV Mar 10, 2006

I had already learned a fair amount about using TMs from the old version of SDLX I'd bought. But that program was infinitely more limited than anything DV had to offer.

I used DV for the first time when a friend asked me to collaborate with her on a project. Like so many others, I downloaded the trial version because it was obvious that the program was going to "pay for itself" and then some by the time I'd be finished with the project.

My friend's simple advice was t
... See more
I had already learned a fair amount about using TMs from the old version of SDLX I'd bought. But that program was infinitely more limited than anything DV had to offer.

I used DV for the first time when a friend asked me to collaborate with her on a project. Like so many others, I downloaded the trial version because it was obvious that the program was going to "pay for itself" and then some by the time I'd be finished with the project.

My friend's simple advice was to save, save, save, the idea being to build a Terminilogy Database as fast as possible. Save terms. Save phrases. Save bits of phrases. For farmers, every drop of rain is money in the bank. For translators, every term in DV databases has pretty much the same effect.

The work I get is far too varied--and usually too short--to bother with some of the possiblities in DV. For instance, I have yet to encounter any project that would require SQLs.

As for any complex program I use, I did read the manuals, and continue to do so, but I also just poked around and explored the program via its menus, trying things out with test files as I explored.

Like Victor, I joined the DV Yahoo list, but have never participated at his level: I mostly read other folks' contributions, and have only asked for help a couple of times. By the time I run into a problem, someone else will usually already have encountered it, and those dedicated list members will have solved it, so all I normally do is search the archives.

It was through the list that I learned further database-building principles, learned what to do to install/reinstall dongles, learned about how to go about removing and inserting graphics in a file...

And, of course, this is the kind of hands-on help that Victor Dewsbury, for instance, has been providing on this list.
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Alex Boladeras
Alex Boladeras  Identity Verified
Indonesia
Local time: 08:46
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Again a big big thank you Mar 10, 2006

Victor and Yolanda,

Again, a big thank you for your tips!!

Alex


 
Heike Kurtz
Heike Kurtz  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 01:46
Member (2005)
English to German
+ ...
DejaVu Training Mar 26, 2006

Hi Alex,

if you need some training, why don't you ask the people at Atril? They are usually extremely helpful.


 


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How many Terminology databases??






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