You might sometimes wonder if it is possible to set up a specific source and target language for terminology.

Let’s take a sample use case. In an XTM Cloud project with the zh-CN → en-US language combination, the translator will need to translate 超级首位 into TopView. On the other hand, if the project content is to be translated from en-US to zh-CN, TopView must be kept as it is, even though surrounding texts are translated into Chinese.

For this reason, when configuring the terminology setting, it would be useful to be able to set its so-called “language direction”. Then, when the translator is working in XTM Workbench, the terminology module can suggest the appropriate terminology according to the selected source and target language.

But is this even possible in XTM Cloud?

XTM Cloud offers a solution that might solve this issue. It involves following the instructions below, when creating a particular term:

1. In XTM Cloud (Terminology → Manage), create a term for English → TopView.

2. Add this translation for Chinese → TopView (valid).

3. Add this second translation for Chinese → 超级首位 (forbidden).

4. Now, if a Project Manager creates a project in which the source file contains the term TopView, the system will display two possible target-language terms in XTM Workbench: TopView, which is valid, and 超级首位, which is forbidden. Then, the Linguist will know which form of the target-language term to use.

In contrast, if you create a project with the term 超级首位 in the source file, this term will be displayed as forbidden in the source segment, but the term TopView will be shown as a valid term in the target segment.