How to export a termbase from

MultiTerm to Excel or Word

May 7, 2015 by Jayne Fox

Image source: pexels.com photo 3343

If you translate using SDL Trados Studio, you probably have lots of handy MultiTerm
termbases. (And if you don’t use termbases, have a look at this post for details of what you’re
missing.)
After creating all that valuable data, you may want to share it with your client - so you will
probably need to export the terms into another format. Here are the steps to export a
MultiTerm termbase into a glossary in Excel, or a printable dictionary in Microsoft Word.

Export a termbase from MultiTerm to Excel

The steps to export a termbase from MultiTerm are not very intuitive. But don’t worry, it’s
actually very easy to do.

1. First open MultiTerm, select the File tab and click Open Termbase. Click Browse, select the
termbase that you want to open and click Open. Then click OK. Result: the termbase is now
open and displays in the Termbases pane.
 

2. Now click the Termbase Management button on the bottom left. A complicated-looking tree
structure displays in the left pane.
 

3. Click Export in the tree structure below the termbase name. Result: the export options
display in the right pane.
 

4. (Here’s the really non-intuitive part.) Now right-click Tab-delimited export definition in the
right pane and select Process from the context menu. (Completely nuts. I know.)

 
 

Result: the Export Wizard displays. (And it starts on Step 2 of 8. Lol.)

5. On the Export Wizard, click Save As, select a location and enter a name for the export file.
Click Next. Result: a progress bar displays.

 
 

6. When the progress bar has reached 100%, click Next and then Finish.
Congratulations, you’ve exported the termbase! Now you just need to open the TXT file in
Excel (right click the file and open with Excel, or open with Notepad and save as .XLS instead
of .TXT, then open the file in Excel). Delete any columns that you don’t need, save the file as
an Excel document and you’re good to go.

Export a termbase from MultiTerm to Word – to create a printable

dictionary

Multiterm has a nice option to export a termbase to a dictionary format in Microsoft Word. This
can be an easy and attractive way to share terminology with clients.
To export the termbase to Word, follow steps 1, 2 and 3 above. Then:

4. Right-click Word Dictionary export definition in the right pane and select Process from the
context menu.

 
 

Result: the Export Wizard displays (as in step 4 above).

Continue steps 5 and 6 above.
Congratulations, you’ve exported your termbase as a dictionary!

Open the RTF file, add any notes or formatting, then save it as a Word document or PDF. Now
you can share the dictionary with your client.

How about you?

Do you use MultiTerm? Do you find it easy to export the data to another format? Have you
tried creating a dictionary for your client?