In addition to Translation Memory, the Transifex Editor includes several other tools and features that can support your translation workflow. This article covers the History tab, TQI Insights, Comments and Issues, String Instructions, Tags, Find and Replace, bulk actions, keyboard shortcuts, and editor display settings.

The History tab displays how a selected string has been translated in the past, along with other workflow-related actions such as review/unreview, proofread/proofread revert, translation deletion, and all translation versions that have been submitted, including any modifications made to the source string.

History entries that refer to source text modifications are highlighted in grey:

Hover over the 'i' icon at the top of the list to see a summary of all unique actions:

If the "Show difference with previous" editor preference is enabled, the difference between versions is displayed (green for additions, red for deletions).

Alternatively, you can click the "Show difference with previous" icon to enable it for a specific string you're viewing:

You can also see how each source and translation version was submitted to Transifex (for example, by TM, MT, AI, file upload, the Editor, etc.)

The Glossary tab displays information about any glossary terms found in the currently selected string. You can switch to this tab using the Ctrl+4 keyboard shortcut. For more detailed information, you can visit our Using the Glossary article.

The TQI Insights tab in the Editor provides access to Translation Quality Index (TQI) insights and breakdown information for the selected string. This tab appears only when a translation has an associated TQI score, and allows reviewers to inspect quality information without opening a separate screen.

With a string selected, the TQI Insights tab displays the available quality analysis for the current translation. From this tab, you can:

The information shown in this tab is the same TQI analysis available when opening the detailed TQI view from the translation score.

If alternative variants are available, they are listed in the TQI Insights tab under the Variants section. Each variant includes a Use this button. Clicking this button replaces the current translation with the selected variant. You just need to save the changes.

The TQI Insights tab brings translation quality information directly into the Editor, enabling faster and more informed review decisions. For more details on TQI scores and quality breakdowns, see Translation Quality Index (TQI).

If you have a question about the meaning of a string or notice an error, you can leave a comment or open an issue. Both comments and issues support @mentions — see Mentioning Recipients below.

You can submit comments, discuss translations with other collaborators, or ask questions about the source string.

To reply to a comment, select Reply to respond to the sender, or Reply all to reply to everyone who has submitted at least one comment for that string.

There are a few ways to find strings with comments in the Editor:

The Issues field can be used for providing feedback to translators, or for translators to ask clarification questions about the strings they are translating. Opening and closing issues is an effective way to track which questions have been addressed and which have not.

Project maintainers will immediately receive in-app and email notifications when an issue is created.

To add the Categories field, go to Organization Settings > Editor Settings > Manage Categories. Once configured, the option to add categories will appear as shown below.

To remove a category, click the trash can icon. To edit a category, click the pencil icon. A maximum of 20 categories can be added per organization.

Any member of the translation team can view comments and issues. If one translator asks a question about a string, all other translators and reviewers will also see the question and any answers, so the same question does not need to be asked twice.

Open issues can be accessed directly via the link available on the project's overview page.

Issues can also be filtered in the Editor: Label > Issue > Open/Resolved/None.

In both comments and issues, you can @mention a specific user to notify them. Type @ followed by their username to tag them.

The recipient will receive in-app and email notifications, and can navigate to the mentioned string by clicking the link in the email.

You can tag project maintainers, language coordinators, reviewers, and translators from the project's team.

Once a question has been answered and a translator or reviewer has updated their translation accordingly, the issue should be marked as Resolved so it no longer appears as open. You can reopen an issue at any time.

The following users can mark an issue as resolved:

Sometimes, a developer may include notes on how a string is used in an app, or provide specific translation instructions. These notes appear between the source string and the translation box.

Developer Notes are imported within the resource file.

String Instructions can be added by clicking the "Edit Context" button in the Context tab.

To apply the same instructions to more than one string at once, use the bulk editor actions:

This text will appear below the source string for all translators working on those strings. If both String Instructions and Developer Notes are present, both will appear between the source string and the translation box.

Tags let you group a set of strings within a resource in any way you like. For example, you can use tags to indicate where certain strings came from, or to prioritize strings for translation using a tag such as "Urgent."

Tags work at the string level. When you add a tag, it is applied across all languages, even if you have selected a specific language in the Editor.
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To tag strings, select one or more strings using the checkbox next to each string, type the tag name in the Edit tags section, and click Add.

