The Termbase Management System (TBMS) is a LanguageWire tool used to manage termbases.

In this how-to guide, you will find instructions on how to use the Termbase Management System features from a general perspective, independently of the different permission levels or role restrictions.

This web application is only available for desktop devices and is compatible with the following browsers:

• Edge
• Chrome
• Firefox
• the two latest versions of Safari

The availability of the flows and features described in this section will depend on the user role and permissions you have.

The Termbases page is the default landing view when accessing the TBMS.

 

Searching for an entity

To search for a specific entity, use the search box on the left-hand side beneath the navigation bar.

Click in the search box and type the desired entity name.

Tip: When you type the first two letters of the entity’s name, the system will suggest a list of matching entities that you have access permissions for.

Click on the desired entity to display the termbase(s) belonging to that entity, which are displayed in a table along with the various properties listed in columns.

• Name: name of the termbase
• Entries: number of term entries in the termbase
• Terms: number of terms in the termbase
• Non-translatables: number of non-translatable terms in the termbase
• Pictures: number of pictures in the termbase
• Suggestions: number of suggestions in the termbase

The availability of the flows and features described in this section, will depend on the user role and permissions you have.

You can access the Terms page for a particular termbase by clicking on its name in the termbase table.

From the Terms page, you can:

• Access the termbase page
• Add a new entry
• Add a new term
• Search for terms
• Filter terms by language, usage and non-translatable status
• Access term entries
• Access the ‘Suggestions’ tab
• Access the ‘Import/Export’ tab

Accessing the termbase page

To access the termbase page, click on the name of the termbase that appears after the Entity search box and ‘/ Termbases /’:

• The termbase page shows the name of the termbase, its name and languages, as well as statistics.

• From the termbase page, it is possible to modify the name of the termbase, as well as the Source languages and Target languages it contains.
• The Statistics for the termbase are also shown.
• There is also an ‘Actions’ button with Import, Export and Delete content options.

Click ‘Save’ to apply any changes or click the cross in the top right-hand corner to close the termbase page.

Adding a new entry

A new source language term can be added as a new entry to the termbase from the Terms page.

• Click the orange ‘New Entry’ button on the right-hand side to enter a term in a new entry within the selected termbase.
• When the dialogue opens, one empty source term row is displayed by default. The source term must be filled in, and the source language must be selected.
• Complete the fields for the new term.

• Term (mandatory): enter the new term to be added to the termbase.
  • If you enter a term that already exists in the termbase, the system will notify you, provide a link to the existing term, and display an overview of its attributes when hovering over the link.

Click the orange ‘Save’ button at the bottom of the ‘New Entry’ pane to add the new entry to the termbase. The term is now saved and will appear in the terms table.

The system confirms the term is saved by displaying a green message at the bottom of the screen and the new entry appears in the termbase.

Note: TBMS standardises terms by eliminating unnecessary characters, including leading and trailing spaces, redundant spaces between words, and hidden control characters like tabs and line breaks. This process ensures consistent text formatting and improved term recognition.

• Language (mandatory): select the term language from the menu. The term for a new entry must be in a source language of the termbase.

Note: Make sure to complete the mandatory fields, otherwise the system will not allow you to continue.

• Non-translatable term: check this box if the term entered is a non-translatable term.

Note: The only mandatory fields for creating a non-translatable term are the 'Term' field and the checkbox. Additionally, an entry for a non-translatable term can contain only one term.

Note: Non-translatable terms have the Exact matching mode as default, and this cannot be changed.

• Gender (optional): click to display the menu and select the gender to be applied when using the term.
• Usage: select whether the term is Preferred, Permitted or Forbidden. ‘Preferred’ is the default setting for term to be used. ‘Permitted’ should be used for any acceptable alternatives to the ‘Preferred’ term.

Tip: Select ‘Forbidden’ as the Usage if the term should not be used in translations due, for example, to competitor usage, cultural differences, or negative connotations in certain contexts.

