Migrating to TLex Suite: Steps to Import, Clean, and Publish Your LexiconMigrating a lexicon to TLex Suite can transform a scattered set of entries, spreadsheets, and legacy files into a professionally structured, searchable, and publishable dictionary. This guide walks you step-by-step through a full migration: preparing your source data, importing into TLex, cleaning and aligning entries, enriching content with linguistic data and multimedia, configuring templates and styles, and finally exporting and publishing your finished dictionary in print, web, or mobile formats.
Why migrate to TLex Suite?
TLex Suite is a specialized tool for lexicographers and terminologists. It supports structured dictionary entries, bulk editing, cross-references, morphological analysis, multi-field templates, and direct output to print and dictionary websites. Migrating to TLex converts inconsistent raw materials into a maintainable database that improves searchability, consistency, and publishability.
1. Plan your migration
Begin with a clear plan. Determine your goals (print dictionary, online dictionary, bilingual lexicon, corpus-linked resource), target audience, and desired output formats. Inventory your source materials: spreadsheets, Word files, existing dictionary databases, XML/TEI exports, corpus data, and audio/image files.
Key planning tasks:
- Decide entry structure (headword, part of speech, sense, definition, example, POS tags, notes, translations, etymology, audio, images).
- Define controlled vocabularies and lists (parts of speech, domains, registers).
- Map source fields to TLex template fields.
- Estimate time and staff needed for manual cleaning and quality assurance.
- Back up all source data before starting.
2. Prepare source data
Good input quality makes import far smoother.
Clean and standardize:
- Normalize character encoding to UTF-8.
- Unify punctuation and quotation marks.
- Remove invisible characters and inconsistent spacing.
- Resolve obvious duplicates and merge variant entries when appropriate.
- Standardize orthography (decide on preferred spellings).
- Convert dates, abbreviations, and markup to consistent formats.
If your data are in multiple formats, export them to a common import-friendly format like CSV or XML. For Word documents, consider using styles to mark headwords, senses, and examples, then convert to XML with a styles-based mapping tool.
Create a sample subset (50–200 entries) that represents typical data to use for testing the import process.
3. Design TLex templates and project structure
TLex uses templates to define the fields and structure of entries. Design templates that capture all required fields and relationships.
Decide on:
- Entry-level fields (headword, etymology, pronunciation).
- Sense-level fields (sense number, definition, examples, semantic domain).
- Multi-field structures (translations, synonyms, antonyms).
- Fields for multimedia (audio file references, image IDs).
- Administrative fields (source, date added, editor notes).
Set up taxonomies and controlled lists for parts of speech, domains, registers, and example types. Create validation rules and required fields to maintain consistency.
4. Map source fields to TLex fields
Create a mapping document that pairs every source field with a TLex template field. For complex sources, include transformation rules:
- Concatenate multiple source columns into one TLex field.
- Split compound fields (e.g., “headword:POS”) into separate TLex fields.
- Use regular expressions to extract dates, example sentences, or references.
- Convert markup (bold/italic) into TLex-compatible formatting codes.
Test mapping on the sample subset and adjust templates and transformations until the test import yields correctly structured entries.
5. Import data into TLex
Use TLex’s import utilities (CSV/XML import) to load entries.
Best practices:
- Import the sample subset first; review thoroughly.
- Keep import logs to track errors and warnings.
- Work iteratively: fix mapping issues, re-export corrected source, and re-import.
- Use TLex’s merge and duplicate-detection options to avoid creating redundant entries.
If importing multimedia, ensure file paths in the import file match TLex’s media folders. For large audio/image collections, import media in batches.
6. Clean and align entries inside TLex
Once data are in TLex, perform in-app cleaning:
- Normalize headword forms; run scripts/macros for batch edits.
- Use TLex’s validation tools to find missing required fields.
- Standardize parts of speech, domains, abbreviations via controlled lists.
- Merge duplicate entries, or mark variants as separate lemmas with cross-references.
- Align senses across bilingual entries if working on a bilingual dictionary (ensure each sense has corresponding translation fields).
Leverage TLex macros for repetitive tasks (bulk convert italic to slashes, reformat dates, move example sentences to example fields). Keep a changelog of batch operations for review.
7. Enrich content: examples, corpus links, and multimedia
Improve dictionary quality by adding authentic examples, corpus citations, and multimedia:
- Import example sentences from corpora; tag them with source and date.
- Link corpus references to entries using citation fields.
- Add pronunciation audio and images, ensuring licensing is cleared.
- Add usage labels (colloquial, archaic, technical) and region markers for dialects.
- Add synonyms, antonyms, and cross-references to strengthen sense networks.
Quality-check examples for relevance and correctness. Consider automatic frequency indicators from corpora for prioritizing senses.
8. Review, edit, and track changes
Establish editorial workflows:
- Assign entries to editors/reviewers.
- Use TLex’s change-tracking features to record edits and comments.
- Run consistency checks and spelling/grammar checks if available.
- Conduct staged reviews: structural validation, content accuracy, copyediting, final proofreading.
Document decisions about contested entries (etymology, variant forms) in editorial notes.
9. Configure output templates and styles
Set up TLex’s publishing templates for desired outputs:
- Print layout templates (pagination, fonts, hyphenation, indexes).
- Web templates (HTML/CSS output, search configuration, responsive behavior).
- Mobile/export formats (JSON, XML, EPUB).
Customize headword formatting, sense numbering, cross-reference rendering, and index generation. Create sample outputs and check for layout issues such as orphaned lines, long strings, or hyphenation errors.
10. Export, test, and publish
Export in the target formats and test thoroughly:
- For print: generate PDF proofs, check layout across multiple devices/print sizes.
- For web: deploy to a test server, verify search, cross-references, media playback, and responsive layout.
- For mobile apps: validate JSON/XML feeds and offline behavior.
Run user testing with target audience members if possible. Fix issues and repeat export until satisfactory.
11. Maintain and update the lexicon
Migration is the start of an ongoing process. Set up maintenance procedures:
- Regularly import new corpus data and add new senses.
- Implement version control for entries and exports.
- Schedule periodic audits for consistency and broken media links.
- Train staff on TLex workflows and macros.
Keep backups of TLex projects and exported publications.
Common migration pitfalls and how to avoid them
- Underestimating data cleaning time: allocate generous time for manual fixes.
- Poor mapping: use iterative testing with a representative sample.
- Ignoring multimedia paths: validate media links before bulk import.
- Inconsistent controlled vocabularies: define and enforce lists early.
- Skipping quality assurance: implement multiple review stages.
Quick checklist
- Inventory and back up all source files.
- Create a sample subset for testing.
- Design TLex templates and controlled lists.
- Map fields and test import repeatedly.
- Clean, enrich, and validate entries in TLex.
- Configure output templates for each publication format.
- Export, test, and publish; then set a maintenance schedule.
Migrating to TLex Suite is a substantial project but pays off with a structured, maintainable, and publish-ready lexicon. With careful planning, iterative testing, and rigorous QA, you can move from fragmented source materials to a polished dictionary ready for print or digital publication.
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