Add placeholders

Learn about placeholders in Smartcat, variables that replace specific text content, including manual insertion, custom creation with regular expressions, and settings adjustments across projects.

Placeholders are variables that are supposed to replace certain text content, for example: names, numbers, dates, images, etc.

All placeholders must be copied to the translation, however in some cases you need to insert them manually.

Inserting placeholders using hotkeys

To insert a placeholder, click on the target text where the placeholder should be, and press Ctrl+Alt and the placeholder number: Ctrl+Alt+1, Ctrl+Alt+2, etc.

Inserting placeholders using mouse

To insert a placeholder, place your cursor in the target text where the placeholder should be, and then click on the placeholder icon in the Source.

You can also press the button that will appear in your toolbar if the source segment contains a placeholder or Ctrl+Q.

If a segment contains multiple placeholders, they will be inserted in the same order as they appear in the Source.

Adding custom placeholders

You can add your own placeholder formats on the Placeholders tab that can be accessed from the Settings menu.

Use regular expressions to create placeholder formats in which variables will be imported from files in the following formats: CSV, INC, JSON, MQXLIFF, PHP, PO, RESX, SDLXLIFF, STRINGS, TJSON, TTX, XLF, XLIFF, XML\*.

Placeholders are applied one after another starting from the uppermost but you are free to change the sequence.

You can test placeholders using this tool.

*Please note that placeholder settings are valid for the whole account, that is, for every project within. So if you need different placeholders for different projects, we strongly advise you against restarting markup or refreshing project files after you change your placeholder settings or their order.

Adding placeholders when creating a project

1. Upload a file to a project and click its name in the Documents section. The Settings menu will appear on the right.

2. Click the Use placeholders to import variables checkbox.

Note: you have to adjust the settings separately for each file.

Once project creation is completed, placeholder markup will be applied to the selected files.

Adding placeholders after creating a project

Go to the project page and hit the Mark Up Placeholders button. This button also allows you to refresh placeholder markup after you add/remove placeholders or change their order in the settings*.

*Please note that if placeholders were added to already confirmed segments after markup refresh, these segments will no longer be confirmed since a missing placeholder is a critical error.

FAQ

What are placeholders used for?

Placeholders are rules that can be added to an account to protect text that should not be translated and that the users wants to protect from the Placeholders are rules that can be added to an account to protect text that should not be translated and that the users wants to protect from the translation team.