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Freeware glossary lookup tool wanted
Thread poster: Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 14:03
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Aug 3, 2011

G'day everyone

Does anyone know of a simple, free program that will compare the clipboard with a glossary of words or phrases, and then output a list of the terms that were found (including the source term, target term and comment)? I have a glossary but I have to use a tool that doesn't have a glossary feature, so I'd like to be able to select the source text, copy it to the clipboard, and then do the glossary lookup automatically. The output can in any format as long as I can se
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G'day everyone

Does anyone know of a simple, free program that will compare the clipboard with a glossary of words or phrases, and then output a list of the terms that were found (including the source term, target term and comment)? I have a glossary but I have to use a tool that doesn't have a glossary feature, so I'd like to be able to select the source text, copy it to the clipboard, and then do the glossary lookup automatically. The output can in any format as long as I can see it (I don't have to be able to select/copy it).

Oh, and I'm using Windows XP.

Thanks
Samuel
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Michael Grant
Michael Grant
Japan
Local time: 22:03
Japanese to English
What file format is your glossary in? Aug 4, 2011

Samuel,

Can you please specify what file format your glossary is in?

It makes a big difference in terms of how the automatic glossary lookup and output will work...

For example, if it is a simple text file(txt,csv,dat,...etc.), then you could use Windows scripting(VBS, WSH) to access the file, do the lookup, and formulate the output. But if it is in a binary format(.doc,.xls, ...etc.) then there are other options/considerations...

MGrant


 
Philip Lees
Philip Lees  Identity Verified
Greece
Local time: 15:03
Greek to English
Perl Aug 4, 2011

As Michael said, if the data are stored as plain text, it's an easy task (I would do it in Perl and would expect a script of about 10 lines to do the job). However, if you have the glossary in some proprietary format then the difficulty increases by several orders of magnitude.

 
Didier Briel
Didier Briel  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 14:03
English to French
+ ...
Xbench Aug 4, 2011

Samuel Murray wrote:
Does anyone know of a simple, free program that will compare the clipboard with a glossary of words or phrases, and then output a list of the terms that were found (including the source term, target term and comment)? I have a glossary but I have to use a tool that doesn't have a glossary feature, so I'd like to be able to select the source text, copy it to the clipboard, and then do the glossary lookup automatically. The output can in any format as long as I can see it (I don't have to be able to select/copy it).

Have you tried Xbench?

It seems to me it works more or less as you describe (except you do not even need to put things in the clipboard, you just do a selection, and press Ctrl+Alt+Ins).

Didier


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 14:03
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
@Michael and @Philip Aug 4, 2011

Michael Grant wrote:
Can you please specify what file format your glossary is in?


Right now, it is in the classic tab-delimited three-column plain text format (i.e. source word, tab, target word, tab, comment, linebreak), but I can convert it to any required format.

For example, if it is a simple text file(txt,csv,dat,...etc.), then you could use Windows scripting(VBS, WSH) to access the file, do the lookup, and formulate the output.


Do you know of such a script that I can download somewhere? I can also do some scripting (AutoIt) but my scripting skills are of such that a tool that would do what I want it to do would probably be several hundred lines long (though if you know the right functions you could probably do it shorter).

Philip Lees wrote:
As Michael said, if the data are stored as plain text, it's an easy task (I would do it in Perl and would expect a script of about 10 lines to do the job).


If you do plan on writing a Perl script for me (and for all who need this type of tool), let me just make it plain what I'm looking for (so that you don't waste your time):

If the clipboard (or input) is:
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

...and the glossary contains the source terms:
quick
fast
slow
brown fox
brown monkey
clever dog
row
own fox
overt and
this very lazy dog.

...then I want at least "quick" in the output, but having both "quick" and "brown fox" in the output would be ideal.

If any of the exact-but-non-whole-word matches make it to the output (i.e. "row" and "own fox"), it would be okay too. If any other terms make it to the output (except "fast", "slow" and "overt"), it wouldn't be the end of the world but it would not be ideal. If "overt" makes it to the output, then it would be very non-ideal but not the end of the world either. However, if "fast" and "slow" make it to the output, then the script simply doesn't do what it is supposed to.

