Update a project

After a project has started, you may need to add new files or update existing files with revised content. Smartcat provides built-in features to handle both scenarios while preserving your translation work.

When you upload a file with the same name as an existing document, Smartcat gives you the option to either update the existing document (replacing it while preserving translations) or upload it as a new document.

• Active Smartcat workspace with an existing project

• Workspace admin or project manager permissions

• Files to upload (new or updated versions)

⚠️ For the Update option to appear, file names must match exactly with existing files in the project. Even small differences (extra spaces, different characters, or additional text) cause the system to treat the upload as a new file.

Step 1 — Access the upload menu

1. Open your project in Smartcat

2. Go to the Files tab

3. Click the down arrow next to the Upload button

4. Select one of the following options:

   • Upload documents: Add new source files or update existing ones

   • Add reference files: Upload reference materials for translators

   • Update translation: Upload bilingual XLIFF files to update translations

Step 2 — Select your files

1. Select the files you want to add to the project

2. If uploading new documents, confirm the project information (source and target languages)

3. Configure format-specific options as needed

Step 3 — Choose how to handle duplicate files

If you upload a file with the same name as an existing document, Smartcat prompts you to choose:

Update current document

• The existing document is replaced by the new version

• All translation work is automatically transferred to the new file (extracted from the translation memory)

• No translation work is lost

• Task assignments are canceled — you need to reassign tasks to linguists

• Some formats (PO/Serge, XML) support updating segments by ID without canceling assignments

Create new document

• The file is added as a separate document

• A number is added to the file name to distinguish it from the existing file

• The document is processed using the project's linguistic assets

Step 4 — Configure segmentation options (for updates)

When updating a document, you can configure how Smartcat handles segmentation:

1. Click into each uploaded file individually

2. Under Segmentation mode, select one of the following:

   • Like the source file: Preserves the original file's segmentation

   • Additionally segment untranslated units: Applies Smartcat's segmentation rules to untranslated segments only

⚠️ The Additionally segment untranslated units option must be selected individually for each file during the update process. This setting does not apply globally across all files in the upload.

Step 5 — Complete the upload

1. Review your settings for each file

2. Click Finish to process the upload

3. The documents are added to the project and processed using the project's linguistic assets

If the Update option does not appear when uploading files, the file names do not match exactly.

Solution A: Rename your local files

Rename your local files to match exactly what appears in Smartcat, including any additional text (such as "(Improved Segmentation)")

Solution B: Rename files in Smartcat

1. In Smartcat, rename the existing file to remove any extra text

2. Upload your original file with the matching name

3. The Update option should now appear

You can add additional target languages to a project at any time, even after files have been uploaded.

Step 1 — Open project settings

1. Go to Project overview

2. Click the Settings icon (cog)

Step 2 — Add the new language

1. Under Target Languages, add the new language

2. Click Set up MT and select the appropriate machine translation engine for your content type

3. Enable Apply new languages to all documents upon save to apply the new language to existing files

Step 3 — Save changes

Click Save to apply the changes.

📌 If you skip the Apply new languages to all documents upon save option, the new language only applies to files uploaded after the change.

• The update feature does not work with all file types. Notably, .docx files cannot use this feature.

• Task assignments are canceled when using the Update option (except for certain formats like PO/Serge and XML that support segment ID matching).

• Both Update and Upload actions consume Smartwords for retranslation.