This feature is available from the Essential plan and above.
The Ad hoc documents project is designed for translating standalone documents. With this project type, you can upload, translate, and download DOCX, PPTX, IDML, and HTML files.
This works well for emails, user guides, legal documents, articles, presentations, and other one-off content that isn't stored in a CMS or codebase.
Project type differences
The Ad hoc documents editor works differently from the Web and mobile editor. Key differences include:
You can preview translations in the document layout, unless the project is segmented.
A header section groups keys by file, so you can see which keys belong to each document.
Layout, formatting, and embedded images are preserved when uploading and downloading.
Lokalise creates separate keys for each text element, such as headings and paragraphs.
You cannot add or remove paragraphs inside Lokalise. To change structure or layout, edit the original document and re-upload it. Translation memory will restore existing translations where possible.
Keys appear in the same order as in the original file. Sorting keys in the editor is not available.
No content platform integrations are available for this project type.
Key attributes like key names and descriptions cannot be modified in this editor.
Getting started
Open your Projects dashboard and click New project. Select the Ad hoc documents project type:
Enter a project name.
Choose the base language (the language you will translate from).
Select one or more target languages (the languages you will translate into).
Click Create project.
Once the project is created, you can upload your documents and begin translating.
Uploading the documents
Open your new project and go to the Upload page. Select the file you want to upload and adjust the upload settings as needed.
In document-type projects, each paragraph or text block becomes a separate key. For example, one paragraph equals one key, one slide text box equals one key, and so on.
If you upload multiple language versions of the same document and there are small layout differences (such as missing or extra paragraphs), Lokalise will try to align the content automatically. This helps prevent duplicated or unexpected keys.
For more details on how alignment works, see the Translation alignment article.
Editor overview
The project editor allows you to add new languages, translate content, and preview documents. Each uploaded file appears as a header, followed by the individual keys (paragraphs, text blocks, etc.). You can search, edit, and apply bulk actions across multiple files.
Files are listed by upload time, with the most recent shown first.
Keys appear in the same order as in the original document, and this order cannot be changed.
Selecting files for the editor
Click the Files button in the top menu to open the file selector.
In the Files panel, you can:
Show or hide files in the editor
(hidden files are also excluded from search)Delete files from the project
(deletion takes a few seconds and does not show a progress indicator)Search for files by name
Sort the list of files in the selector
(sorting affects only the selector list, not the editor display order)
Previewing files
Previewing HTML files
To preview an HTML file, click Open preview in the file header.
This opens the file in a new window with layout, styles, and images displayed.
Note:
No JavaScript is executed, so elements like sliders or dropdowns may appear static.
You can switch the preview language in the dropdown.
Untranslated text will fall back to the base language.
The best preview quality is achieved when images and styles are inlined or use absolute links.
Previewing DOCX, PPTX, and other non-HTML files
This feature is unavailable for segmented projects.
To preview non-HTML files:
Switch to Bilingual view.
Click Download file.
Lokalise generates a translated document for preview. If a translation is missing, the base language value is used in its place, allowing you to download the original version simply by leaving the target translations empty.
The Download file button is disabled by default. To enable it:
Click More → Settings.
Open the Quality assurance section.
Enable Allow contributors to download target files for preview.
Project dashboard overview
Ad hoc documents projects appear in the dashboard in the same way as Web and mobile projects. You’ll see:
Overall translation progress for the project
Progress for each language
In addition, Ad hoc documents projects allow you to:
Track the progress of each individual document
Rename or remove specific documents when needed
This makes it easy to manage large sets of one-off files.
Images and layout
When you upload a document, Lokalise does not change its structure. The original layout, formatting, and images are preserved, even if they are not shown inside the editor.
When you export the translated document, you will receive the file with the full layout and images intact, just as in the original.