From our first post in this series, you now know how to create databases and dictionaries in TermStar NXT, and in our last post, we learnt how to import TBX/MARTIF files into a dictionary. Today, we will look at how to import user-defined terminology files such as Excel, CSV, TXT files etc. As a project manager or as a translator, you often receive client terminology in user-defined files such as Excel, .txt, etc. With TermStar NXT, you don’t have to be an expert in order to import terminology from your files into TermStar dictionaries. This will help you to not only save the time you spend switching between files to refer to terminology whilst translating, but also to have all your terminology in one place so that you can use it in any project you work on. Let’s now look at how to import data from a customized file into TermStar NXT in a few simple steps. For the purposes of this post, we have used a very small .xlsx file which has an English term, Spanish term, English term definition and Source and looks like this:

First of all, we recommend that you convert your Excel file into a .txt Unicode file, which is a very simple process. In your Excel file, select File > Save as and then Unicode text (.txt) from Save as type as shown in the image below:

Now let’s get started with the import of this file into the TermStar NXT dictionary.

Step 1: Select Dictionaries > Dictionaries/Databases > Manage dictionaries/databases from the Resource Bar. The TermStar Database Expert window will open, whereby you can see all the databases and dictionaries you have previously created. Now select the dictionary into which you would like to import your terminology and click on Import/Export as shown in the following image:

Step 2: The Database administrator Expert window opens, in which you need to select the file to be imported by clicking on the Browse button. Then select the option User-defined from the File-type definition tab and click on New in order to open the Import file layout window:

Step 3: In the Import file layout window, you need to specify the format of your file and its contents in the same order in which you wish to import them into the dictionary. As we are using a .txt file which has terms separated by a tab, we will select Tab from the Field separator drop-down list. You can see the structure of the import file in the Preview section. Now click on Next and select the option shown in the image below. The details of each option appear in the same window:

Step 4: The Import sequence of language/fields window then opens, in which you need to specify the contents of the dictionary in the same order in which they appear in your terminology file. For example, we have English term, Spanish term, English Definition and Source in the same order in the file that we are using as an example. Select the required item from the Language/Field section and then click on Select >> in order to send the selected item to Import sequence. The Import sequence window should display the items to be imported in the same order as they appear in the file that we are importing. You can select as many items as appear in your file. Then click on Next to select the date format from the Date format window. This is the date that will appear in the dictionary, indicating the date on which the terms were imported into the dictionary, as shown in the figure below.

Step 5: You will then see the Summary window, whereby a summary of all the options selected in the previous steps appears. If you wish to change anything, click on Back to go to the specific window. After having correctly selected all options, click on Finish and you will be asked to save the Import definition that you just created. The advantage of saving the Import definition is that you can reuse it the next time you have a similar file to import.

Step 6: Now you will be taken back to the Database administrator window in which you will see the Import definition that you just created (this will be selected by default). You already selected the file to be imported, so just click on Start to begin the import process, as shown in the image below:

And there you go! Your terminology has now been imported into TermStar. To open the dictionary and view the imported terms, select Dictionary > Open Dictionary from the resource bar. Then select the dictionary into which you imported the terminology.

Your imported terminology will appear in TermStar NXT as shown in the image below. Remember to select the correct source and target language from View > Display Languages in order to view all the imported terms (this is usually selected by default, but you may want to select the correct source and target language for multilingual dictionaries).

You can import any customized file in this manner. Remember to save the file as Unicode text (.txt) before importing it into TermStar as this is the easiest way to import terms.
We hope this post helps you to use your terminology in a systematic and effective way. In our subsequent posts, we will look at how to export dictionaries, i.e., how to export terminology into an Excel file, for example from a TermStar dictionary, and much more. So stay tuned! As always, please let us know how useful you found this post and if you want us to come up with more specific posts!