• Matching mode: click to display the menu and select the matching mode that you would like to apply to the terms when they appear in source texts for translation.
  • Default: This mode uses lemmatisation, meaning that, when working on translations in Smart Editor, the word or phrase in the source text is also recognised as a term from the termbase by its base or dictionary form (lemma). This accounts for variations in word forms such as plurals, tenses, and conjugations. For example, when Default mode is applied, the term "study" from the termbase will be recognised as such not only when “study” is used in the source text, but also if a different inflection, such as "studies", "studying", "studied" etc., is used, and the corresponding target term for “study” will be shown in Smart Editor.
  • Exact: When working on translations in Smart Editor, the word or phrase in the source text is recognised as a match with a term from the termbase only when it is exactly the same as the term from the termbase (this also applies to the order of the words in the term). For example, the term "study" from the termbase is recognised as such when “study” appears in a source text, and the corresponding target term will be displayed in Smart Editor. When Exact mode is applied, the term “study” will not be recognised when a different inflection, such as "studies," "studying," "studied," etc., is used in the source text, and therefore the corresponding target term will not be shown in Smart Editor.

Note: A default match is a match that uses lemmatisation, where a term is recognised based on its lemma. An exact match in term recognition is a match where a term in a source text for translation matches exactly what it is in the termbase (not case sensitive). The Matching mode that is applied to a term is taken into consideration for all services that use term recognition such as Smart Editor and AI terminology for machine translation.

• Casing mode: click to display the menu and select the casing mode that you would like to apply for the terms when they appear in source texts for translation.
  • Insensitive: This is the default casing mode. In this mode, term matching is case-insensitive, meaning that uppercase and lowercase letters are treated as equivalent. For example, when working in Smart Editor, "Apple" would be recognized as a term from the termbase even if it were written as "apple", "APPLE", or "aPpLe" in the source text, and the corresponding target term for “Apple” would be shown.
  • Permissive: This mode allows for some flexibility in case matching. For term matching, uppercase letters are considered mandatory, while lowercase letters can be matched with either uppercase or lowercase letters. For example, when working in Smart Editor, "Apple" would be recognized as a term from the termbase if it were written as "Apple", "APplE", or "APPLE" (and the corresponding target term for “Apple” would be shown), but not if it were written as "apple".
  • Strict: This mode enforces strict case matching. In this mode, the casing of the term must be identical to the casing of the term in the termbase. For example, when working in Smart Editor, "Apple" would be recognized as a term from the termbase only if it were written as "Apple" in the source text, and the corresponding target term for “Apple” would be shown, but not if it were written as "apple", "APPLE", or "aPple".

Note: In ‘Default’ matching mode, the casing mode is also set to ‘Insensitive’ by default and cannot be changed. In ‘Exact’ matching mode, it is possible to select one of the three Casing mode options. The Casing mode that is applied to a term is taken into consideration for all services that use term recognition such as Smart Editor and AI terminology for machine translation.

• Examples (optional): examples of how the term is used can be entered here.
• Part of speech (optional): identify whether the term is a noun, adjective, verb, etc.
• Note (optional): you can enter any information related to the term. The information in the ‘Note’ field is displayed alongside the term to users working in Smart Editor.
• Definition (optional): in this field you can add a short description of the new term meaning.

If you wish to add properties that apply to all terms in the entry, click the ‘Entry properties’ tab and complete the ‘Description’ field.

Adding a new term and Target terms

After completing the fields for a new term in a source language, a new target term or multiple targets and multiple synonyms can be created at once within the same entry and withing the same dialogue.

• Click on ‘Add term”, to add a target row or a synonym.

• Complete the relevant fields (‘Term’, ‘Language’, ‘Gender’, ‘Usage’, ‘Matching mode’, ‘Casing mode’, ‘Examples’, ‘Part of speech’, ‘Note’ and ‘Definition’), this time for the target term (see "Adding a new entry" above)
• Repeat this step for any other term rows if needed.

Note: The term creation dialogue allows multiple terms in the same language within one entry. This makes it possible to create synonyms, including admitted, preferred, or forbidden alternatives, in one action. The same language can be selected in multiple rows.

Note: It is enough to provide a valid source term to create an entry. Target term rows are optional.

