Translation Process Overview

Crowdin is a localization management platform that helps companies, teams, and individuals stay agile when translating products like mobile, desktop & web apps, websites, games, help documentation, and more.

In this article, we’ll walk you through a typical localization workflow.

Create a Project

First, log in to your Crowdin account or sign up to create one.

Then create a project to be able to upload your content for localization. Once you create a project, your free 14-day trial starts.

When creating a project, you can select the preferred project visibility. You can choose between:

  • Public project – searchable via search engines and Crowdin search.
  • Private project – visible only to the invited project members.

Also, you can select the preferred project type. You can choose between:

  • File-based – translatable content is managed with source files.
  • String-based – translatable content is managed with source strings.

Select the source and target languages (the ones you’ll translate your content into).

Upload Source Files for Localization

Once you’ve created the project, you can upload localizable files in a way that works best for you:

  • Manually via the web interface (UI).
  • Integrate Crowdin with the tools you already use. We have over 500 apps and integrations. In Crowdin, you can upload content from:
    • your repo (e.g., GitHub, GitLab, etc.)
    • marketing tools (e.g., Contentful, Webflow, WPML, Kentico Kontent, Hubspot, Marketo, etc.)
    • help center (e.g., Help Scout, Zendesk, Intercom, etc.)
    • development tools (e.g., VS Code, Android Studio, Google Play, etc.)
    • email automation (e.g., Mailchimp, Sendpulse, ActiveCampaign, Mandrill, Moosend, etc.)
    • design tools (Figma, Adobe XD, Sketch) tools
      View a list of tools you can integrate with Crowdin.
  • Use API or console client (CLI).

To upload translatable content in a file-based project, open your project and go to Sources > Files.

Upload files

To upload translatable content in a string-based project, open your project and go to the Upload tab.

Upload files

To automatically sync files between your Crowdin project and the tools of your choice, add and set up the respective integration.

  1. Open your project and go to the Integrations tab.
  2. Click Add Integration.
  3. Click Install on the needed integration and follow the instructions.
  4. Click Install.

Once you add the integration, you can proceed to the setup.

Read our articles for GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and Azure Repos for more details on configuring integrations with your repo.

Upload files

Upload Existing Translations

If you already have some translations done outside Crowdin, you can upload them to your Crowdin project to keep everything in one place and continue working on translations.

To upload existing translations to a file-based project, open your project and go to the Translations tab.

Read more about Uploading Existing Translations (File-based).

To upload existing translations to a string-based project, open your project and go to the Upload tab.

Read more about Uploading Existing Translations (String-based).

Upload Localization Resources

In most cases, you might have localization resources like Translation Memory (TM) and Glossary. It is a good idea to upload them to your Crowdin project since these localization resources help your translators during the translation process and ensure high translation quality.

Upload Screenshots and Add Context

Screenshots are another great way to provide additional context so translators can understand better how they should translate the source strings. To upload screenshots, open your project and go to the Screenshots tab. Tag the source strings on the screenshots. This way, screenshots with tagged strings will appear under each string in the Editor’s Context section.
Read more about context features in Crowdin.

Screenshots in the Editor

Pre-translate your Project

To save time, you can pre-translate your Crowdin project via Translation Memory (TM) or Machine Translation (MT). This way, you’ll have some strings automatically translated before translators start working on your project translations. You can apply pre-translation manually or set up automatic pre-translation via TM or MT, so each time new content is added, it’s translated automatically.

Pre-translation via TM

Invite Project Members

Decide who will translate your content. You can cooperate with professional translation agencies integrated with Crowdin or invite your own team of translators if you have one. If you decide to work with professional translation agencies, open Store > Vendors and select the translation vendor that meets your requirements.

If you decide to invite your own team of translators, open your project and go to the Members tab. You can invite people to your project using their Crowdin username or email address and via the invitation link. When inviting new people, you can assign them the following roles: Manager, Language Coordinator, Proofreader, and Translator. You can change the assigned role for any project member at any time.

Invite project members

Once new members join your project, they can start translating the content in the Editor.

Generate Reports

Crowdin Reports give you an overview of all the important data regarding your project.

There are five main types of reports you can find under the Reports tab in your project:

  • Project Status
  • Costs Estimate
  • Translation Cost
  • Top Members

Read more about Reports at Crowdin.

Project reports

Download Translations

Translations are downloaded according to the export settings configured in the project’s Settings tab.

Export Settings

You can download translations manually using the web interface, using integrations (e.g., GitHub or similar), applying API, or using a console client (CLI) to automate the translation download.

Read more about Downloading Translations (File-based).
Read more about Downloading Translations (String-based).

See Also

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