Robin Levey wrote:
luke mersh wrote:
As I said .
I find it boring and daunting looking through an A to Z of terminology.
I might say that about a telephone directory, but never about a well-constructed glossary - even if it's sorted A to Z
In any case, from my own experience (40+ years as a translator, and counting...), I can assure you at least 75% of all gainful employment is
utterly boring. That's something you'll need to get used to...
luke mersh wrote:
My aim is to make it easy for me to use.
Sure - but to make it easy tomorrow, you have to put in some (actually, a lot of of) effort today.
luke mersh wrote:
so if I have an A to Z of Illnesses , I would like to say I need to know what its symptoms and treatments are for that particular illness and select it so that it brings up related info about it.
If you have (or can learn) some basic skills in Excel, you could do that using your own data.*
And if you used a relational database, it would be even easier (once you've got past the steepest part of the learning curve...) and much more flexible. I mentioned in a previous post that one of the advantages of a relational database is that its easy to update things like lists of medical fields. Another big advantage is the ease with which you can create different 'views' of the mass of data held in the system, allowing you to focus on symptoms, treatments, after-care, or anything else you need.
I suggest, however, that before you go much further you need to think about
how you are going to exploit your data in 'real life' circumstances; regardless of whether it is stored in a database, in Excel - or on scraps of paper.
A translator working at home in his pyjamas at three o'clock in the morning might want a glossary which interacts directly with a CAT tool. But you are about to qualify as an interpreter specialising in medical matters, not as a translator. So, how do you intend to use your glossary in support of your future interpretation assignments? If you're attending a life-threatening medical emergency in down-town Madrid at three o'clock in the morning, and you get 'stuck' because you can't remember what an
xyz is called in Spanish, you really don't have time to run to your office and boot up your lap-top to search for the answer, do you?
The 'art' of glossary building is not in compiling masses of data (that's easy - just ask Michael Beijer!), nor even how to structure it; the 'art' is in making sure you can extract the most pertinent data at a moment's notice, and incorporate it into your workflow. And, in contrast to a translator,
your work will flow in real time.
HTH
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* That said, the last time I wanted to do something similar I just asked Google and I got half-a-dozen pages of relevant information - and I didn't have to collect and collate it it advance, nor bother about keeping it up-to-date. Re-inventing wheels went out of fashion several millenia ago...