This guide walks you through the basic steps to start using Lokalise Vantage and translate your first piece of marketing and creative content. The setup usually takes only a few minutes.

Make sure you have access to Lokalise Vantage in your Lokalise team. To open Vantage:

This opens the Vantage project dashboard, where you can create projects and manage Vantage content.

Vantage can use a shared glossary and multiple translation memories to provide additional context during translation.

The Vantage Primary Translation Memory is included in every Vantage project automatically. It is used to find TM matches and to store approved translations from Vantage.

You can also:

Translation memories used in Lokalise Expert are also available in Vantage, so you do not need to export and import them separately.

Adding glossary terms and additional translation memories is optional, but we recommend configuring them before you generate translations.

Vantage uses AI to translate your content. Glossary terms and translation memory matches provide context about approved terminology, product names, brand wording, and previous translations. This helps Vantage produce more accurate and consistent translations from the start.

This is especially useful if your team already has translation memories in Lokalise Expert. You can add relevant TMs to the Vantage project and use existing translations as context without importing them separately.

You can skip this step and start translating immediately. However, assets or TM settings added later do not apply retroactively to translations that have already been generated.

A glossary stores important terms your team wants to translate in a specific way, such as product names, feature names, brand terms, or words that should not be translated.

Vantage uses glossary entries to guide AI translation and keep terminology consistent. Matching glossary terms are also shown in the editor when someone reviews or edits translations.

Glossaries are not shared automatically between Lokalise Expert and Vantage. If your team already maintains a glossary in Expert, export it as a CSV file and upload it to Vantage.

To export a glossary from Expert:

To import the glossary into Vantage, go to Assets > Glossary and upload the CSV file.

You can also upload a glossary CSV while creating a Vantage project. The project setup includes an Upload CSV option alongside the controls for adding glossary terms manually.

Imported glossary terms become part of the shared Vantage glossary and are available to Vantage projects.

If you do not have a glossary file, you can add terms manually.

Go to Assets > Glossary and click Add term. Enter the term and configure any additional options, such as:

You can also add terms manually while creating a Vantage project by clicking Add new term during the translation assets step.

Terms added manually become part of the shared Vantage glossary and are used in future translations.

Translation memory (TM) stores translations that can be reused when similar or identical content appears again. TM matches help keep recurring content consistent and provide additional context for translation.

Unlike glossaries, translation memories are shared between Lokalise Expert and Vantage. TMs already available to your team in Expert can also be used in Vantage, so you do not need to export and import them separately.

Vantage also has a dedicated Vantage Primary Translation Memory. It is included in every Vantage project automatically and is used for both reading TM matches and saving translations from Vantage.

During Vantage project creation, you can configure which translation memories the project uses.

The Vantage Primary Translation Memory is always included as Read and save and cannot be removed.

To use additional TMs:

Additional translation memories are currently Read only. Vantage can use them for matches and suggestions, but translations from the project are not saved to them.

You can change the same configuration later from the project settings by adding or removing read-only TMs or changing their priority.

Changes to the TM configuration apply to translations generated after the settings are updated. Existing translations are not regenerated automatically.

For more information about managing Vantage translation assets, see Translation assets.

From the Vantage dashboard, click New project:

Next, you'll need to choose the content source:

Note that projects created using integrations (such as Google Docs or Strapi) are tied to that content source and cannot be reused for manual file uploads later.

In this guide we'll use the manual file upload. To learn more about available integrations, please refer to the corresponding guides listed above.

Then configure the basic project settings:

On the next step, you'll be asked to upload translation files. If you've chosen one of the integrations, you'll need to connect to the corresponding service instead.

Supported formats:

Typical examples include:

Note:

During this step, you can configure the translation memory and glossary used by the project.

The Vantage Primary Translation Memory is included automatically and cannot be removed. It is used for both reading TM matches and saving translations from Vantage.

To use additional translation memories, click Add translation memory and select from the TMs available to your team.

Additional TMs are Read only. You can drag and drop them to change their priority.

You can update the same TM configuration later in the project settings.

You can optionally add glossary terms that should be used consistently across translations.

You can:

Glossary terms are shared across all Vantage projects within your team and are applied automatically to future translations.

When adding a term manually, you can configure:

Vantage offers two workflow options.

This option generates translations using Pro AI and translation memory (with 100% matches):

Pro AI translates the content first, then Vantage evaluates translation quality and sends content for human review based on the selected review scope.

When selecting this option, you'll be asked to:

The available review scopes are:

None of the review scopes include 100% TM matches.

During the AI translation + human review process, Vantage automatically:

This happens automatically in the background.

Once the project is created, you will be redirected to the Editor.

At this point, the translation workflow has already started. AI translations will appear in the editor as they are generated.

You and other team members can review translations directly in the Editor.

In the editor you can:

Manually approved segments are automatically saved to the Vantage Primary Translation Memory, improving future translations.

For certain file formats it's possible to preview content right in the editor:

You can track translation progress and segment statistics from the top menu in the editor. Click the Segments approved to open the Statistics panel. Here you can see progress for each language, including:

To focus on specific segments, use the Filters dropdown.

Filters allow you to narrow down segments based on different criteria. For example, you can filter by:

Once translation and any required review are complete:

You will receive a ZIP archive containing translated versions of the selected files for the chosen target languages.

If your source content changes, you don’t need to create a new project or start from scratch.

Since source text cannot be edited directly in Vantage, update it by uploading a new version of the file from the Files panel in the editor. Make sure the updated file has the same name as the original.

Vantage compares the new file with the previous version and:

Upload progress is shown directly in the Files panel while the new version is being processed.

To manage users who have access to the current Vantage project, open the Contributors page from the top menu. Here you can see all users who currently have access to the project, along with their assigned languages and permissions.

To add contributors:

You can also import contributors from another project in the same team.

Keep in mind that some roles require advanced team seats. A user occupies an advanced seat if they:

The number of available advanced seats depends on your subscription plan. If you reach the limit, you may need to adjust roles or upgrade your plan.

Open the Tasks tab to view and manage tasks assigned within the project.

When a project uses the AI + human review workflow, Vantage automatically creates review tasks and assigns reviewers based on the project's workflow settings. Languages within a task can have their own assignees and progress.

Click Open in editor to view and work on the segments included in a task.

To modify task settings, click Edit task.

You can adjust the following parameters:

Assignees can only be selected from project contributors. If the person you want to assign is not listed, add them to the project from the Contributors page first.

You’ve created your first project, uploaded your content, and started the localisation workflow! From here, you can continue translating new documents or updating existing ones as your content evolves.

If you work with trusted external stakeholders who are not members of your Lokalise team, you can give them access to the Vantage Portal.

Portal users can submit translation requests and download translated content without accessing projects, the editor, or other Vantage features. Your localization team controls the available workflows and manages translation and review in Vantage.