Concordance search Wordfast Classic

The search for concordance will be done first in the background translation memory (if applicable), then in the regular translation memory. The purpose of Concordance search is to find Translation Units (TUs) that contain a given word or a set of words. The Ctrl+Alt+C shortcut or the Concordance icon launches the search. The search will bring results on words that begin like the searched-for item, case-insensitive. Searching for cat will bring TUs that contain cat, or catering or caterpillar, etc, but not bobcat or supercat. Searching for *cat will bring TUs that contain words like bobcat or supercat etc.

The AND operator can be used. Searching for cat+dog will bring TUs where the two words cat AND dog are found. If words are simply separated with spaces, the OR operator is assumed, so searching for cat dog will bring TUs where either cat OR dog are found. To search for an exact phrase, have it contained within straight quotes, so searching for "The cat chases the dog" will bring results where the phrase "The cat chases the dog" is literally found, regardless of case.

Note that to open the dialog box that lets you specify such extended search options, you must start concordance search when no selection is made; if a selection is made (for example, one word is selected in the source segment), then Wordfast assumes that the selected word has to be searched and will directly search for it, without offering the extended search dialog box. This allows fast searches with minimal clicks or shortcuts.

The same rules apply for Reference searches as well.

If you check the "Search concordances in all sibling translation memories" option in Wordfast/Terminology/Other, the concordance search will be extended to other TMs present in the same folder as the currently active TM.

It is possible to cancel a Concordance search with the Escape key, or with the same shortcut that started the search (i.e., Ctrl+Alt+C).

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