Adding & Editing Terms

You are viewing help for Supervertaler for Trados — the Trados Studio plugin. Looking for help with the standalone app? Visit Supervertaler Workbench help.

Supervertaler for Trados provides several ways to add, edit, and manage terminology without leaving the Trados editor.

Quick-add (Alt+Down)

The fastest way to add a term while translating:

1. Select the source text you want to add as a term

2. Select the target text (the translation)

3. Press Alt+Down

The term is added instantly to all write-enabled termbases. No dialog, no interruption.

Quick-add writes to every termbase that has Write enabled in your TermLens Settings. If you want to target a specific termbase, use the Add Term Entry dialog (Ctrl+Alt+T) instead.

Quick-add to project termbase (Alt+Up)

Works the same as Alt+Down, but adds the term specifically to the project termbase (the termbase marked as "Project" in settings). Use this when you want to keep client-specific terminology separate and prioritised.

1. Select the source text

2. Select the target text

3. Press Alt+Up

Quick-add non-translatable (Ctrl+Alt+N)

For terms that should remain identical in source and target (brand names, product codes, abbreviations):

1. Select the text in the source field

2. Press Ctrl+Alt+N

This creates a term entry where source and target are the same. Non-translatable terms appear with a distinct yellow highlight in TermLens (Workbench).

Add term entry (Ctrl+Alt+T)

For full control over a new term, press Ctrl+Alt+T (or right-click in the editor and choose Add Term...). This opens the Add term entry dialog, which lets you fill in all fields before saving:

Field	Description
Source	The source-language term
Target	The target-language translation
Source Abbreviation	Optional abbreviated form (e.g. "GC" for "gaschromatografie"). Separate multiple variants with |.
Target Abbreviation	Optional abbreviated form of the target term
Source synonyms	Alternative source-language forms for the same concept
Target synonyms	Alternative target-language translations
Definition	Optional definition or usage note. Supports multiple lines — click the ▼ button to expand the field for longer content.
Domain	Subject area or client (e.g. "Legal", "ACME Corp")
Notes	Any additional notes for translators. Supports multiple lines with an expand button, like Definition.
URL	Optional reference URL (shown as a clickable link in the term popup)
Non-translatable	Check this to mark the term as non-translatable

The term is added to the project termbase if one is configured, or the first write-enabled termbase otherwise.

Trados conflict: Trados Studio assigns Ctrl+Alt+T to "Insert TM Symbol" by default. If pressing Ctrl+Alt+T does nothing, you need to remove Trados's binding first. Go to File → Options → Keyboard Shortcuts, search for "Insert TM Symbol", and delete or reassign its shortcut. Then Ctrl+Alt+T will work as expected in Supervertaler.

Tip: Use the project termbase for client-specific terminology that should be prioritised over background termbases. Project termbase terms appear in pink in TermLens.

Smart selection

You don't need to precisely select entire words when adding terms. All quick-add shortcuts (Alt+Down, Alt+Up, Ctrl+Alt+N, Ctrl+Alt+T) automatically expand your selection to the nearest word boundaries.

For example, to add standalone version = zelfstandige versie to your termbase, it's enough to select alone ver in the source and andige ver in the target. Supervertaler expands both selections to the full words automatically.

This means you can work fast and loose with your mouse or keyboard selections — no need for the precise click-and-drag that normally slows you down. Just grab roughly the right area and Supervertaler takes care of the rest.

How it works

When you make a selection, Supervertaler scans the full segment text for every occurrence of your selected text and applies these rules, in order:

1. Exact word match wins — if the selection matches a complete word somewhere in the segment (i.e. it sits between spaces or punctuation), that word is used as-is. For example, if the segment contains both hechtingsbevorderaars and hechting, selecting hechting returns hechting — the exact word — not the longer compound.

2. Shortest word wins — if the selection is embedded inside multiple words, the shortest enclosing word is preferred. For example, if the segment contains hechtingsbevorderaars and hechting, selecting echt returns hechting (8 characters) rather than hechtingsbevorderaars (21 characters), because the user most likely intended the simpler word.

