Welcome to Lokalise 👋

Please note that the video above shows slightly outdated UI (for example, suggestions now appear in the right panel) but all in all the covered functionality is the same.

Lokalise is a translation management system designed to make localization faster and easier.

There are two common ways for translators to join Lokalise:

If your team appears in the list, click Join to request access. If you see Request instead, a team admin will need to approve your enrollment.

Depending on the team's settings, you might not be able to see it in the list. Teams are displayed based on your email domain. For example, if you register with hello@lokalise.com, only teams connected to lokalise.com will appear.

In some cases, instead of Join, you may see a Request button—this means a team admin must approve your enrollment. If you’re unsure which email to use, ask your team administrator. More details on joining existing teams can be found in the Team visibility article.

If you don’t have a team and want to test Lokalise, click Create your team after confirming your email. This gives you two weeks of full access. After the trial, your account will switch to the free plan automatically.

To update your personal details, click on your avatar in the bottom left corner and go to Profile settings. Learn more in the Managing profile article.

Lokalise uses Gravatar, a globally recognized avatar service. To change your profile picture, visit gravatar.com and create an account using the same email as your Lokalise account.

After logging in, you’ll see the projects dashboard, which displays all the projects you’re a member of. A project usually contains translations for a single app or website.

If you're a member of multiple teams, this dashboard will only show projects from the active team. To switch teams, click on your avatar in the bottom left corner and select a different team from the dropdown.

Each project includes a short overview:

You can also track progress for each language separately. Click on a language name to open it in bilingual mode, where you can focus on translating one language at a time.

Click on the project name in the dashboard to open project editor.

The project shown in the example screenshot is called "Angular". While your project editor may look slightly different, the main features and menu options will remain the same. Below is a quick overview of the editor interface:

When a task is assigned to you, it appears in your task inbox, and you may also receive an email notification. Each task displays its progress, due date, and description.

There are two types of tasks:

Click on a language name in the task inbox to open the editor with all task items. Alternatively, click on Words to do to filter and display only uncompleted keys.

Task-related items are marked with small orange circles. Once an item is translated or reviewed, the circle turns into a checkmark, indicating completion. Clicking the checkmark resets the item back to uncompleted.

The Words to do counter updates automatically as items are completed. Depending on task settings, you may need to manually mark a language as done, or it may be marked automatically when all items are completed.

Lokalise provides various filtering options to help you manage and navigate your translation keys efficiently. You can select from predefined filters or create a custom filter tailored to your needs.

Use the Sort by option to arrange keys in your preferred order, making it easier to locate and work with specific content.

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The multilingual view lets you see and translate multiple languages at once. Languages are listed one after another, allowing for quick comparisons and simultaneous editing.

The bilingual view focuses on one language at a time, streamlining the translation process. You can switch between source and target languages using the dropdowns in the top menu.

For a more distraction-free experience, focus mode is available in the bilingual view. This mode removes all extra information, displaying only the translations.

Lokalise allows you to track changes in the source text after a key has been translated. By enabling the Show source difference since it was last translated option, you can quickly identify modifications.

For example, if the original text was "Editor" and later changed to "Project editor", this feature will highlight the difference.

Lokalise helps you pick up right where you left off with the Remember position in project feature. When enabled, your last working position is bookmarked, so you don’t have to scroll through the editor to find where you stopped.

A scrollbar to the right marks your current position, making it easy to navigate back and continue translating without interruptions.

Lokalise provides the Display placeholders as blocks option to enhance readability while working with translations. Instead of showing placeholders in their raw format (e.g., <strong></strong>), this feature converts them into distinct blocks, making them less distracting and easier to manage.

Additionally, Lokalise’s QA tool will automatically notify you if any placeholders are missing from your translations, ensuring accuracy and consistency.

Lokalise provides a Display spelling and grammar errors function that highlights potential mistakes by underlining words with errors. If you prefer a cleaner view, you can disable this feature. Even when turned off, the QA checker will still flag issues with an orange triangle, ensuring that errors don’t go unnoticed while keeping your workspace uncluttered.

Translation memory (TM) is a powerful feature that stores previously approved translations and suggests them when working on new content. This can significantly speed up the translation process and improve consistency across multiple projects.

If enabled, TM suggestions appear automatically when you click on a translation field. These suggestions are drawn from past translations within the projects you have access to.

Machine translation can help speed up the localization process by automatically generating translations that you can later refine manually. Lokalise supports several machine translation providers, including Google, DeepL, and Microsoft. You can select the service that best fits your needs.

If you want to quickly fill in missing translations, you can use the Google-translate empty values button. This will automatically populate all empty fields for the selected key using Google Translate.

Keep in mind that while machine translation can save time, reviewing and refining the output is recommended for accuracy and natural language flow.

Lokalise AI is designed to enhance your translation workflow by providing intelligent suggestions and assisting with text editing. This feature helps improve efficiency by offering context-aware translations, rephrasing suggestions, and grammar improvements.

The screenshots feature helps improve translation quality by providing visual context. Contributors with the appropriate permissions can upload screenshots and link them to individual translation keys.

Once linked, relevant portions of the screenshot can be highlighted to indicate where a specific translation appears in the interface. This feature helps translators better understand the context of the text, reducing ambiguity and improving accuracy.

You can leave key comments and translation-level comments for your team members within Lokalise itself.

The History feature allows you to track changes made to translations over time. By clicking the History button next to a translation, you can view all past modifications with detailed information, including who made the changes and when.

If needed, you can restore an older version of a translation by clicking the Restore button, reverting the text to its previous state. This feature is useful for identifying errors, reviewing past translations, and ensuring consistency across updates.

The Glossary feature helps maintain translation consistency by storing key terms and their preferred translations. It’s particularly useful for:

Each glossary entry can include a definition, example usage, and preferred translations for different languages. When enabled, glossary terms will be highlighted in the editor, allowing translators to reference them easily.

The word added to the project glossary will appear as a suggested translation:

Lokalise provides keyboard shortcuts to streamline the translation workflow. You can switch between hotkey profiles by pressing Ctrl + / (Windows/Linux) or Cmd + / (Mac). Lokalise currently supports two profiles:

These hotkeys allow you to quickly navigate, edit translations, mark translations as reviewed, and toggle features without using the mouse.

That's it! If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us in the support chat.