Dictionary Manager

Create, Maintain and Use

User Dictionaries
Published by SDL International (http://www.sdlintl.com).
© Copyright SDL International. All rights reserved.
Documentation for SDLX2005™.
Microsoft® and Windows® are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other
trademarks are acknowledged as belonging to their respective companies.
Documentation produced April 2005.
Contents
Create User Dictionaries 1
Dictionary sequences 1
How to start SDL Dictionary Manager 1
How to create a user dictionary 2

Maintain User Dictionaries 4

How to add word/phrases manually 4
Enable automatic copying of entries from the core to a user 7
dictionary
How to verify user dictionary entries using test translations 8
How to modify user dictionary entries 9
Create and import word lists 10

Apply User Dictionaries in SDL Edit 11

How to set up SDL Edit to access a user dictionary 11
How to apply a user dictionary in SDL Edit 12
 Create User Dictionaries
SDL Dictionary Manager enables you to create bi-lingual dictionaries where you can store
new, client specific or specialist vocabulary. You can then reference these dictionaries when
translating ITD files (SDLX translation documents) in SDLX. For example, you could create
a medical dictionary for use whenever you translate documents relating to the medical
profession or industry.

Dictionary Manager is part of SDL’s Machine Translation tool and the dictionaries you create
in Dictionary Manager can only be used with ITD files if you have the SDLX Machine
Translation software installed and registered on your PC.

Dictionary sequences
A dictionary sequence is simply a list of dictionaries to be applied to translation documents in
the order in which they appear in the list. For example a ‘medical’ sequence might contain a
specialist medical dictionary followed by the standard dictionary. The medical dictionary
would be applied to the ITD first followed by the standard dictionary.
In SDL Dictionary Manager the standard dictionary for a language pair is called the ‘core’
dictionary. When you create a new dictionary it is automatically put into a sequence with the
core dictionary. You can add other dictionaries to the sequence if you wish.

How to start SDL Dictionary Manager

Select Programs, SDLXMT, Shortcut to Dictionary Manager from the Windows Start
menu. The Dictionary Manager screen is displayed.

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How to create a new dictionary

1. Select File, New Dictionary from the menu bar (or click the New Dictionary
button on the toolbar or click Ctrl/N). The New Dictionary dialog box is
displayed.

2. Click the down arrow in the Language pair box and select the correct language
pair for the new dictionary.

3. Enter the name for the new dictionary in the Name box (maximum 8 characters).

4. If you do not want to use accents in your new dictionary, select the Unaccented
box.

5. Check the number in the Main Size box and change it if required. This is the
maximum number of entries containing 12 characters or less that you want this
dictionary to be able to store. If you enter a lower number here, your dictionary will
take up less disk space, but you will not be able to create as many entries.

6. Check the value in the Large Size box and change it if required. The figure here
is the maximum number of entries containing 13 or more characters that you want
this dictionary to be able to store. You can accept the default number or enter a
higher or a lower number. Long entries are stored differently to shorter entries and
require more space. If you enter a lower number here, your dictionary will take up
less disk space, but you will not be able to create as many long entries.

7. Click OK. Dictionary Manager now creates the new dictionary and a dictionary-
sequence containing the new dictionary and the Core dictionary. The dictionary
sequence is opened automatically it currently contains the core entries only and
these are shown in red.

Note: If you decide later that you want to change the values in the Main Size and
Large Size boxes you can do it by opening the sequence and then
selecting File, language Pair Preferences from the menu bar.
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This is an example of what the screen looks like when you have just created a new
dictionary. The entries in red are from the core dictionary.
To display the new, user dictionary, click the down arrow in the Show entries from box and
select it.

Entries in red are from the core dictionary

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 Maintain User Dictionaries

How to add words/phrases manually

A single translation word can contain a maximum of 40 characters. A translation phrase
must contain a minimum of 2 words (maximum 15) and must not exceed 255 characters in
length. Characters can be letters, numbers, or punctuation marks.

1. Select File, Open Sequence from the menu bar (or click the Open Sequence
button or press Ctrl/O). The Open Sequence dialog box is displayed.

2. Click the down arrow in the Language pair box and select the correct language
pair.

3. Click the down arrow in the Sequence box and select the sequence containing the
dictionary to be updated.

4. Click the Open button.

5. Select Entry, New Entry from the menu bar (or click the New Entry button
on the toolbar). The Enter Source dialog box is displayed.

6. Complete the Enter Source field by entering the value to be added to the
dictionary.

7. Click the down arrow in the Dictionary box and select the dictionary to which the
word or phrase is to be added.

8. Click Next.
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 If then
the word you are adding (or one of the the Existing Entry dialog box is displayed.
words in the phrase you are adding)
exists in the core dictionary

Click OK to copy the word plus supporting

information from the core dictionary to the
selected dictionary. The Enter Translation
dialog box is now displayed.

Note: The Existing Entry dialog box may be

the word, or words, you are adding do
not already exist in the core dictionary
displayed more than once. This happens when
more than one of the words in the phrase being
added exists in the core.
the Enter Translation dialog box is displayed.

9. Complete the Enter Translation dialog box. Enter the translation for the new entry
and, if the translation must be capitalized in a particular way, select the Case-
sensitive check box.

