Terminology databases are often difficult to manage, especially when they become very large. With TermStar NXT, you can use data record filters to filter terminology in order to know when the data record was created, at what time, by whom, etc. You can filter entries containing certain words, those belonging to a particular project and use many other filtering criteria in accordance with your requirements. TermStar NXT allows you to create your own filters, save, modify and delete them, as well as use them whenever you want. In this post, we will show you how to create a new data record filter. We will also look at an example of how to filter data records containing a particular word.

Creating a new filter is very easy and does not require advanced knowledge of TermStar NXT. In other words, anyone can create filters and use them as required. Let’s get started with creating a new filter.

Step 1: Select View > Data record filter > Create. The Data record filter window is displayed, as shown in the image below:

Step 2: Click Add to specify a new field that you wish to include for filtering the data records. The Add fields window appears, as shown in the image below:

Step 3: From the Fields list, select the field by which TermStar NXT should filter and click OK.

We will now explain how to filter for entries containing a particular word. To do so, select Entry -> Term from the Fields list, as shown in the above image.

Step 4: The Data record filter window will appear again (as shown in the image below). In the Field content field, enter the field content that you wish to filter by. You can also use wildcards (* and ?). Let’s assume that you wish to search for entries containing the word file and its variants. You can enter the following in the Field content field:

• file* : the term should start with the word file. For example: file, filename
• *file:  the term should end with the word file. For example: file, batch file
• *fil*: the term should contain fil. For example: file, filter
• fil*s: the term should start with fil and end with s. For example: filters
• fil?s: almost the same as the previous example, but the wildcard represents just one character. For example: files

Step 5: Specify how TermStar NXT should filter. To do so, select one of the options from the Options section of the Data record filter window, as shown in the image below: 

• Match case: select this option to differentiate between upper and lower case when filtering. TermStar NXT only displays entries with values where the case matches the case of the filter criterion.
• Regular expression: if you select this option, TermStar NXT will interpret the criterion as a regular expression.
• Display empty fields: select this option if you wish to display empty fields, regardless of the criteria selected.
• Invert display (hide matching terms): “inverts” the results displayed by the filter; entries that do not fulfil the filter criterion are displayed. TermStar NXT does not display the entry if the criterion is met.

Step 5: Click Apply filter in the Data record filter in order to apply the filtering criteria. TermStar NXT will display the message: The filter was changed. Save? Click Yes, then enter the name for this filter, select the scope (Global, User) and click Save to save this filter, as seen in the image below:

Step 6: You have now created a new filter which you can use at any time in any project. Go to View > Data record filter and select the filter you have created from the Filter drop-down list and then click the On/Off button to apply the filter, as shown in the image below. The On/Off button turns orange signifying that the filter is currently active. Click on it again in order to deactivate the filter. 

As you can see in the above image, the entries corresponding to the search criteria are displayed by selecting this filter.

You can modify this filter at any time in order to alter your filtering criteria. Select View > Data record filter > Modify and enter different criteria. Filters created by you can also be deleted by selecting View > Data record filter > Delete. 

In this way, you can use any filtering criteria as per your requirements in order to filter data records in a huge terminology database. You can create as many filters as you like and make optimal use of this feature offered by TermStar NXT. You can also use filters provided by TermStar NXT. Check out our post on how to use in-built filters.

Do try out this feature and let us know if you have any comments or feedback. We will be back soon with another interesting feature.