29 October 2015

Glossarismo, dtSearch, IntelliWebSearch and more

Glossarismo is one of many great sources of mono-, bi- and multilingual terminology now readily accessible to translators thanks to the internet. @Glossarissimo receive regular tweets ensuring prompt access to the latest sites, site updates and events.

But how can freelance translators make the best use of these resources? There's no one answer, so let me explain my approach, just in case some of it is of use to others.

I begin with the assumption that you already are or aim to become a subject specialist. Clearly, you begin by searching for relevant terms plus glossary, terminology, dictionary, lexicon, etc. This is best done using IntelliWebSearch (see my post entitled dtSearch + IntelliWebSearch). If, like me, you prefer local resources to online resources, you then download the most useful looking documents and index them using an indexing engine like dtSearch.
See Term mining pioneer and, again, dtSearch + IntelliWebSearch.

Here are the two main reasons that I prefer local resources to online resources:
  1. faster, more reliable access
  2. good resources are sometimes withdrawn and thus no longer available on line. 
But (and this is the main issue I aim to address today), what do you do when you find a good resource organised as separate webpages for each letter of the alphabet and no provision for single-file download?

Two options:
  • use a tool like HTTrack website copier to download the relevant pages or the entire site
    (HTTrack is a free (GPL), easy-to-use offline browser.)
  • download each page manually (placing the set in a suitably named folder for easy access).
When Glossarismo pointed me to
(EN) – Military Terms & Definitions | http://militaryterms.net/
and
(FR) – Lexique des termes techniques | CCFA : Comité des Constructeurs Français d’Automobiles
I was pleased to discover resources that were more comprehensive and more up to date that those in my archives. The only drawback was that both are organised as separate webpages for each letter of the alphabet with no provision for single-file download?
Having downloaded all the relevant pages, I can forward them as zip files to anyone who happens to be interested but doesn't feel up to following either of the download options explained above.

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