10. Click Next. The New Entry dialog box is displayed.

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 Window 1: Window 2: Window 3:
Source and target text Source text only Translation text only

11. Place the cursor on the Part of Speech entry in Window 2 and right mouse-click.
A drop-down menu of options is displayed. Select the one that describes the word
or phrase being added. When you make the selection, values appropriate to your
selection appear in both Window 1 and Window 2.

12. Right mouse-click each entry in the Feature column and for each one, select the
grammatical value appropriate to the feature.

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 13. Repeat step 12 for the features in Window 2. If the word inflects be sure to right
mouse-click the Inflection feature and select the appropriate inflection paradigm.

14. If the word is a homograph click the Add Hom button.

15. Click the Add Entry button when you have finished.

Note: Remember that this procedure is described in greater detail in the on-line Help
where more information is also given about the grammatical aspects of defining
dictionary items.

Enable automatic copying of entries from the core dictionary to a user dictionary
When you are adding a new entry to a user dictionary, SDL Dictionary automatically checks
the core dictionary to see if the word or phrase already exists there. If it does, the default
procedure for handling this is to display the Existing Entry dialog box. This dialog alerts you
to the fact that the entry exists in the core and gives you the option of copying the entry and
all of its associated grammatical information from the core dictionary to the user dictionary
(this saves you the task of defining the word yourself).

However, if you prefer, you can change the default settings in SDL Dictionary to
automatically copy the word/phrase across and not display the dialog box at all.
This option is language pair specific. This means that whichever sequence is open when
you enable automatic copying, all other sequences for the same language pair will also have
automatic copying enabled.

Follow this procedure to enable automatic copying:

1. Open a dictionary sequence.

2. Select File/Language Pair Preferences from the menu bar. The Language pair
Preferences dialog box is displayed.

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 3. Select the Autocopy box.

4. Click OK.

To disable automatic copying, simply de-select this box.

How to verify user dictionary entries using test translations

When you have added an entry to a dictionary, you can test the effectiveness of that entry by
performing a test translation in SDL Dictionary Manager. This procedure uses the Source
and Translation windows that appear at the bottom of the SDL Dictionary Manager screen.

1. Open the sequence containing the dictionary to be tested. The names of the
dictionaries in the currently active sequence are displayed below the Options button
(to the right of the Translation window).

2. Complete the Source window by entering some text containing the words/phrases
you want to test. Alternatively, you could paste in some text which you have cut or
copied from another location. Be sure to include all necessary accents or special
characters, even on capital letters. It is also advisable to use complete sentences
and correct grammar.

3. Click the Translate button. The translation of the source text is now displayed in the
Translation window.

4. Check the translation. If you are satisfied with it, then your dictionary entries are
probably correct. However, if you do not like the way a word or phrase was translated,
you may need to modify your dictionary entries.

5. If you want to compare the translation with one produced from the core dictionary,
select the Core option (to the right of the translation window) and click the Translate
button.

6. Click the Clear button when you have finished. This clears the Source and
Translation windows.
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How to modify dictionary entries
You can modify the entries in your user dictionaries at any time. You can edit the source and
translation text of words/phrases and you can change their grammatical properties.

Note: You cannot modify entries in the Core dictionary. If you need a modified version of a
core dictionary entry you must add the word/phrase to a user dictionary and edit it
there.

1. Open the sequence containing the user dictionary to be modified.

2. Click the down arrow in the Show entries from box and select the user dictionary.

3. Start typing the value to be edited in the Find box. Stop typing when the required
entry is displayed in the window where dictionary entries are listed.

Stop typing when the entry to be

edited appears in this window

4. Double click the entry to be edited. The entry details are displayed.

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 5. Click the Edit button beside the entry to be edited. The Edit Translation dialog box
is displayed.

6. Make the required change and click OK.

7. If you want to edit the grammatical properties for an entry, right mouse-click the
feature to be edited and select the correct option from the pop-up menu that is
displayed.

8. Click the Save Entry button when you have finished.

9. Now test the updated entry by using it in a test translation.

Create and import word lists

It is possible to import a list of words into a user dictionary. It is also possible to search
documents for words that do not appear in the core dictionary. These words can be put into
a list of unfound words and this list can be imported to a user dictionary.

For more information about creating word lists and importing them, see these topics in the
on-line help:

• Preparing Lists of Unfound Words

• Importing Word Lists.

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 Apply User Dictionaries in SDL Edit

How to set up SDL Edit to access a user dictionary

1. Open the ITD to be translated.

2. Select Tools, Options, Machine Translation from the menu bar. The Machine
Translation tab screen of the Options dialog box is displayed.

3. Select the Translation Memory Lookup check box.

4. Click the Configure MT Engines button. The Configure Machine translation

Interfaces dialog box is displayed. The currently available interface is shown in the
Available interfaces window.

5. Select the currently available interface.

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 6. Click the Configure button. The Transcend Options dialog box is displayed.

7. Select the language pair appropriate to the translation task. The available user
dictionaries are displayed in the Sequence window.

8. Select the user dictionary you want to use and click OK.

9. Click Close to close the Configure Machine translation Interfaces dialog box.

10. Click OK to close the options dialog box.

How to apply a user dictionary in SDL Edit

Use the Machine Translation options in the SDL Edit module to apply the selected user
dictionary to the translation.

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