Editor basics
The editor splits your document into segments and shows them as rows in a two-column grid: the source text on the left, your translation on the right. You work through the rows, confirm each one when it is done, and the editor saves everything automatically as you go.
The editing loop
Section titled “The editing loop”- Click a target cell (or press Tab from the source side) to start editing.
- Type your translation, or correct the machine-translation suggestion that is already there.
- Press Shift+Enter to confirm the row and move to the next one.
That is the whole loop. There is no save button: the editor saves a segment when you leave the cell or confirm it. A small indicator next to the row shows the save status — a spinner while saving, a check mark when saved, a cross if the save failed.
While a cell is focused, a character counter appears under it. For most rows
it reads 123/∞ (no length limit); rows that live in a constrained layout
(a table cell or a fixed text frame) show an estimated space budget instead —
see style & formatting.
Confirming rows
Section titled “Confirming rows”Confirming a row does three things:
- marks the segment as done and counts it toward the target’s progress,
- writes the source–target pair into the project’s attached translation memory (confirming is the only action that feeds the TM), and
- in per-row workflows, makes the row eligible to advance to the next stage.
You can confirm from the keyboard (Shift+Enter confirms and jumps to the next row, Ctrl+Enter confirms in place; use Cmd instead of Ctrl on macOS), from the row’s state menu, or all at once with Confirm All in the top bar. If a row still has unresolved QA errors, the editor asks before confirming it — see QA & entities.
Confirmed the wrong row? Unconfirm it from the row state menu or with Ctrl+Shift+U.
Row states
Section titled “Row states”Every row has a colored state dot at its right edge. Click it to open the row state menu. The dot shows the row’s effective state — a workflow flag when one applies, otherwise the content state:
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Empty | No translation yet |
| Machine translated | Pre-filled by machine translation |
| TM match | Pre-filled from an exact (100%) translation-memory match |
| TM fuzzy | Pre-filled from a fuzzy TM match at or above the project’s threshold |
| Copied source | Source text copied to the target (non-translatable content, foreign-language segments, skip list) |
| Edited | A person has edited the translation |
| Confirmed | Confirmed at the current stage |
| Read-only | The row has moved past your stage — not your turn |
| Locked | Locked by a project manager |
| Ready for delivery | Approved for export (PM) |
| Locked for delivery | Sealed for production delivery (PM) |
| Outdated | The source changed after this row was translated |
For rows pre-filled from a TM, the dot’s tooltip shows the match score. Outdated outranks everything: the row also gets a warning banner above the cell, because delivering a stale translation is the one thing the editor most wants you to notice.
Rows can also carry small chips next to the row number:
- ×N — this source text appears N times in the file (a repetition).
- ↳ linked — a linked copy; edit the first occurrence and the change applies to every occurrence.
- 🌐 language — the segment was detected as a different language and kept untranslated; press its Translate button to send it through machine translation anyway.
- A region label (header, footer, …) when the segment comes from a specific part of the document.
Repetitions
Section titled “Repetitions”When the same source segment appears several times, you should not have to translate it twice. With the auto-propagate repetitions toggle (the repeat icon in the toolbar) switched on, translating or confirming a segment pushes the translation and state to every identical-source segment in the file that has not been hand-edited. Rows you edited individually are left alone — and if that leaves the same source with different translations, a QA check points it out.
To review repeated content once, use the Uniques row filter, which collapses identical-source segments to one representative row.
Finding your way around
Section titled “Finding your way around”The toolbar has a search box with a scope picker (Src / Tgt / Both) and a case-sensitivity toggle. Matches are highlighted in the grid; the arrows step through them, and a counter shows your position plus how many matches are in each column. Find & replace adds a replace row with Replace one / Replace all — replacements only touch rows you are allowed to edit, and a Replace all is one undo step.
The State menu filters rows by state — empty, MT, TM matches, edited, unconfirmed, confirmed, locked, ready, outdated, QA issues, and more. Filters combine with the search text. The filtered set deliberately does not reshuffle under you: when rows stop matching as you work (say you are confirming your way through the unconfirmed filter), a refresh button appears so you decide when to re-apply the filter.
Undo and redo buttons sit in the same toolbar; each undo step restores both text and formatting, and the editor scrolls to and briefly highlights what changed.
Stage advance
Section titled “Stage advance”When your part of the work is done, the Advance Stage button in the top
bar hands the target to the next workflow stage. Its label shows readiness —
in per-file mode Advance Stage (done/total), in per-row mode how many
confirmed rows are ready to move. If the button is disabled, its tooltip says
why.
Workflows can put a QA gate on stage advancement: depending on the project’s settings, unresolved errors either warn or block. Project managers can force past a blocking gate; the override is recorded in the stage history. Each advance records a snapshot of the stage, so the project keeps a history of what moved forward and when.
If the next stage has nobody assigned yet, the editor warns you that the work will wait with the project manager until a seat is confirmed.
Flagging a bad machine translation
Section titled “Flagging a bad machine translation”If a machine-translation suggestion is wrong in a way worth reporting — not just editing — open the row state menu and pick 🚩 Flag bad MT. Add an optional note about what is wrong and submit. The flag goes to quality review; it does not change the row or block your work, so fix the text as usual afterwards.
Two views of the same document
Section titled “Two views of the same document”The grid is one of two views. The Preview button in the top bar switches to a document-shaped view where you edit the same segments laid out like the real file — see shortcuts & preview. Switching views never loses work: the active edit is committed first, and the view opens scrolled to the row you were on.
Related pages
Section titled “Related pages”- TMs, termbases & glossaries — matches and terminology while you translate
- QA & entities — the checks that run on your text
- Shortcuts & preview — the full keyboard reference