Welcome to Lokalise 👋

This guide is for contributors who translate or review content in Lokalise. It explains the main tools you will use to find assigned work, translate efficiently, use available context, communicate with other contributors, and complete your tasks.

Your access may be limited to specific projects, languages, and actions based on the permissions assigned by the project manager. This guide focuses on the features commonly available to translators and reviewers. For detailed instructions, follow the links to the relevant Help Center articles.

Please note that the video above shows slightly outdated UI (for example, suggestions now appear in the right panel) but all in all the covered functionality is the same.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

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.

You can also create a new team to explore Lokalise independently. As the team creator, you become its Owner and receive full access to its projects, users, settings, and billing.

This guide focuses on translating and reviewing content. To learn how to create projects, manage users, assign work, and configure a team, see the Onboarding guide for project managers.

Click your team avatar in the bottom-left corner and select Personal profile to update your name, email, password, and other account settings.

You can also configure the translation suggestions shown in the editor, choose which task and comment notifications to receive, and enable two-factor authentication. Lokalise uses Gravatar for profile pictures, so your avatar must be managed through a Gravatar account connected to the same email address.

See the Managing your profile article for details.

After signing in, you’ll see all projects you can access in the active team. A project usually contains translations for a single app, website, or other content source.

If you belong to multiple teams, click the avatar in the bottom-left corner to switch between them.

Each project card shows:

You can also view progress for each language separately. Click a language to open it in bilingual mode and start translating.

Click a project name on the dashboard to open the project editor. The interface may vary depending on your permissions and project settings, but its main elements are:

Some elements may be hidden if you do not have permission to use them. See the Project editor article for more details.

When a translation or review task is assigned to you, it appears in the Incoming tasks widget in the left-hand menu. You may also receive an email notification.

For each task, the widget shows:

Click the task title to open all assigned content, or click a language to work only on that language. You can also click Words to do to display only items that have not yet been completed.

Task items are marked with an orange circle in the editor. For translation tasks, an item is usually completed when you save its translation. For review tasks, mark the translation as reviewed using the glasses icon.

Depending on the task settings, you may instead need to mark items as completed manually. Completed items display a checkmark, which you can click to reset their status.

The word count and progress update as you work. Once all items for a language are completed, the language may be marked as done automatically, or you may need to return to the widget and click Mark as done.

See the Incoming task widget article for details.

The project editor offers two ways to work with translations:

In bilingual view, you can also enable Focus mode to hide key names, tags, platforms, and other controls, leaving only the source and target text.

Other tools let you view changes made to the source since it was last translated or download content for offline translation.

See the Multilingual view and bilingual view article for details.

Translation memory (TM) stores translations created previously and suggests them when the same or similar source text appears again. Reusing these suggestions can save time and help keep terminology consistent across projects.

When you open a translation field, available TM matches appear automatically with a match percentage:

Click a suggestion to insert it into the translation field, then review it carefully before saving. Check differences in wording, context, placeholders, and formatting rather than accepting a match automatically.

You can also open the Translation memory tab or press Ctrl+G to search for previous translations manually.

The glossary stores important terminology and instructions on how it should be translated. It can include product and company names, industry-specific terms, words that should remain untranslated, and terms with multiple meanings.

When a glossary term appears in the source text, it is highlighted in the editor. Click it to view its definition, usage notes, and preferred translation for the target language.

Use glossary suggestions to keep terminology consistent, but always check that the suggested term fits the sentence and context.

Machine translation in the editor is part of Standard AI/MT, which uses Google Translate and DeepL to generate quick translation suggestions. It is separate from Pro AI, Lokalise’s advanced, context-aware translation solution.

When you open a translation field, available machine translation options appear in the Suggestions panel. Click a suggestion to insert it, then review and edit the result before saving. You can choose which providers appear under Personal profile > General.

To fill empty translations for all languages of a single key, click Google-translate empty values under the key name. This option always uses Google Translate.

Standard AI/MT does not use project glossaries, translation memory, screenshots, key descriptions, or other context. Review the output carefully, especially when the text contains HTML or placeholders. Pro AI is used through separate AI translation workflows and is not covered in this section.

See the Machine translation and What is Standard AI/MT and Pro AI? articles for details.

AI Suggestions is part of Pro AI and provides context-aware assistance directly in the translation editor.

Open a target translation and use the Pro AI section in the right-side panel to generate a translation. You can add instructions about the content, tone, industry, and desired length. Pro AI can also use the key description, project glossary, and style guide as context.

After generating a suggestion, you can insert it into the translation field, ask Pro AI to rephrase or shorten it, or generate several variants to choose from. Always review the result before saving.

See the AI Suggestions article for details.

Screenshots provide visual context by showing where and how text appears in the interface. Contributors with the required permissions can upload screenshots and link them to individual translation keys.

