Supported file formats

Overview

Smartcat supports a wide variety of file formats for translation and localization. When you upload a file, Smartcat detects the format automatically and routes it to the appropriate processing engine.

Drag and drop your files or select them when creating a new project or translation task. If a file format is not supported, an error message appears and the file is not uploaded.

Supported file formats

Microsoft Office

• DOC / DOCX

• XLS / XLSX / XLSM

• PPT / PPTX / PPS / PPSX / POT / POTX

📌 Microsoft Office formats are proprietary and complex. Some post-processing may be required on translated documents.

Open Office

• ODT

• ODP

Text and rich text

• TXT

• RTF

Data and Spreadsheets

• CSV

Markdown

• MD / MKD / MDWN / MDOWN / MDTXT / MDTEXT / MARKDOWN

Hypertext

• HTML / HTM

• PHP

Bilingual interchange formats

• XLIFF (XLF) 1.2 and 2.0

• SDLXLIFF

• MQXLIFF

• XLIFF files from Articulate Rise 360

• XLIFF files from Articulate Storyline

• XLIFF files from Easygenerator

• PO / POT

• TTX

Desktop publishing

• PDF

• IDML (Adobe InDesign)

• INX

• MIF (FrameMaker)

📌 PDF files are processed using OCR. See the Images (OCR) section for supported input formats.

Technical writing

• DITA XML

• DITAMAP

• HELP+MANUAL XML

Localization

• XML

• TTML

• Android XML

• RESX

• LOCJSON

• JSON

• TJSON

• YML / YAML

• INC

• INX

• STRINGS (Apple)

• STRINGSDICT (Apple)

• XCSTRINGS (Apple Xcode string catalog)

• PROPERTIES (Java)

Learning content

• Articulate Rise SCORM course (ZIP)

• Articulate Storyline course (ZIP)

• Articulate Storyline native file (STORY)

Video

• MP4

• MPEG / MPG / M2V

• AVI

• MOV / QT

• MKV

• M4V

• FLV

• 3GP / 3G2

• OGV

• TS

• WMV

• VOB

Audio

• MP3

• MP2 / M2A

• M4A

• AAC

• OGG

• FLAC

• WMA

Subtitle

• SRT

• VTT

Images (OCR)

The following image and document formats are supported via OCR processing:

• JPG / JPEG / JFIF

• TIF / TIFF

• PNG

• BMP

• GIF

• DCX / PCX

• JP2 / JPC

• DJVU / DJV

• JB2

• PDF (image-only)

• AI (Adobe Illustrator)

Packages

• SDLPPX / SDLRPX

• WSXZ

• ZIP

📌 ZIP packages are used for IDML, DITA, Articulate Rise SCORM, Articulate Storyline courses, and other packaged content. Smartcat detects the package type automatically.

Unsupported formats

• FM (FrameMaker binary)

Blocked file extensions

To protect against security risks, Smartcat blocks upload of files with the following extensions. These cannot be uploaded regardless of content:

ade, adp, apk, app, appx, appxbundle, asp, aspx, asx, bas, bat, cab, cer, chm, cmd, cnt, com, cpl, crt, csh, der, diagcab, dll, dmg, exe, fxp, gadget, grp, hlp, hpj, hta, htc, inf, ins, iso, isp, its, jar, jnlp, js, jse, ksh, lib, lnk, mad, maf, mag, mam, maq, mar, mas, mat, mau, mav, maw, mcf, mda, mdb, mde, mdt, mdw, mdz, msc, msh, msh1, msh1xml, msh2, msh2xml, mshxml, msi, msix, msixbundle, msp, mst, msu, nsh, ops, osd, pcd, pif, pl, plg, prf, prg, printerexport, ps1, ps1xml, ps2, ps2xml, psc1, psc2, psd1, psdm1, pst, py, pyc, pyo, pyw, pyz, pyzw, reg, scf, scr, sct, sh, shb, shs, sys, theme, tmp, url, vb, vbe, vbp, vbs, vhd, vhdx, vsmacros, vsw, vxd, webpnp, website, ws, wsc, wsf, wsh, xbap, xll, xnk

⚠️ Note: js appears in the blocked extensions list above. If you need to translate JavaScript localization files, export them as JSON or another supported localization format.

Format-specific limitations and best practices

This section addresses common questions about specific file format handling.

Microsoft Office files

PDF files

📌 For best results with scanned PDFs, ensure the source document has clear, high-resolution text.

E-Learning formats

Localization formats

Desktop publishing

📌 For IDML files, review the tag settings before translation to optimize segment handling. See: https://help.smartcat.com/idml-file-tag-settings/

FAQ — Format-specific questions

Q: Can Smartcat handle bilingual DOCX files with parallel columns?

A: Smartcat can export bilingual DOCX files with parallel source/target columns. However, importing edited bilingual DOCX files back into Smartcat is not currently supported.

Q: Do we support JSON Objects (nested structures)?

A: Yes, JSON files with nested object structures are supported. Ensure your JSON is properly formatted with standard key-value pairs.

Q: What happens with scanned PDFs in the PDF Agent?

A: Scanned PDFs are automatically processed using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to extract text for translation. For best results, use high-resolution scans with clear text.

Q: Can we translate IDML files without quality degradation?

A: Yes, IDML files preserve original formatting. Use the IDML tag settings to optimize segment handling and simplify text formatting.

Q: Do we support xAPI (not just SCORM)?

A: xAPI (Tin Can) is not currently supported. SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004 (all editions) are fully supported.

Q: Can we handle Articulate Storyline audio files?

A: Articulate Storyline native support is on the short-term roadmap. Currently, you can export Storyline content as XLIFF for translation.