How to extract terminology in just a few clicks using Interpreters’ Help

Automatic terminology extraction is all the rage. 

But there are still good reasons to extract terms manually.

For example, reading through text(s) will help you learn about the subject. As you read, you can pick out terms, edit formatting and enter them into your glossary.

With most tools, this either requires a ton of copying and pasting or some post-processing. But Interpreters’ Help makes this hassle-free!

A brief introduction to Interpreters’ Help

Interpreters’ Help is an online glossary management tool that automatically syncs terms across all your devices. In fact, I frequently create glossaries using my computer and search and fine-tune them from my mobile device while on the job. 

Since Interpreters’ Help runs in your browser, it works on nearly every device under the sun, be it a desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone. 

It also includes “BoothMate,” a free, standalone companion application for Mac, Windows, and iPad, that allows you to search your glossaries offline. 

Interpreters’ Help uses a “Freemium” model: Free users have unlimited public glossaries, one private glossary, and can upload 100 MB worth of files, like background documents or source material. A Professional account, which costs 20€/month or 215€/year, offers unlimited public and private glossaries and 2 GB of file uploads. Students and teachers can pick up a free educational subscription.

I’ve written extensively about Interpreters’ Help in the past – for a full review, check out my article “Interpreters’ Help – a one-stop shop in the making?”

For this article, let’s focus on how to extract terms.

Create a glossary

Extracting terms from a single text in Interpreters’ Help is easy as pie.

If you don’t have one yet, set up a free account, create a glossary and add your languages. 

By default, Interpreters’ Help will always create a column for English. To add more languages, click the “+Col” button, type the language name in the “Column name” field, and click the language to select it. If your language doesn’t appear in the list, click “Create column” to add it as a custom column. 

Need to delete a column from your glossary? Just click the “x” and confirm you want to delete it.

Prefer to change the order of your columns? Just drag and drop them.

Extract terms from a single text

Once you’ve set up your glossary, click “Term extractor.”

You will see text boxes for the first two languages in your glossary. Use the arrows at the top of the boxes to change the languages, then paste your text into the appropriate box. 

As you read through the text, use the mouse or double click a term to select it.

When you highlight a term, it will appear in the green box below the text and your cursor will jump to that box. 

Edit the text as needed, then click “Add” or press the Enter key to add it to the list below.

Alternatively, click the “dictionaries” button below the term to machine translate the term with Google Translate. If the suggested translation is correct, you can “Copy to target” with a single click. (Always check machine-translated terms to make sure they’re correct!)

Not sure of a translation? Leave the cell blank and update your glossary later.

After adding terms, you can click on a cell to edit it, then click anywhere else to save your changes.  

Repeat these steps until you’ve selected all the terms you’d like to extract. Then, click “Merge lines into glossary” – and bingo, your extracted terms will automatically be added to your glossary.

Check out this video to see how I use Interpreters’ Help to extract terms from a text.

Extract terms from parallel texts

Lucky enough to receive a text and its translation? Interpreters’ Help is ideal for quickly reading through both texts and selecting terms and equivalents. 

Click “Term extractor,” then paste the source and target language texts into the boxes.

Use the mouse to select the terms in each language, and they’ll automatically appear in the green boxes.

Edit as necessary, then click “Add” or press the Enter key to add terms to your glossary.

This even works with parallel texts in three or more languages! Just click “Try the multi-column term extractor” to see boxes for all glossary languages, then follow the same process to add terms.

Check out this video to see how I use Interpreters’ Help to extract terms from parallel texts.

A word about confidentiality

You might be wondering: What about confidential texts?

Interpreters’ Help avoids the problem by having you copy and paste source texts into the text boxes. According to the developer, these texts are never uploaded to the cloud, so your data stays on your computer.

Of course, if something is highly confidential, like the name of a product that hasn’t been released, it’s best not to include that in your glossary! 

(Check out my article on Confidentiality for translators and interpreters in the age of AI to explore why terminology is not usually confidential and how leading tools protect data.)

Take Interpreters’ Help for a spin!

Ready to dip your toes into terminology extraction? 

Set up a free Interpreters’ Help account, follow the steps above, and you’ll be extracting terms in no time!

This post may include affiliate links to products we recommend. If you use these links to purchase your snazzy new tools, we’ll get a small commission to support our work at no additional cost to you. We only recommend products that we have personally used and love.