Can a concept have more than one enforced term?

No. A concept can have only one enforced term in each language. It can have several accepted terms.

What is the difference between an enforced and an accepted term?

TextUnited uses an enforced term in every translation. An accepted term is one correct option, and translators can choose between accepted terms.

What file format do I need for the import?

CSV file is the best. You can prepare it in Excel and save it as CSV. Each row is one concept.

Do I need to select the languages myself?

No. TextUnited reads the column names in the file, for example English (US) or German (Germany), and selects the languages for you.

Can I change a term after the import?

Yes. Open the concept, change the term or its status, and click Save.

Import terminology concepts from CSV

A localization manager publishes a German product manual and a German website. Both texts use the English word “home”, but with two different meanings.

In the manual, “home” is a place where people live. The German term is “Heim”. On the website, “home” is the main page. The German term is “Homepage”.

A translator or a machine translation engine sees only the word “home”. Without more information, the German website can show “Heim” on the link to the main page.

In TextUnited, the localization manager saves each meaning as a separate concept. Each concept has its own domain and its own German term. This article follows the “home” example through four steps: what a concept holds, how term statuses work, how to import concepts, and how to change them later.

What a concept holds

Back to the “home” example. The localization manager creates two concepts. This is what each concept holds:

The English term is the same in both concepts. The domain, the definition and the German term are different.

A concept holds one meaning. It contains the terms for that meaning in every language you translate into. The domain, definition, description and notes belong to the concept, so they apply to all of its terms.

Enforced, accepted or rejected: three statuses for each term

In the General concept, the localization manager sets “Heim” to enforced. TextUnited now uses “Heim” in every German translation of this meaning.

The localization manager can also set terms to accepted. A concept can have several accepted terms in one language. Each accepted term is a correct option, but no term is required.

Status	Terms per language in one concept	Result in translation
Enforced	One	TextUnited always uses this term
Accepted	One or more	Each term is a correct option
Rejected	One or more	TextUnited never uses this term and it's marked in red in the QA when used

Enforced is the right status for terms that must stay the same in every document, for example product names and UI labels. Accepted is the right status when more than one translation is correct.

How to import concepts from a CSV file

Back to “home” again. This is how the two concepts look in a CSV file. Each row is one concept:

The localization manager does not add concepts one by one. They import the whole file:

Prepare the file. Each language has a term column and a status column. The domain, definition, description and notes have one column each.
Select the file. In TextUnited, the localization manager opens the import of concepts and selects the CSV file.
Check the languages. TextUnited reads the column names, for example English (US) or German (Germany), and selects the languages.
Map the columns. For each language, the localization manager selects the term column and the status column. Then they select the columns for the domain, definition, description and notes.
Import. After a few seconds, TextUnited shows a preview of the concepts, grouped by domain.

The file can also contain more information for each term, for example notes and context.

How to find and change concepts after the import

The two “home” concepts are now in TextUnited, in two domains: General and IT. The localization manager uses the filters on the left side of the list:

A filter by domain: IT shows only the concept with “Homepage”.
A filter by status: Enforced shows only the concepts with enforced terms.

The localization manager can also change a status in the list. If “Heim” is accepted, they change it to enforced and click Save. From then on, TextUnited uses “Heim” in every German translation of this meaning.

Where to start

The localization manager does not need a complete termbase on the first day. They start with three groups of terms:

Terms with more than one meaning, like “home”. Each meaning gets its own concept and its own domain.
Product and feature names that must stay the same in every language.
Terms that reviewers correct in many documents.

The localization manager enforces only the terms that must never change. The other terms stay accepted, so translators can still choose between correct options.

Watch the import step by step

The 6-minute video shows the same steps in TextUnited, with the “home” example. The CSV file in the video has concepts in English, German, Italian and Spanish.

Watch: How to import terminology concepts into TextUnited