My glossary has about 5000 terms, and a typical 30-word sentence will contain no more than about 10 matches (the client has some very, very specific word preferences).



[Edited at 2011-08-04 07:00 GMT]


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 14:03
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
How in Xbench? Aug 4, 2011

Didier Briel wrote:
Have you tried Xbench ? ... It seems to me it works more or less as you describe (except you do not even need to put things in the clipboard, you just do a selection, and press Ctrl+Alt+Ins).


Xbench is a very complex tool if you don't know where to look for what you need Can you tell me where to find the function that you believe is the one I'm looking for? I can see how to look up individual terms in the glossary, but I can't see how to make it look up words if the input is a sentence.


 
Didier Briel
Didier Briel  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 14:03
English to French
+ ...
I don't think you can with Xbench Aug 4, 2011

Samuel Murray wrote:

Didier Briel wrote:
Have you tried Xbench ? ... It seems to me it works more or less as you describe (except you do not even need to put things in the clipboard, you just do a selection, and press Ctrl+Alt+Ins).


Xbench is a very complex tool if you don't know where to look for what you need Can you tell me where to find the function that you believe is the one I'm looking for? I can see how to look up individual terms in the glossary, but I can't see how to make it look up words if the input is a sentence.

You're right.

I had misunderstood what you wanted.

With your description above, it is now clear, and I don't think you can do it in Xbench.

Since you can script, you could do it with OmegaT, but I don't know whether this would be reactive enough for your needs.

First, create a project normally, with your glossary in /glossary.

Then
- Put your source sentence in a text file in the /source folder.
- Reload the project.
You have now your matches.

Didier


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 14:03
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
@Didier Aug 4, 2011

Didier Briel wrote:
Since you can script, you could do it with OmegaT, but I don't know whether this would be reactive enough for your needs.


Thanks, but I was looking for something simple (i.e. something that I can give to a non-geek colleague to use, and knowing that he will have it up and running within a minute and that he will definitely use it (and not merely say that he used it, when in fact he didn't)). Juggling between various programs is not simple, and many things can go wrong with a script written for it.

Actually, I was planning on using OmegaT for this project entirely (and not the client's own CAT tool) because I think I can teach OmegaT to my colleague fairly quickly, but unfortunately the "Author" and "Changed before" features in the Find dialog don't work for me, and that is a deal-breaker (since the client's CAT tool can do that perfectly). What the client's CAT tool can't do (in my case), is automatic glossary lookup in a translator's own glossary.


 
Michael Grant
Michael Grant
Japan
Local time: 22:03
Japanese to English
Quick and dirty... Aug 4, 2011


Set objHTML = CreateObject("htmlfile")

ClipboardText = objHTML.ParentWindow.ClipboardData.GetData("text")

Const ForReading = 1

Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

glossPath = "C:\Test.txt"
Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(glossPath , ForReading)

sData = ""

do until objFile.atEndOfStream
strContents = objFile.ReadLine

If InStr(strContents, ClipboardText) Then
MyArray = Split(strContents, vbTab, -1, 1)

sData = sData & MyArray(1) & vbCrLf

End If

loop

objFile.close

Msgbox sData


1) Copy the above text to a text file,
2) Change the glossPath variable("C:\Test.txt") to your glossary’s path, (IMPORTANT!)
3) Close and save the file, (IMPORTANT!)
4) Rename the file giving it a .vbs extension (IMPORTANT!)

It will run as-is, but will pop-up an ugly DOS window. If you don’t want that
then:

5) Create a shortcut to the .vbs file (i.e. hold the Alt down and drag the file)
6) Modify the Properties of the shortcut (Right-click > Properties) and change the size when executing to Minimize (I do not remember what this option is call in the English version of Windows, in Japanese it is: 実行時の大きさ)
7) Use the shortcut to execute the script once you have copied your term to the clipboard.

