Understanding how to use and edit a Translation Glossary file

If you have a large glossary with many terms, it may be more efficient to maintain and update it in an external program like a spreadsheet.

Elucidat's Translation Glossary offers the ability to export your glossary in the form of a CSV file (Comma Separated Values). Once exported, you can open and edit it in a program of your choice and import it back into the platform to update your glossary.

This can also be useful for keeping a backup of your glossary in case you ever need to restore it to a previous version. 

Contents

1. Editing the file in a spreadsheet

2. Adding new terms

2a. Adding a single term

2b. Adding multiple translations for a single term

3. Editing existing terms and their languages

4. Saving the file and importing it back into Elucidat

Editing the file in a spreadsheet

Due to their simple format, CSVs can be edited in many different programs including text editors, spreadsheets, and specialized CSV editors.

This guide will focus on editing the file in a spreadsheet like Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers for MacOS as they are commonly used programs and most users have a degree of familiarity with them.

For more information about how to export a glossary file from Elucidat, see Importing and exporting your Translation Glossary in CSV format.

Once you've opened the file, you'll see seven columns, each corresponding to a piece of information in the glossary:

If you've exported a glossary with terms already in it, you'll see the information sorted into these columns. 

Here is a quick reference guide to each of the columns and the information they contain:

uuid

term

language

created_at

updated_at

translation.language

translations.translation

Adding new terms

Cells in Columns B and G hold the terms, while C and F define the language those terms are in. The language should be in the form of an IETF language tag.

If you don't need to define a specific language, you can use an asterisk (*). This is the equivalent of selecting Any from the drop-down menu in the Translation Glossary interface in the Elucidat platform.

You do not need to add any new information in the cells of the other Columns (A, D, and E). They can be left empty.

Adding a single term

To add terms, input the necessary information in the next available empty rows in Columns B, C, F, and G.

So for example, if you wanted to add the English word 'pineapple' to your glossary and have it translated to 'ανανάς' in Greek courses, then you would:

1. Add 'pineapple' to the next empty cell in Column B

2. Add the IETF language tag 'en' for English in the next empty cell in Column C

3. Add the IETF language tag 'el' for Greek in the next empty cell in Column F

4. Add 'ανανάς' in the next empty cell in Column G

Adding multiple translations for a single term

You may want to add more translations in different languages for the same term. To do this, you can add the same word again in the next available cell in Column B and the same language in Column C and then add the new languages and translation in Columns F and G.

For example, if you wanted to add translations for the word 'pineapple' in French and Portuguese courses, you would:

1. Add 'pineapple' to the next empty cell in Column B

2. Add the IETF language tag 'en' for English in the next empty cell in Column C

3. Add the IETF language tag 'fr' for French in the next empty cell in Column F

4. Add 'ananas' in the next empty cell in Column G

5. Repeat steps 1 and 2

6. Add the IETF language tag 'pt' for Portuguese in the next empty cell in Column F

7. Add 'ananás' in the next empty cell in Column G

Because the term is the same for each translation in Column B, these will be added as different translations for the same term when the file is uploaded back into Elucidat.

Editing existing terms and their languages

If you already have existing terms in your glossary that you'd like to edit, you can use the same concepts as explained above to edit them.

In short:

• Edit the term by typing in Column B
• Edit the term's language by typing a new IETF tag, or an asterisk to denote 'any language', in Column C
• Edit the translation's language by typing a new IETF tag, or an asterisk to denote 'any language', in Column F
• And edit the translation by typing in Column G.

The cells in the other columns can be left as they are.

Saving the file and importing it back into Elucidat

Once you have carried out the changes you need, save or re-export the file as a CSV and upload it back into the platform. For more information about how to import a glossary file into Elucidat, see Importing and exporting your Translation Glossary in CSV format.