Shortcuts – Nº 27: Importing an input verification from another dictionary

Reuse is an important concept in the software industry, reusing a standard set of guidelines helps us to maintain consistency across all of our projects. TermStar NXT offers several features that you can not only just use but also reuse. Create a standard once and reuse it across all of your projects! Save time and at the same time increase efficiency and consistency in the easiest way.

In our previous post, we showed you how to add input verification rules from scratch. You can also import the input verification from another TermStar dictionary. This allows you to ensure that the input verification rules are the same across all of your terminological dictionaries, thus standardising the structure of your dictionaries.

When importing, you can specify the fields whose input verification rules TermStar NXT should import. If you wish to alter input verification rules that are to be imported, first import the input verification rules unchanged, you can then change the settings later on as explained in Step 5 below.

Let’s get started.

Step 1: Select Dictionaries | Dictionaries/Databases | Manage dictionaries/databases from the resource bar and select the dictionary for which you want to import the input verification rules, then click Settings.

Step 2: Select the Input verification tab and click Apply to import the input verification rules from another dictionary.

Step 3: Select the dictionary (the one for which you have already created the input verification rules) and click OK in order to reuse those rules. The above steps are summarised in the following image:

Step 4: TermStar NXT now displays the Apply an existing input verification window with rules that you previously created for the dictionary selected in Step 3. Select the ones you wish to apply to the current dictionary and click >> to import the rule, as shown in the following image. Then click OK.

Step 5: You will be taken back to the Settings window where you will now see the imported value list. Select the appropriate options (as explained in our previous post about Input verification for dictionary fields). If you wish to change any value or add a new value to your existing value list, click Value list and select the appropriate option, or click OK in the Settings window if you wish to continue using the existing value list without modifying it, as shown in the following image:

TermStar NXT thus allows you to reuse your existing value lists and import them to as many dictionaries as you wish. This not only saves you time but also helps you to maintain consistency across projects. Do try out this feature in order to take advantage of one of the many useful and efficient terminology management features offered by TermStar NXT. Please let us know whether you like this shortcut by sending us your comments and feedback. We look forward to seeing you again soon for another interesting terminology management feature!