The script assumes, as you indicated, that your glossary is tab-delimited..

Let me know if this works for you!

MGrant


 
Yuri Dubrov
Yuri Dubrov  Identity Verified
Russian Federation
Local time: 16:03
English to Russian
+ ...
Try Babylon and its dictionary tool Aug 4, 2011

working great!

 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 14:03
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
@Yuri Aug 4, 2011

Yuri Dubrov wrote:
Try Babylon and its dictionary tool... working great!


Thanks for the tip. Babylon does indeed search multiple words at the same time, but... I can't get it to give me *translations* (it only gives me definitions). Can you tell me how to load my own glossary into Babylon so that it will give me my own translations instead of definitions from some online system?


 
Yuri Dubrov
Yuri Dubrov  Identity Verified
Russian Federation
Local time: 16:03
English to Russian
+ ...
I made some dictionaries this way Aug 4, 2011

Samuel Murray wrote:

Can you tell me how to load my own glossary into Babylon so that it will give me my own translations instead of definitions from some online system?



1. download and install Glossary Buider (needed to convert ur glossaries into BGL format for Babylon)
2. make a dictionary from ur glossary (2 column excel file enough) easy
3. Install babylon - price about 80 euro
4. Load ur dictionary now
5. Be happy

http://www.babylon.com/products/glossary-builder.html


 
opolt
opolt  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 14:03
English to German
+ ...
Dict ??? Aug 4, 2011

Maybe dict is worth a look here -- though some file conversion will be necessary (should not be too difficult from what I have seen):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DICT

I don't know what the situation is on Windows/Mac, but my Linux system provides both a dict server and several client programs, plus a number of free dictionaries (some of which are also available online) -- plus
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Maybe dict is worth a look here -- though some file conversion will be necessary (should not be too difficult from what I have seen):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DICT

I don't know what the situation is on Windows/Mac, but my Linux system provides both a dict server and several client programs, plus a number of free dictionaries (some of which are also available online) -- plus the ability to build your own, all for free.

(OT: I always wanted to install all this stuff on my SOHO server, but haven't gotten around to doing so yet -- if anyone has and is using it successfully, please drop me a line.)
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Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 14:03
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Dict is a format, not a program Aug 4, 2011

opolt wrote:
Maybe dict is worth a look here -- though some file conversion will be necessary (should not be too difficult from what I have seen).


I know of only one Dict client that runs on Windows, namely:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/dictc/
and it can't do lookups on sentences -- you have to query the terms one at a time.

Since Dict is a format and not a program, whether a Dict program can query whole sentences would be up to the particular client software, so theoretically there could be one.


 
opolt
opolt  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 14:03
English to German
+ ...
@Samuel Aug 4, 2011

I'm not sure what you want to imply by saying that "dict is a format, not a program". Actually, it is neither -- or either, depending on how you see it -- because it's a network protocol (see Wiki article mentioned by me).

So in my previous post, I was using "dict" as shorthand for "dict system", as it were, i.e. "server + files + client(s)". You'll always need those three together, of course. It doesn't surprise me that there is a client for Windows -- the real difficulties migh
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I'm not sure what you want to imply by saying that "dict is a format, not a program". Actually, it is neither -- or either, depending on how you see it -- because it's a network protocol (see Wiki article mentioned by me).

So in my previous post, I was using "dict" as shorthand for "dict system", as it were, i.e. "server + files + client(s)". You'll always need those three together, of course. It doesn't surprise me that there is a client for Windows -- the real difficulties might be on the server side ...

But maybe it's not for you anyway, Samuel, from my daily experience with the client side I can tell you that it displays exact matches of words or word combinations only, I doubt that this can be expanded to phrase querying (at least not in a CAT-like or search-engine like fashion) -- I overlooked this latter part in your original post, sorry. Whether it is possible will depend more on the protocol, i.e. on the server and the file format, than on the client.
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Freeware glossary lookup tool wanted






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