Tip: If a row was added by mistake, remove it or leave it fully empty. Fully empty target rows are ignored by the system and won´t prevent you from being able to save the entry with valid rows (mandatory information filled in). Do not leave rows partially completed as you won’t be able to save the entry. If the source term is valid and all target rows are empty, the entry is saved with the source term only.

Searching for terms

The Terms page features a search bar that allows you to find terms quickly and easily.

• First, select the desired Search Language from the drop-down list.
• Then you can refine your search using three different modes:
  • Contains: This is the default search mode. It retrieves all terms that contain the search string, regardless of their position within the term. For example, searching for "apple" will return terms such as "apple", "pineapple", "apple juice", and "red apple".
  • Starts with: This mode retrieves all terms that begin with the search string. To select this mode, click on the drop-down menu to the left of the search bar and choose ‘Starts with’. For example, searching for "apple" will only return terms such as "apple", "apple juice", and "apple pie".
  • Ends with: This mode retrieves all terms that end with the search string. To select this mode, click on the drop-down menu to the left of the search bar and choose ‘Ends with’. For example, searching for "apple" will only return terms such as "red apple" and "green apple".
• To select the mode you want to use, click on the drop-down menu to the left of the bar and make your selection.

• Finally, enter your search string in the search bar.
• The results of your search will be displayed in the terms table below.

Filtering terms

The Terms page features a filter beneath the search bar.

You can adjust the filters to narrow down your search and retrieve only the terms that you require.

• Click on the filter icon to display all the options.

Select the desired filters:

• Languages: select the languages you would like to include in your filter.

Note: The language selected as the Search Language is always included in the filter.

• Usage: select if Preferred, Permitted and/or Forbidden terms should be included in your search results.

• Select the checkbox ‘Non-translatable’ if you wish to filter for non-translatable terms.

• The blue ‘Clear’ button can be used to remove the applied filters at any time.

The search results will be displayed below in the terms table, with columns for each language.

• Non-translatable terms are indicated by the letters “NT” in a shield next to them.
• If a number in a circle appears next to a term, this indicates that there are multiple terms in that language within the entry. The other terms can be displayed by hovering the cursor over the number.
• If there is no term for a particular entry in one of the displayed languages, a plus symbol is shown in the table. Clicking on the plus symbol opens the Add Term dialogue box, where the term can be added to the termbase (see "Adding a new term" above).

Accessing the Edit Term pane

• Click on the relevant term from the table to open the Edit term pane.

The Edit Term pane page contains four tabs: ‘Term Details’, ‘Term Properties’, ‘Entry properties’ and ‘Other Terms in Entry’.

To close the Edit Term pane, click the “X” button in the top right-hand corner.

Editing a term

• Edits can be made to a term in the Edit Term pane under the ‘Term Details’ tab.

• Modify the relevant fields as necessary and click ‘Save’.

Deleting a term/entry

• A term or entire entry can be deleted in the Edit Term pane under the ‘Term Details’ tab by clicking the ‘Actions’ button in the bottom left-hand corner.

Select whether you wish to delete the term or the entire entry.

Tip: Any other terms that belong to the same entry are displayed on the Edit Term pane under the ‘Other Terms in Entry’ tab. Selecting ‘Delete entry’ will delete all the terms in the entry.

Confirm the action to delete the term or entry from the termbase.

A confirmation message is displayed at the top of the screen.

Bulk deleting entries

Several entries can be deleted in the Entries tab by selecting the checkboxes on the left side of the table, clicking on the "Actions" button that will appear, and then clicking "Delete" and confirming the action.

Bulk deleting all terms in a specific language

All terms in a specific language can be deleted in the Entries tab by hovering over the desired language header on the table, then clicking on the three-dot menu and selecting "Delete language", and then confirming the action.

Bulk changing terms under a specific language

All terms in a specific language can be assigned to a different language, provided that the target language either does not exist in the termbase yet or has no existing terms. This can be done by hovering over the desired language header on the table, then clicking on the three-dot menu and selecting "Change language" and then selecting the language that will replace the current one.

