tlTerm: Terminology Software
Version 2023 (v15) of tlTerm brings OpenAI AI (GPT/ChatGPT) Integration to help enhance, augment and speed up your terminology work, try it now.
Watch this video presentation to see the new OpenAI AI integration. (Getting Started with OpenAI AI integration in tlTerm How-To »)
The new tlTerm 64-bit allows you to load and work with truly massive terminology databases, such as the IATE EU downloable TBX terminology - watch this video of tlTerm easily loading nearly a million entries with millions of terms (in just one minute) to see how it works.
tlTerm can be used as a stand-alone editor for single-user use, or be used by multi-user teams. It's also customizable, both through the built-in custom field configuration system, through the built-in scripting system, and we are able to quickly add new features if needed for your project.
Professional support is available.
• € 120.00 (US$171). Pay with credit card and get activation details immediately
• Free automatic upgrades included to latest version
• Commercial paid support available for all license tiers.
• Software runs in evaluation mode until activated
• Licenses do not expire. License fee is once-off
• Volume discounts available
• Supports all languages (including 'right-to-left' languages, such as Arabic and Hebrew)
• Have existing data you need brought in? Contact us if you need help with that.
• Supports Windows and macOS (including macOS Catalina)
• Remote training available (in addition to free online tutorial videos)
Learn More:
Video: How to Load Large IATE EU TBX Terminology into tlTerm:
Watch tlTerm easily load nearly a million entries, and millions of terms from the IATE EU downloadable TBX-format terminology in this how-to video. This may help you to use this data as a reference (e.g. for translators). This demonstrates the scalability of tlTerm.
Video: 6-Minute Introduction to tlTerm:
Features
✔️ Microsoft Word and Excel integration provides translators with instant access to the terms they need
✔️ Multi-user system with privileges and tracking
✔️ Supports any language (full Unicode support)
✔️ Integrated spellchecking
✔️ Supports industry standards (XML, TBX, XLIFF, TMX, Unicode)
✔️ Improves the speed, quality and consistency of terminology work
✔️ Publish to hardcopy, Web or electronically
✔️ Integrated Corpus Query System
✔️ Advanced search/query system
✔️ Multi-user or single-user support
✔️ Easy to use
✔️ Fast
✔️ Highly customisable fields
✔️ New Multi-Document Smart-Search (which integrates with the Word and Excel plugin also) lets you rapidly see search results in TMX (Translation Memories), XLIFF, TBX (TermBase eXchange) and other file types. This allows you to load multiple files of various formats (e.g. TBX, TMX, XLIFF, tlTerm, TLex etc.) and run searches on them (also works together with the Word and Excel integration, so you can do things like 'run multi-document search on the term I'm standing on in Excel', as well as run commands to grab translations/terms from the results and semi-automatically insert them into Excel or Word, using the right-click menus or Word/Excel overlay window)
✔️ 'Show Differences' allows you to quickly review your changes before saving
✔️ Advanced 'Search Filter'
✔️ Integrated scripting [Advanced]
✔️ Free Viewer available
Screenshots, Videos, and More Features
Screenshot of tlTerm 2020 (64-bit) with nearly a million entries and many millions of IATE EU terms loaded (Approx. 26 languages - "IATE (Interactive Terminology for Europe) is the EU's terminology database ... used in the EU institutions and agencies since summer 2004 for the collection, dissemination and management of EU-specific terminology" ... anyone may download the IATE EU terminology in .tbx format, which can be loaded and viewed in tlTerm):
Free tlTerm tutorial videos »Video: Finding entries with missing (untranslated) terms:
TUTORIAL: Quick "Getting Started" Introduction to tlTerm
[Intermediate/Advanced]: Finding entries with missing (untranslated) terms in a specific subject field:
We also offer support, training, consulting and custom development services for all aspects of the terminology management process - both technical and linguistic - as well as data conversion for loading existing data, and publishing of terminology and dictionaries electronically or online. Contact us to find out more.
Users of tlTerm include:
• Stellenbosch University Language Centre
• Open Educational Resource TermBank (OERTB) oertb.tlerm.com »
• Department of Justice, Canada
• Welsh Language Board
• UNISA Terminology Hub unisa.tlerm.com »
• Centre for Legal Terminology in African Languages (CLTAL)
• South African Police Service
• Pearson Education, SA
Microsoft Word Integration
Integration with Word dramatically improves the productivity of translators and terminology practitioners by performing continuous instant lookups of the word at the current cursor position.
This also helps ensure the appropriate and consistent use of standardised terminology. The overlay window includes shortcuts for adding new terms (when not found) or editing existing terms.
Speed Up Your Terminology Management Process
A user-friendly design keeps initial training costs to a minimum, and underscores the principle that users should not need advanced computer literacy skills in order to use sophisticated terminology software.
tlTerm automates many tedious aspects of data entry for you, such as automatic numbering and sorting of entries, or finding untranslated terms.
A real-time entry preview updates as you edit, and shows you not only the current entry, but those following it, allowing you to quickly view and scroll through the entire terminology database.
Multimedia support allows you to link images and sounds (e.g. pronunciation recordings) to entries.
Supports Any Language
Essentially all of the world's languages are supported, thanks to full support for the industry standard international character set Unicode, integrated throughout every aspect of tlTerm.
Supports Windows IMEs (Input Method Editors) - data can be entered directly into tlTerm using any of the so-called "soft keyboards" available in Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows XP, such as those for Chinese, Japanese, Korean or Arabic. For the South African market, tlTerm also includes built-in standards-based support for easily entering Venda, Afrikaans and Sotho/Tswana diacritics.
