Comments on: Some sort of database for translations?

Question: Some sort of database for translations?

Xere — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 16:34:17 -0800

Is there any sort of freeware program (online, installed on computer, php, mysql, anything) for me to save phrases in English, and then their translation in a certain language? In some kind of tidy, tabled format? I tried a wiki but I quickly tired of formatting each entry in order to produce a tidy table. Ideally, I'd like to be able to just plug in the phrases and go.

By: kristi

kristi — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 17:23:56 -0800

Anything you want to do in a table is a good candidate for the spreadsheet in Google Docs.

As an alternative, I really like Genius (Mac OS X only) and Anki (cross-platform). Both are flashcard programs, and both have a table view, although they're really intended for quizzing yourself. Anki is less intuitive, but they're both great programs.

By: Roger Dodger

Roger Dodger — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 17:24:30 -0800

You might want to see if anything works for you in Google Documents. If all you are looking for is a two-column table, you can use the spreadsheet, or create a table in a document. And, since it is online, you can use it from any computer.

By: fire&wings

fire&wings — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 17:35:04 -0800

Seconding Anki, it's a fantastic, free program.

By: cmiller

cmiller — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 18:31:53 -0800

What do you want to do with them in the end? That matters a lot.

By: Xere

Xere — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 18:58:43 -0800

cmiller: A quick-reference database for phrases used in software translation. I translate software programs and whatnot from English, and many terms tend to come up over and over again. (Frequently asked questions, About us, Release notes, File, Open...)

By: Memo

Memo — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 21:49:38 -0800

POedit works like that.

By: Bixby23

Bixby23 — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 22:17:49 -0800

In our office, we use Felix (used to be called TransAssist) -- in any case, it's just one of many types of translation memory software, which is what you describe -- a database of English terms/expressions/sentences and corresponding translations. But instead of being quick reference, these tools generally identify text in a document you're working on and suggest translations based on the database you've created, so you don't really have to refer to anything.

Felix isn't freeware, and I don't know how good the freeware products are, but there's a ton of them about 3/4 the way down on the 2nd link. Best of luck!

By: mateuslee

mateuslee — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 04:36:57 -0800

I am not sure how you do your translations or why you need this, but assuming it is to help you translate better, check out WordFast - you can build a translation database which you can use in the future. The software has a free trial version and then a pay version, which is very affordable.

By: jak68

jak68 — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:51:16 -0800

if you want a tree-organizer for text clips, try surfulater. It has a lot of features to move text into it from website or clipboard and comment or cross-list the entries as well. (New version coming out soon will have tags as well).