Pictures in entries

TBMS supports pictures in entries. Pictures are managed in the ‘Entry properties’ tab of the Edit Term pane.

Adding a picture

• In the Edit Term pane under the ‘Entry properties’ tab, click ‘Add picture’.

Note: The supported formats include JPG, BMP, GIF, PNG, ICO, PING and WMF.

Deleting a picture

The ‘Suggestions’ feature was created specifically for TBMS users with restricted permissions. These users cannot create, edit or delete terms in the TBMS (see Roles and permissions levels).

However, the ‘Suggestions’ feature allows this user group to suggest new term entries, additions or deletions. The suggestion is then forwarded to the admin or a role with writing permissions to approve or decline each suggestion.

Read-only users

Note: The instructions explained in this section are intended for read-only users, who cannot create, edit or delete terms directly in TBMS but can suggest these actions instead.

• From the Terms page click on the ‘Suggestions’ tab to access the list of suggestions.

Suggesting a new entry

On the Terms page:

• Click the blue ‘New entry suggestion’ button to add a new entry suggestion to the termbase.

Fill in the provided fields for the new entry suggestion.

• Term (mandatory): enter the new term to be added to the termbase.
• Language (mandatory): select the term language from the menu.
• Gender (optional): click to display the menu and select the gender to be applied when using the term.
• Usage: select whether the term is Preferred, Permitted or Forbidden. ‘Preferred’ is the default setting for term to be used. ‘Permitted’ should be used for any acceptable alternatives to the ‘Preferred’ term. Select ‘Forbidden’ as the Usage if the term should not be used in translations.
• Matching mode: click to display the menu and select the matching mode that you would like to apply to the terms when they appear in source texts for translation. (See Matching mode under “Adding a new entry” in this page)
• Casing mode: click to display the menu and select the casing mode that you would like to apply for the terms when they appear in source texts for translation. (See Casing mode under “Adding a new entry” in this page)
• Examples (optional): examples of how the term is used can be entered here.
• Part of speech (optional): identify whether the term is a noun, adjective, verb, etc.
• Note (optional): you can enter any information related to the term. The information in the ‘Note’ field is displayed alongside the term to users working in Smart Editor.
• Definition (optional): in this field you can add a short description of the new term meaning.

Display the target terms section if you wish to add any target terms to the entry (this is optional).

The last section is for the ‘Entry properties’ that are applicable to all the terms within the entry.

After completing the required (and optional) fields, click the ‘Suggest & close’ button.

Suggesting a term change

• From the Terms page, click on the relevant term from the list to view its information page.
• Apply your changes.
• Click on the ‘Suggest’ button to submit your suggestion.

Admin and writing users

To view the list of suggestions for new terms and term changes, click on a termbase and then on the ‘Suggestions’ tab.

Note: The instructions explained in this section are intended for admins and to users with roles that have writing permissions. These users can decide whether a suggestion should be approved or declined.

Suggestions are displayed under the ‘Suggestions’ tab in a table view, with relevant details organised in columns.

• Source terms: this column displays the existing source language term(s) if the suggestion pertains to an existing entry.
• Original: this column contains the original term for which a new suggestion is being proposed.
• Suggestion: this column contains the suggested term.
• Comment: this column includes any comments related to the suggestion.
• Date: this shows the timestamp the suggestion was submitted.
• Actions: this column gives you the option to approve (checkmark) or decline (‘X’) a suggestion. You can see more information about each suggestion by clicking on its row in the table:

Approving or declining suggestions

To approve and decline suggestions one by one:

The ‘Actions’ column displays crosses and checkmarks.

• Per row, click on the checkmark to approve or the ‘X’ to decline the suggestion.

Once you have selected an action, the system will display a confirmation message at the top of the page.

It is also possible to approve or decline a suggestion from the suggestion information page by using the corresponding buttons in the bottom right corner.

Approving or declining suggestions in bulk

To approve or decline several suggestions at once, tick the checkboxes of the corresponding suggestions in the left-hand column, click on ‘Actions’ and then select either the ‘Approve’ or ‘Decline’ option.