3. Single match expands — if the selection appears inside only one word, it expands to that word's boundaries.

Tips for reliable results

• Select at least 3–4 characters — very short selections (1–2 characters) may match common short words elsewhere in the segment (e.g., selecting he could match the word the)

• Select the whole word when in doubt — if a segment contains similar-looking words and you want a specific one, a complete-word selection is always matched correctly

• Use Ctrl+Alt+T for tricky cases — the Add Term Entry dialog lets you review and edit the expanded term before saving, so you can catch any unexpected expansion

Press F2 to manually expand your current selection to word boundaries without adding a term. This lets you preview exactly what Supervertaler would capture before pressing a quick-add shortcut.

Merge prompt

When you add a term and the source or target already exists in the termbase (but with a different translation), Supervertaler shows a prompt asking what you want to do:

• Add as Synonym — merges the new translation into the existing entry as a synonym, keeping your termbase tidy

• Add & Edit… — adds the synonym and opens the Term Entry Editor so you can review the metadata before saving

• Keep Both — creates a separate entry alongside the existing one

• Cancel — aborts the operation

The merge prompt always displays terms in your project's language direction, regardless of how the termbase stores them internally. For example, in a Dutch → English project using an English → Dutch termbase, the dialog shows the Dutch source term first and the English target term second.

Example: Your termbase already has adhesion → hechting. You select adhesion → aanhechting and press Alt+Down. The merge prompt appears because the source term “adhesion” already exists. Clicking “Add as Synonym” adds aanhechting as a target synonym of the existing entry, so both translations are grouped together.

The merge prompt only appears when the source or target matches exactly (case-insensitive). It does not apply to non-translatable quick-add (Ctrl+Alt+N).

Editing existing terms

To edit a term that already exists in your termbase:

1. Right-click the term in the TermLens panel

2. Select Edit Term...

3. The Term Entry Editor opens, where you can:

   • Modify the source or target text

   • Add or remove synonyms (multiple translations for one source term)

   • Update the definition

   • Toggle the non-translatable flag

Click Save when done.

Abbreviations

Term entries can have optional source and target abbreviation fields. When a source abbreviation appears in a segment, TermLens highlights it and shows the target abbreviation underneath — just like a regular term match.

Adding abbreviations

1. Open the Term Entry Editor (right-click a term → Edit Term)

2. Fill in the Source Abbreviation and Target Abbreviation fields

3. Click Save

Multiple abbreviation variants

You can specify multiple variants of the same abbreviation by separating them with a pipe character (|):

GC|G.C.|gc|g.c.

Each variant is indexed and matched independently, so all common forms of the abbreviation are recognised in the source text. The first variant is used as the display text and for insertion.

How abbreviation matching works

When both the full term and its abbreviation appear in the same segment (e.g., "gaschromatografie (GC)"), TermLens shows both as highlighted chips:

• The full term chip shows the full target translation (e.g., "gas chromatography") — displayed in the regular blue colour

• The abbreviation chip shows the target abbreviation (e.g., "GC") — displayed in lavender so it is instantly distinguishable from a full-term match

Clicking or Alt+digit-inserting an abbreviation chip inserts the target abbreviation (first variant), not the full target term.

Abbreviations are also included in AI translation prompts, so the AI knows both the full term and its abbreviated form.

Deleting terms

1. Right-click the term in the TermLens panel

2. Select Delete Term

3. Confirm the deletion in the dialog

Deletion is permanent. The term is removed from the termbase database file.

Bulk Add Non-Translatable

For adding many non-translatable terms at once (e.g., a list of brand names or product codes):

1. Open Settings (gear icon in the TermLens panel)

2. Find the Bulk Add Non-Translatable option

3. Paste your terms, one per line

4. Click Add to save them all at once

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See Also

• Term Picker

• Termbase Management

• TermLens Settings