Machine Translation in Progress
An animated sparkle icon means a phrase is queued for machine translation or is being translated now. In the translation table, it appears just to the left of the approval checkbox. The same icon appears beside each queued language in Multilingual View, in cross-site translation views, and beside phrases in the phrase list. Hover over the icon to see the queue status. Outside the translation page, the tooltip also shows the flag and language name. In the phrase list, if the tooltip is open when a translation becomes ready, it stays open and offers a View translation link. It disappears after you leave the tooltip. Queue status refreshes when you click a translation text area or open Multilingual View, and every few seconds while the page is visible. The icon disappears when that language finishes or its queued result is cancelled. If processing stops unexpectedly, its running indicator clears after about two minutes. Translations that finish between status checks or while the tab is hidden are picked up at the next visible status check. When a queued translation finishes, its saved text, translator and approval details appear in the translation row and Multilingual View without reloading the page. If you have an unsaved draft, SiteTran keeps it; cancelling or reverting that draft lets the completed translation appear in the editor.
If a translation attempt fails, SiteTran retries it up to two more times. Other languages continue, and retries keep any newer translation you have saved.
Saving unchanged text keeps the existing translation, its translator attribution, and its approval status. To change approval, use the approval control. If a phrase should show no text in your language, see Saving an Empty Translation.
You can still write your own translation. When you save while machine translation is pending, choose Save my translation to continue or Keep editing to return to your draft. A translation saved while the job is queued or running takes priority: SiteTran discards the queued result for that language, even if the job was set to replace existing translations.
Translation Validation
Before we discuss how to save a translation, here's how the translation table looks:
The original (source language) phrases are on the left side, enclosed in square brackets “[ ]”.
The translation (target language) text areas are on the right side, ready for you to work your magic.
The [square brackets] surrounding the original phrases are there to better to illustrate [ leading] & [trailing ] spaces of the phrase. (A space character “ ” that can exist before or after a phrase, highlighted in the image above in green). You should almost always respect the original phrases’ leading/trailing space in your translations, otherwise, your translations can get squishedtogetherlikethis, and that’s not fun. You’ll get a Translation Validation error if you try saving a translation with a different before/after space from the original phrase.
Ex: for an error message:
Missing a major punctuation mark, such as a period or a question mark, will also trigger a Translation Validation error. Click on “cancel” to edit your translation, or click on “I'm sure” if you are skipping the punctuation mark or the space on purpose. Don't rely on error messages. It's best to always look at the phrase before saving to ensure that no information has been lost.
How do I save a phrase?
After you save, SiteTran checks for the exact same source phrase in other sites in the same team, with the same source and target languages. If there are matches, the Update Translation Across Team Sites dialog lets you select which phrases to update. The dialog previews the original phrase, your saved translation, and each other site’s current translation, including who translated it and when. You must be an approved translator for that language on a destination site to select it. If you do not have access, take a screenshot of the dialog and send it to your SiteTran site manager. Ask them to approve you for that site and language under Languages → Manage. Glossary phrases on destination sites, locked translations, and translations that already match are excluded. An alternative phrase (one with a URL or CSS selector) is shown, but it is not updated automatically. Open it if you want to change the translation for that context. Saving a glossary translation can still offer updates to matching regular phrases on other sites.
Click a phrase link to open it in Translate in a new tab. Choose Apply to selected to replace the selected translations, or Only this site to leave the other sites unchanged. Your current site's translation is already saved. Each destination site's approval settings apply.
If a destination is waiting for machine translation, choose Save my translation to apply your text or Skip this site to leave it unchanged. Skipping a site does not count as a failed update or turn off automatic updates.
After you approve or unapprove a translation, the Approve Translation Across Team Sites or Unapprove Translation Across Team Sites dialog offers the same change for matching phrases. Both the original phrase and the saved translation must match exactly, with the same source and target languages. The dialog only appears when there are matches on sites where you have reviewer access. Each row shows whether the translation is unapproved, approved by AI, or approved by a reviewer, and what your action will change. Eligible phrases are selected by default. Uncheck any you want to leave unchanged and choose Apply to selected, or choose Only this site. You must be an approved translator and a reviewer for that language on each destination site. Glossary phrases and locked translations are excluded; alternative phrases can be opened and reviewed separately. Approving can also replace an AI approval with your human approval. Each site's publishing settings still apply.
Choose Apply automatically until refresh to apply the current selection and repeat the same action on matching phrases in the selected sites without another dialog. This lasts only for the current page load: refreshing or leaving the page resets it. Translation, approval, and unapproval each have a separate choice. Permissions and matching phrases are checked each time. Alternative phrases are never updated automatically: if a match is an alternative phrase, the dialog still appears so you can open it and review its context. Missing translator access also brings back the translation dialog. If an update fails, SiteTran shows the affected phrases and stops repeating that action automatically.
When you select a phrase with matches on other team sites, a linked-squares icon appears above the original phrase. Its indicator stays with that phrase when you open or save another phrase. Hover over it, focus it, or click it to preview each matching site's current translation, translator and date, approval status, and any alternative phrases. Phrase links open in a new tab. After saving or approving a translation, a faded blue icon appears immediately while SiteTran checks the other sites. It disappears if no matches are found. After you apply a team update, the icon shows a checkmark when it succeeds or a warning if any update fails. The preview shows the latest outcome from this page load and refreshes the other sites' current translations when you open it.
Here's a row from the translation table above:
Once you're satisfied with your translation, always remember to press the "Save" button (1), or the "Enter" key on your keyboard to save - so that your translation doesn’t get lost. You can use the "Cancel" (2) button to discard your unsaved changes.
There are two buttons above the original phrase. Button (3) allows you to insert the original phrase into the translation. Clicking it pastes the source language phrase into the translation text area. Don't forget to save! Button (4) lets you open/close the Multilingual View, to see how the phrase was translated in different languages. It shows you a preview when hovered over it. Find out more about Multilingual View here.
After you save a translation, the AI Review tool (5) will give you some feedback. Learn more about the AI Review tool here.
In the upper right corner (6), each translation has different icons to indicate status. To learn more about those options, click here.