The availability of the flows and features described in this section, will depend on the user role and permissions you have.

The ‘Import/Export’ tab can be found on the Terms page.

From the ‘Import/Export’ tab it is possible to perform imports and exports by clicking on the ‘Import’ or ‘Export’ button (see "Importing files" and "Exporting files" below).

Import history

The import history section is found on the ‘Import/Export’ tab and provides information on previous imports to the termbase, specifically:

• File: Name of the imported file.
• Status: Succeeded for successful imports, Failed for failed imports, In progress for files currently being imported and Queued for import files currently in the queue to be processed.
• User: Name of the user who imported the file.
• Date: Date and time of the import.
• Actions: Download the imported file. Please note, this is only available for files that were imported after the implementation of this feature.

Importing files

You can import a file to a termbase from the three dots menu in the termbase table, or using the ‘Actions’ button on the termbase page.

• Click on the three dots menu in the termbase table and select ‘Import’.

Or click the ‘Actions’ button on the termbase page and select ‘Import’.

• This opens the Import dialogue box.

• Click ‘Select file’ and browse your computer for the file to be imported (see "Excel (CSV) file format restrictions" below)

• Select the collision action for your import file.

• ‘Show collisions’: This is the default setting that will display the ‘Collisions report’ for the selected import file in the next step.
• ‘Keep both’: In the event of collisions between any existing terms in the termbase and the terms to be imported, selecting this action keeps both the existing terms and imports the terms from the imported file as well. This action should be selected when importing terms to an empty termbase.
• ‘Overwrite’: In the event of collisions between any existing terms in the termbase and the terms to be imported, selecting this action means that the terms from the imported file will overwrite the existing terms in the termbase and therefore replace them in the termbase.
• ‘Discard’: In the event of collisions between any existing terms in the termbase and the terms to be imported, selecting this action means that the terms from the imported file will not replace the existing terms in the termbase, which will remain unaffected.
• Click ‘Next’ to proceed.
  • If the file does not meet the import requirements, the system will show an error message (see "Excel (CSV) file format restrictions" below).
  • The examples below show error messages for a file type that is not supported and an empty import file.

If there are no errors and the file has been uploaded, the general file information and any collisions are displayed in the ‘Collisions report’.

• The general file information in the top left-hand side displays the number of new entries that the import will add to the termbase, the number of collisions and the name of the imported file.
• The ‘Collisions report’ displays the following information about each detected collision:
  • The row number from the import file
  • The source term and source language
  • The imported language
  • The ‘Collisions’ column displays the existing term in the termbase in black and the import term from the file in red
• In the event that collisions are detected and listed in the table, a ‘Collision Action’ must be chosen before the import can be performed: ‘Keep both’, ‘Overwrite’ or ‘Discard’. The chosen action will be applied to all collisions.
• Then click ‘Import to termbase’.

When an import is initialised, it is processed in the background and the termbase will be blocked for the duration of the import. While an import is in progress, it is therefore not possible to edit the termbase or manage terms, which all remain read only during the import process.

Once the file has been imported, you will be taken to the Import/Export tab, where the Import history is displayed (see "Import history" above).

Exporting files

You can export a termbase from the three dots menu in the termbase table, or using the ‘Actions’ button on the termbase page:

• Click on the three dots menu in the termbase table and select ‘Export’.

• Or click the ‘Actions’ button on the termbase page and select ‘Export’

• Under ‘Export Settings’, select the file type for the export.

• When ‘Excel (CSV)’ is selected, it is possible to also select the attributes to be included in the export from the drop-down menu (other file types do not support this feature).

• It is also possible to select specific languages to be included in the export.

• Click ‘Export’ to download the file to your computer.

Excel (CSV) file format restrictions

For the system to recognise terms to be imported via an Excel (CSV) file, the file must be structured in a particular format that includes both terms and their properties.

Excel (CSV) categories

This Excel (CSV) structure is based on column headers with names for each entry category: ‘Entry Id’, ‘Term’, ‘Usage’, ‘Note’, ‘Gender’, ‘Part of Speech’, ‘Definition’, ‘Examples’, ‘Matching Mode’ and ‘Casing Mode’.

