When managing terminology, we often have to deal with massive dictionaries that are constantly being updated by different translators or terminologists. Sometimes it is necessary to view or process subsets of all the terms in a given dictionary. With TermStar NXT, you can filter data records to just display specific terms and hide everything else. This can be done using "data record filters".

TermStar NXT takes data record filters into account not only in terms of the records it displays, but also for a wide range of other functions, such as printing a dictionary, global changes, statistics and exchanging a dictionary or dictionary extract. For example, if you would like to print a dictionary but you only need to print certain terms, you can create and apply a data record filter to print that specific range of records.

Let's look at how to use the default data record filters. Before getting started, bear in mind that there are certain rules with regards to the use of data record filters:

• TermStar NXT filters in the source language: existing entries in other languages (in the target language or an additional language in the case of a multilingual dictionary) that meet the filtering criteria are not taken into account during filtering, meaning that the associated data records are also not displayed in the filter result. The filtering criteria are applied to the source language terms only. However, you can quickly switch between the source and target languages by clicking on the button shown in the following image (View > Display languages):

• TermStar NXT can also search in fields other than the Term field while filtering: if you wish to search the fields of the main entries or subentries of the source language, the corresponding entry types must be displayed in the Index. We will learn more about Filtering by entry types in upcoming posts.

TermStar NXT offers the following default data record filters, which you can use to filter data records and entries that can be accessed from View > Data record filter > Display as shown in the following image:

Let's look at each of these in detail:

1. All: TermStar NXT displays all of the data records.
2. If target exists: this filter only displays the data records that have an entry in the current target language. You can use this filter to prevent TermStar NXT from displaying entries you cannot use as no entry is available in the target language.
3. If target does not exist: this filter only displays the data records that do not contain an entry in the current target language. You can use this filter to check your dictionary for missing entries in a language and complete the entries if necessary.
4. Input verification failed: this filter displays all data records that do not match the input verification settings. You can use this filter to check the existing entries if you have modified or extended the input verification rules.
5. Duplicates: this filter displays all duplicate entries and subentries in the source language. You can use this filter to check one or more dictionaries of the same database for duplicate entries and subentries. This is particularly useful for cleaning the dictionary.

The above default data record filters can also be used in conjunction with your own user-defined data record filters (we will show you how to create your own data record filter in the next post). TermStar NXT will then display only the data records that match the default data record filter and your data record filter.

To use these default data record filters, open your dictionary and select the View tab, then select the filter you wish to apply to the dictionary from the Display selection field in the Data record filter ribbon bar group. TermStar NXT applies the default data record filter and only displays the terms that meet the selected criteria.

This is very handy for terminologists when organizing or cleaning a dictionary. By using data record filters, you can make sure that you only see what you want to and thus avoid deleting items by mistake.

We hope you find this post interesting. As mentioned above, in our next post we will show you how to create your own data record filter, so stay tuned!