When adding a tag to multiple strings, a dropdown will appear with suggestions based on the existing tags in the current project as you start typing.

You can also add tags via the Edit context button in the Context tab of the editor.

Similarly, when typing in the Tags area, a dropdown with suggestions for the current project's existing tags will appear.

When using the tag filter in the Editor to search for a specific tag, the list of existing tags is also available.

Transifex also supports smart tags (locked, notranslate, locked_lang_code), which allow you to lock a string or prevent it from being translated into certain languages. For more information, here.

If you need to update the translation of a word or phrase across multiple strings at once, you can use the Find and Replace functionality in the Editor. You can search for a whole word or part of a word (or a single character, for languages without spaces).

If searching for part of a word, enable Allow partial matching before clicking Find and Replace.

In some cases, strings should not be translated, and the source text should be used as the translation instead. In the Transifex Web Editor, you can select multiple such strings and copy their source text to the translation area in bulk.

From the editor, you can select all or a subset of strings and choose to translate them using AI or Machine Translation from the actions menu on the right.

The edit settings button provides quick access to your Machine Translation settings.

The Editor supports several keyboard shortcuts that allow you to take action quickly without using your mouse. The full list of available shortcuts is shown in the image below.

To view shortcuts at any time, open the Editor, click the three dots in the top right corner of the header, and select Keyboard Shortcuts.

If you are translating into two similar languages, such as French (France) and French (Canada), you can use the translations of one language as the source strings when working on the other. This is particularly useful when the two target languages are closely related, as referencing an existing translation can speed up the process and improve consistency, rather than always working from the original source language.

For example, if you have already translated your content from English into French (France), you can display those French (France) translations as the source strings when translating into French (Canada).

Once you select a string from the string list, several tools and features are available in the translation area.

The source string area has additional functionality accessible with your mouse. Clicking on an active element in the source string will copy part of that element to the translation string area.

Control characters are special characters that do not have a visible symbol when added to text (unlike a regular character such as 'a'). The following control characters may appear in source strings:

When one of these characters is present in a source string, a visual indicator is shown so you can identify it. You can click on it to copy it to your translation.

To protect variables and HTML tags in the source string, Transifex replaces them with special placeholders.

Clicking on a placeholder in the source string area copies it to the translation string area. Alternatively, use Alt+number to copy an HTML placeholder, or Ctrl+Alt+number to copy a variable placeholder. See Translating HTML Content for more details.

When Transifex identifies that a word in the source string is also in your glossary, it is underlined. Hovering over the word displays a tooltip showing its translation in the target language. Clicking on the term copies its translation to the translation string area.

See Using the Glossary for more details on using the glossary in the Editor.

These buttons appear directly above the translation box:

This dropdown provides quick access to the most commonly needed special characters.

Place your cursor where you want to insert the character, then:

Depending on what you are translating, you may need to keep a translation within a specific character limit to avoid breaking the user interface — for example, in menus, buttons, or mobile apps where space is constrained. In Transifex, you can set character limits to ensure translations meet this requirement.

To set a character limit for a single string:

To apply the same character limit to multiple strings at once:

Once a character limit is set, translators will see two numbers in the bottom left of the translation box: the character limit on the left and the current translation character count on the right.

If the translation exceeds the character limit, the character counter will be highlighted.

The character counter shows the length of both the source and translation text. To enable it, go to Editor Preferences and toggle Show character counter.

If no character limit is set, the counter displays the source character count on the left, and the translation character count on the right.

If a character limit is set, the counter displays the character limit on the left and the translation character count on the right.

The default mode of the Transifex Editor is rich mode, which makes it easier to focus on the translation itself by hiding and protecting technical details that are typically not relevant to the localization process.

However, there are cases where you need full access to the exact source string as it is stored in the database. To view source strings without variable and HTML tag placeholders, switch to raw mode using the Editor settings in the top right corner of the editor page.

Raw mode is best suited for:

In raw mode, some helpful features are still available:

For details on these features, see the Tools in the translation area section above.

To enable dark mode in the Transifex Web Editor, turn on the corresponding setting under Preferences.

The editor UI will immediately switch to dark mode.