Note: When completing the Usage, Matching Mode and Casing Mode categories, the following accepted values only may be used:

• For ‘Usage’: ‘Preferred’, ‘Permitted’ and ‘Forbidden’
• For ‘Matching Mode’: ‘Default’ and ‘Exact’
• For ‘Casing Mode’: ‘Strict’, ‘Permissive’ and ‘Insensitive’

In the event that these properties are left empty, the default values ‘Preferred’, ‘Default’ and ‘Insensitive’ are assigned to the term.

It is not necessary to include column headers in the import file for columns that contain no data; these can be omitted. The minimum requirement for column headers in an import file are ‘Entry Id’ and one ‘Term’ column.

Excel column header pattern

Each column header (apart from ‘Entry Id’ in column A) must use the pattern Language Code, then a colon followed by the category.

• Example: en-GB: Term, en-GB: Usage, etc.
• If the file to be imported contains more than one language, this logic must be replicated for each language, adding columns to the right.
• Terms that share the same row and therefore the same Entry Id are to be considered part of the same entry.

Tip: to obtain a ‘template’ for your import file that includes all relevant column headers, a csv file can be exported from an existing termbase and the column headers can be copied from there (see "Exporting files" above).

Non-translatable terms in imports

In CSV files: non-translatable term entries should appear first in the file, from left to right, after the ‘Entry ID’ column with the header ‘non-translatable’. The remaining category names will remain unchanged, e.g. ‘non-translatable: Term’.

In XML Multiterm files: non-translatable terms cannot be imported into the TBMS using this file format, as they are incompatible with XML files.

Non-translatable terms in exports

In CSV files: If a termbase contains non-translatable terms, these are listed first in the CSV file, from left to right, after the ‘Entry Id’ column and display the header ‘non-translatable’. If a termbase does not contain any non-translatable terms, no columns with the ‘non-translatable’ header will appear in the export.

In XML Multiterm files: this feature is not compatible with XML files. Therefore, when non-translatable terms are exported in this format, the identical term and properties for that entry will be replicated in all the languages of the termbase.

The availability of the flows and features described in this section, will depend on the user role and permissions you have.

• To create a new termbase, click the ‘New Termbase’ button.
• This opens a dialogue box to enter the definition of the termbase (‘Name’, ‘Source languages’ and ‘Target languages’).

• To create a new termbase, it must be given a name and at least one source language. Note: it is possible to create a termbase without selecting any target languages.
• Clicking on the source or target language fields opens a drop-down list of supported languages. Check the box next to the language(s) to be included in the termbase. Note: it is not possible to add the same language as a source language and a target language. Languages set as source languages are identified by the crown icon.
• Click ‘Save’ to create the termbase and close the dialogue box, or ‘Save and import’ to create the termbase and open the import dialogue box (see Link to Importing files in this page).

You can delete the entire termbase from the three dots menu in the termbase table.

• Click on the three dots menu in the termbase table to display a drop-down list of options.

• Click ‘Delete Termbase’.
• In the confirmation dialogue box, click ‘Accept’ to delete the termbase.

Roles and permissions levels

There are various roles within the TBMS, each with specific access permissions and different permission levels for the actions and features available in the tool.

Roles and access permissions

There are three different roles within the TBMS, each with different access permissions.

Role	Access permission
LW staff	Can access the terminology of all non-restricted companies. Note: Permission to access the terminology of restricted companies is managed via the LanguageWire Platform.
Customer staff	Have access to their own termbases and terms.
Vendor	Only have access to the termbases and terms of the entity for which they are working on translation projects.

Action/feature permissions

All roles can be granted different permission levels for the set of available actions.

The permission levels are:

• ‘Admin’: users who can import supported files, approve and decline suggestions, manage terms and termbases
• ‘Writing’: users who can create, edit and delete terms and term entries
• ‘Read-only’: users who can only read and submit suggestions
• ‘Export’: users who can export

Import Templates

•  TBMS XML Template.xml 

•  Import Template for CSV in Excel.csv