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    • Import files into translation memories

    Discover how to import TMX, XLSX, and SDLTM files into Smartcats translation memory, enhancing your translation accuracy and efficiency.

    In this brief article, let's look at how to quickly and easily import files to a translation memory (TM). It encompasses how to import TMX, XLSX, and SDLTM file imports.

    1. How to import TMX files

    If you have a TMX file exported from another TM or created by aligning the original text with its translation, you can import it into a Smartcat TM for use in projects.

    It's important for a TM to have the same language tags as the TMX file. Otherwise, you can't add content to or update your TM. Although, you can add the translation languages to a TM in Smartcat and then update it again.

    You can also adjust a language tag in the TMX file by opening it in a text editor and replacing all instances of the language code with your preferred language code.

    Import a TMX file in Smartcat in three steps

    Step 1
    Select the translation memory and click Update TM

    Step 2
    In the window that opens, click Add and select the TMX file on your computer

    Step 3
    Click Import

    2. How to import XLSX files

    You can download a translation memory as an XLSX file from Smartcat. You can then edit and upload it back to Smartcat using the process described above for TMX files.

    There are some points that we advise you take into account before importing XLSX file into Smartcat.

    1. The first column of an XLSX file downloaded should contain the source units, one per cell, while the second column (and the following ones, if this is a multilingual TM) should contain translations, one per cell corresponded to the source.

    1. The upper cell of each column(language) should hold a language tag. View the full list of language tags here.

    1. If a TM unit contains tags, it will look like this (the digit refers to the number of a tag):Choose your preferred payout method on the <1|My Payouts|1> page.

    Also, you may find two additional columns in a file entitled [Context: previous] and [Context: next], which contain the information about one preceding and one following entry. This information is used in Smartcat to track context matches.

    If you store previous translations in XLSX files, it's also possible to add the content to Smartcat. You can download an existing TM in the XLSX format, which will give you a template. Then paste entries in the template that you want to upload in Smartcat and upload the file as described above.

    3. How to import SDLTM files

    You can import SDLTM files to Smartcat. However, it's worth noting that the type of coding used for this file type inhibits what you can actually do with them.

    To import SDLTM files to Smartcat, first of all export an SDLTM file as a TMX file from Trados. Then repeat steps 1–3 from the above section, How to import TMX files.

    With the information in this article, you should now know how to import these three file types for use in your TMs in Smartcat!

    FAQ

    How can I update my SDL Trados TM from my Smartcat projects?

    Some users might use Smartcat in some projects to benefit from the collaboration features or because their translation team does not have access to another tool like SDL Trados, but they would still like to maintain some Trados TM up to date for projects where they cannot use Smartcat or because their customers is requesting that format back.

    There are 2 possible cases:

    1. If they use Smartcat to translate files created with Trados (.sdlxliff or .ttx), once these files have been translated, they can be exported back to that format and using the Trados batch process, can be used to update the TM.

    2. If they are translating documents other than the formats listed above, it is possible to export industry standard TMX files at the project or document level and import these files in the Trados TM. These files can be exported at any time during the project so the external TM databases can be updated in real time.


    I have received and SDL Trados package, why can't I add files to the project?

    SDL Trados packages are self contained with TM, glossaries and reference files in some cases. Adding files to a Smartcat project created around one of these packages would impact the integrity of the structure. In addition, any file added would not be part of the return package created by Smartcat once the project is completed. Therefore it is not possible to add either a new file for translation or reference files to these projects.