Our innovative 'sort plug-in' architecture allows fully configurable sorting for any language.
Multi-User (Network/Teamwork) Functionality
Multi-user support allows a team of users to work on a single terminology database simultaneously.
The system keeps track of who edited what and when, and allows managers to track progress of each team member.
An entry-locking system prevents changes made by one user from being overwritten by changes made by another user.
Fully Customisable Entry Structure
A DTD (Document Type Definition) is used to describe the structure of entries for each particular terminology project. This allows the structure to be fully customised by the user for each project (e.g. which languages to include). The tlTerm DTD system is based on the industry standard XML DTD system.
A user-friendly interface, supplemented with detailed documentation, allows end-users to configure their DTD without requiring assistance from an IT expert. A sensible default DTD also allows new users to get "up and running" within minutes, while template DTDs allow custom or standard DTDs to be easily re-used as starting points for new terminology projects.
Constraints prevent users from creating invalid entries, thus ensuring consistency throughout the terminology database.
Fields may to be restricted to selection from a closed list, e.g. a part of speech list.
Simultaneous Feedback
When used in conjunction with TLex Online for publishing of terminology, tlTerm constitutes a complete, live example of Simultaneous Feedback: A user browsing the terminology website may spot an error or request a change or addition via e.g. a feedback form; TLex Online may send this feedback directly to the language specialists; the changes may then be implemented, and then be published immediately back online from within tlTerm - the end-user who submitted the feedback can potentially see the changes resulting from their feedback (e.g. corrections or additions) reflect on the site within, potentially, minutes or hours of submitting the feedback.
Styles
A comprehensive Styles system allows you to configure all aspects of the visual output of any field.
Automatic numbering may be configured for any field.
Multiple sets of styles may be defined, allowing multiple editions or 'views' to be generated from the same database, such as print vs. electronic/Web views. Combined with the Filter tool, which allows users to define criteria for viewing or exporting a subset of the data, this can be used to print "sub-dictionaries" from a single database, e.g. one could select to export all terminology related to a particular field as necessary, or for a particular language or language combination for regional terminology list distribution (for example, one could select to export a 'mini English - isiXhosa dictionary of just election-related terminology').
Many Other Features
✔️ Export your data to many formats, such as MS Word, OpenOffice, InDesign, XML, HTML or HTML/CSS.
✔️ Fully-Integrated Corpus: Built-in corpus query functionality integrates directly into your workflow.
✔️ Customising the language of the metalanguage: Change the language used to display labelling information such as part of speech, usage information and more.
✔️ A full database search tool allows fast text searches on the entire database, with options such as case-sensitivity or whole-word/partial-word matching. Advanced users may also use regular expressions.
✔️ The Compare/Merge tool allows different versions of a database to be visually compared with one another. Changes made by a user working at home or otherwise offline from the main database can be easily merged back into the main database.
✔️ Built-in scripting language allows programmers to interface directly with tlTerm, as well as create "calculation fields", similar in principle to Microsoft Excel formulas.
✔️ "Term Fanouts" automatically shows entries related to the current one via a shared term.
✔️ An innovative and powerful Ruler Tool measures and monitors various aspects of progress, such as space allocation across alphabetic sections, providing a unique tool for planning and for ensuring balanced data.
✔️ Free Reader: tlReader: Freely downloadable application that can be used to view tlTerm termbases, or make them available for use by translators.
✔️ Other advanced features include an integrated Web API server, XSLT support and more.
(ADVANCED) Server Architecture
In tlTerm, one can edit either as a stand-alone file, or it can be set up for multi-user editing, in which your data can be stored in a relational database (e.g. PostgreSQL or MySQL) and accessed using the ODBC interface in tlTerm.
In addition to this, tlTerm may then further also be set up to run as a 'cloud server', allowing users to log in via Web browser or smartphone and do searches or edits etc. This is shown in the following network architecture diagram, applicable to systems like oertb.tlterm.com (Open Educational Resource Term Bank) and UNISA Terminology Hub. Here, tlTerm runs in server mode using the integrated Web API server, which interfaces with the Apache PHP website hosting server.
tlTerm Awards and Reviews
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the difference between TLex and tlTerm?
A: Although they are very similar in many respects, and both are comparably powerful editors, the primary difference is that in TLex (for lexicography), each entry centers around a particular word in a particular language; in tlTerm, each entry centers around a concept, and terms/translations for that concept are entered for each language on the same "level", subordinate to the underlying abstract concept. In practice, you don't need to worry about this too much.
In tlTerm, synonyms for a concept in the same language would thus be entered on the same entry - e.g. 'dog' and 'hound' might both be arranged on the same entry for the abstract concept of 'dog'. In TLex, though, 'dog' and 'hound' would be separate entries, with perhaps a cross-reference from one to the other. In tlTerm, such a cross-reference is automatically generated when tlTerm generates the alphabetic listing, provided they're entered correctly as synonyms on the same entry.
This is explained in more detail in the User Guide section titled "Primary Differences Between tlTerm and TLex".
TLex has further additional specialized lexicography-specific functionality, e.g. bilingual reversal, that is not really relevant to terminology.
Video: What's new in Feb+Mar 2018 Updates
Student Pricing
Click here to get tlTerm student discount pricing. You do not need to send us proof; just go ahead and order - but you may not use these for professional/commercial use.
• Have other questions not answered here? Ask »