When a screenshot is linked to a key, the relevant text may be highlighted on the image. This helps you understand the intended meaning, location, and available space before translating.

Comments let you ask questions, provide feedback, and share additional context without leaving the project editor.

You can leave a comment for the entire key or for a specific translation. Use @ mentions to notify another contributor, reply to existing comments, and resolve discussions once the issue has been addressed.

Click the Comments button under a key name or next to a translation. You can also open the Comments widget to browse discussions across the project.

Translation history lets you see how a translation has changed over time. Click the History button next to a translation to view its previous versions, including who made each change and when.

Use this information to review unexpected changes or check earlier wording.

If needed, click Restore to copy a previous version back into the translation field, then review and save it.

Use filters in the project editor to narrow down the displayed keys. You can apply predefined filters or create custom ones based on criteria such as translation status, tags, filenames, assignees, or QA issues.

Use Sort by to arrange keys in a more convenient order and find the content you need faster.

Use the search box in the top-right corner of the project editor to find text in keys and translations.

Search works together with the active filters and supports exact and case-sensitive matching.

If your permissions allow it, use Find and replace to search translations, key names, or tags and replace selected matches in bulk. Review the results carefully before applying changes. See the Find and replace article for details.

If screenshots are linked to translation keys, use Filter by screenshots in the project editor to display only the keys connected to a specific image. You can also find keys that have screenshots attached or those without any screenshots.

Click a screenshot preview under a key to open it and see where the text appears in the interface. Linked text can be highlighted directly on the image, helping you understand its position and context before translating.

See the Filter by screenshots article for details.

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Enable Show source difference since it was last translated to highlight changes made to the source text after the translation was added.

For example, if the source changes from “Editor” to “Project editor,” Lokalise highlights the added text so you can update the translation accordingly.

Enable Remember position in project to return to the same place when you reopen the project. Your saved position is marked on the scrollbar, making it easier to continue working without searching for the last key you translated.

Enable Display placeholders as blocks to hide HTML tags and placeholders behind small visual blocks. This makes translations easier to read and reduces the risk of accidentally changing technical elements that should usually remain untouched.

Click a block to reveal its original content. You can toggle this view for the entire project editor or while editing an individual translation.

Lokalise also flags translations with missing or inconsistent placeholders, helping you catch errors before the content is exported. See the HTML/Placeholders in blocks article for details.

Some translations contain plural forms, placeholders, HTML tags, or other technical elements that affect how the text works in the product.

For plural keys, Lokalise displays the forms required for the target language, such as one, few, many, or other. Translate every displayed form, using wording that sounds natural for the corresponding quantity.

Placeholders and HTML tags usually represent dynamic values or formatting. Keep them in the translation and do not translate their contents. You may move them when required by the target language, but make sure none are removed or changed accidentally.

Enable Display placeholders as blocks to make these elements easier to identify and protect while translating. Lokalise may also show a warning if placeholders or HTML tags are missing or inconsistent.

See the Plurals and HTML/Placeholders in blocks articles for details.

Enable Display spelling and grammar errors to highlight potential mistakes directly in the editor. Click a highlighted word to view suggested corrections or add it to the project dictionary.

You can disable the highlights for a less cluttered view. The QA checker may still flag detected issues with a warning icon, depending on the project settings.

See the Spelling and grammar check article for supported languages and more details.

Keyboard shortcuts help you translate and navigate the editor without repeatedly using the mouse. You can use them to save translations, move between keys, insert suggestions and placeholders, search translation memory, open comments, and perform other common actions.

Press Ctrl + / on Windows or Cmd + / on Mac to view the available shortcuts and switch between two profiles:

See the Editor hotkey profiles/keyboard shortcuts article for the complete list.

Before translating ambiguous text, review the context available in the editor.

Depending on the project, this may include:

Some context may not be available for every key. When the intended meaning is still unclear, leave a comment and ask the project manager or another contributor before translating.

Translation statuses help you understand which content still needs work:

Some projects may also use custom statuses for workflow stages such as Needs changes or Approved. You can filter content by status to focus on translations that require attention.

See the Translation statuses article for details.

Offline translation is useful if you prefer working in your own CAT tool, need to translate without a stable internet connection, or want to complete an assigned task outside the Lokalise editor.

In bilingual view, open the Offline translation widget to download all content for the selected language or only the keys included in the current filter as an XLIFF file.

The file can include key descriptions, screenshot links, and translation statuses.

Translate or review the XLIFF file in your preferred tool, then upload it back through the same widget. Assigned tasks can also provide dedicated Download XLIFF and Upload XLIFF options.

Uploading the file replaces the corresponding translations in Lokalise, so make sure you are using the latest downloaded version.

See the Offline translation article for details.

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