Translating

Pre-translation (Strings)

Available for

  • Advanced and Enterprise plan (Legacy)

Get in touch with Sales for licensing questions.

Pre-translation automatically translates new keys, languages, or files into multiple languages upon upload using translation memories and machine translation. Use of and results of pre-translation can be viewed in the analytics dashboards and filtering can be used to view pre-translations in the editor.

By default, pre-translation only translates empty translations and skips keys that already have a target translation. At the project level, pre-translation can be configured to overwrite unverified translations when the source text changes.

API or the CLI can also be used to trigger automatic translations. Use this push parameter when using the CLI:

params:
  autotranslate: true

Enable pre-translation to auto-translate content

To automatically pre-translate keys using machine translation (MT) and/or translation memory (TM), follow these steps:

  1. Configure MT for a project (if using MT).

  2. From the Project settings window, select the Pre-translation tab.

  3. Select Enable pre-translation.

    Pre-translation options are presented. If options are not selected, pre-translation will not function.

  4. Select the events that trigger pre-translation:

    • Translate new uploads automatically: pre-translates new keys when a file is uploaded to the project.

    • Translate new keys automatically: pre-translates a key when it is added manually.

    • Translate new languages automatically: pre-translates content when a new language is added to the project.

    If none of these options is selected, pre-translation does not run automatically on new content.

  5. Select one or both of the following options based on required workflow:

    • Use machine translation to pre-translate content using MT.

    • Use translation memory to pre-translate content using existing TM matches.

  6. Optionally, select Mark as unverified.

    Marks keys with new translations as unverified for easier review.

  7. Optionally, select Overwrite translations when source text changes to replaces existing translations with machine translation. This cannot be undone.

  8. Click Save.

    Pre-translation is enabled for the project based on the selected sources.

When translation memory and machine translation are both enabled for pre-translation, pre-translation checks translation memory first. If translation memory returns a match, pre-translation uses that match and skips machine translation for the key. Machine translation applies only to keys where translation memory returns no match.

Translation state does not affect this behavior. An unverified translation is a valid translation memory match, and pre-translation can reuse it. If the project shares its translation memory with the organization, matches can also come from other projects with translation memory sharing enabled.

Pre-translation requires an exact (100%) match from translation memory. Fuzzy matches are not applied, though they still appear as suggestions in the editor.

Pre-translation Workflows

  • Pre-translating newly added keys

    When adding a new key from within the editor, enter the default translation of the source language for that key.

    By default, pre-translation does not override existing translations. Enable the Overwrite translations when source text changes option in the Project settings to replace unverified target translations during pre-translation:

    • The Overwrite translations when source text changes option requires a main language defined in the project.

    • Overwriting occurs only when the main language source text changes.

    • Any setting that prevents or skips unverification also prevents overwriting.

    Pre-translation can be deactivated for individual keys when the key is added.

  • Pre-translating newly added languages

    When a new language is added to a project, pre-translation can be used to provide initial translations for the new language. After the language is saved to the project, the progress overview indicates that keys in the new language are translated and set to unverified. Larger projects may take a few moments before being reflected in the progress overview. Pre-translation can only be applied to one language at a time.

    Pre-translation can be deactivated for individual languages when the language is added.

  • Pre-translating newly uploaded language files

    When pre-translation is enabled, new keys in uploaded files are automatically translated into all languages in a project.

    By default, existing target translations are not overwritten. Enable the Overwrite translations when source text changes option in the Project settings to replace unverified target translations during pre-translation:

    • The Overwrite translations when source text changes option requires a main language defined in the project.

    • Overwriting occurs only when the main language source text changes.

    • Any setting that prevents or skips unverification also prevents overwriting.

    Pre-translation can be deactivated for individual files when the file is added.

  • Pre-translating to auto-translate through the editor (batch-action)

    To use pre-translation to auto-translate one or multiple keys after adding them to a project, follow these steps:

    1. From the editor, filter the list of keys with a search query.

    2. Select one or more target languages from the middle of the editor.

    3. Select one or multiple keys.

    4. Click Pre-translate.

      Pre-translation is run on the selected keys.

    Missing translations are filled in for selected keys and can also be applied to all keys with the select-all search box at the top of the key list. If configured in the Project settings, unverified translations can be overwritten when source text changes.

  • Post-editing workflow

    Translations generated by pre-translation are set to be unverified by default. Post-edit the translations to achieve desired translation quality. Verified translations are not overwritten by pre-translation.

Excluding content from pre-translation

To skip certain parts of a string (e.g. a brand name):

  • Wrap or replace the element to be ignored with a placeholder.

  • Wrap the parts to be skipped in [NOTRANSLATE]...[/NOTRANSLATE] tags. Tags can be later removed during download.

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