When you are translating or reviewing content, the Memory Finder panel helps you reuse existing translations from your organization's translation memories. As you move through segments in the grid, the panel automatically retrieves matching translations ranked by quality, so you can quickly find the best match and insert it without leaving your workspace.
Viewing Memory Matches
Open the Memory Finder panel from the Panels menu in the toolbar, or press Ctrl+Alt+M. The panel appears on the right side of the Editor and can be stacked alongside other panels such as the Term Finder.
When you click on a segment in the grid or navigate between segments with the arrow keys, the panel searches your translation memories automatically and displays results in a unified list. The column headers show the source language, the match indicator (% and TM origin), and the target language.
Results are organized with quality hits first (ranked by match percentage from highest to lowest), followed by concordances (partial text matches) at the bottom.
Understanding Match Indicators
|
Indicator |
Meaning |
|---|---|
|
100% (green) |
Exact match from the translation memory. |
|
99% and lower (green) |
Fuzzy match: the source text is similar but not identical. The percentage reflects the degree of similarity. |
|
s (gray badge) |
Concordance: a partial text match found in the memory. |
|
Warning triangle |
A penalty has been applied to this match. Hover over the icon to see the penalty percentage. |
|
Orange highlighting |
Differences between the search text and the memory source are highlighted in orange, helping you spot variations at a glance. |
|
Markup tags (e.g., /f1/) |
Formatting tags are visible in the results when markup visibility is enabled. |
Translation Details
Click the info icon on a result to expand the Translation details section at the bottom of the panel. This section shows metadata for the selected memory hit.
|
Field |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Status |
The translation status: Neutral (gray), Confirmed (green), or Error (red). |
|
Last change |
The date, time, and author of the last modification. For human edits, this shows the user's name or initials (depending on your access rights). For machine-generated translations, this shows the MT engine profile used. |
|
Document name |
The source document or project where the translation originated. |
|
Labels and custom fields |
Resource-level metadata such as categories, custom field values, and labels. |
|
Resource ID (score) |
The translation memory name and quality score (shown as a star rating). Click the link icon to open the resource in a new window, if you have permission to access the memory. |
The author's full name or initials, and the link to the resource, are shown based on your access rights. If you cannot see these details, check your permissions with your project manager.
Inserting Translations
To insert a memory match into your translation:
-
Select a segment in the grid.
-
Review the matches in the Memory Finder panel.
-
Click the Insert text icon next to the desired match to replace the current target text with the memory match.
When Auto-fill with top 100% match is enabled in settings, the Editor automatically inserts the best exact match into the target cell if the segment is empty. This speeds up your workflow for repetitive content.
If Auto-fill source if no appropriate match is found is enabled, the source text is copied into the target cell when no suitable match exists, ensuring every segment has content to work with.
Searching Manually
By default, the Memory Finder searches automatically based on the segment you select in the grid. To search for specific text instead, click the search field in the panel header to switch to manual search mode. Type your query and press Enter or click the search icon. Below the search bar, two radio buttons let you choose the search direction:
-
Source (default): Searches the source language only.
-
Target: Searches the target language only.
To return to automatic, grid-linked search, click a segment in the grid. The panel will resume updating results based on the selected segment.
Choosing how your query is matched
When you search manually, you can control how the text you type is matched against your translation memories. Click the mode picker on the left of the search field and choose a mode. The picker shows the active mode.
The default mode is Similar, the fuzzy lookup the Memory Finder has always used. Your choice is remembered in your browser and stays in effect on the same device; on a different browser or device, the mode returns to Similar.
|
Mode |
What it matches |
|---|---|
|
Similar (default) |
Segments containing the words you type, in any order; partial and approximate matches are included. |
|
Contains |
Segments where the words you type appear in the same order; may be part of a longer segment or the whole segment. |
|
Whole segment |
Segments whose entire text matches what you typed, with nothing before or after. |
|
Wildcards |
Segments matching a wildcard pattern: ? for any single character, * for any sequence. |
|
Regex |
Segments matching a regular expression, matched anywhere in the segment. |
Wildcards example: type release note* to match both "release note" and "release notes".
Regex matching is case-insensitive and matches anywhere in the segment, so you do not need to wrap your pattern in .* . It supports literal text, . , the ? * + and {n,m} quantifiers, character classes such as [a-z], alternation such as (a|b), and grouping. It does not support \b word boundaries, the \d \s \w shorthand classes, or look-ahead/look-behind.
Resource Selection
Click the Resources button (list icon) in the panel header to choose which translation memories are included in your searches.
The dialog displays all available memories, grouped by type:
-
PM (Project Memory): Specific to the current project.
-
TM (Translation Memory): Corporate or shared.
Check or uncheck individual memories to include or exclude them. The counter next to Selected shows how many memories are currently active.
By default, all project memories are enabled. If the setting Select which Project Memories to search is disabled in Settings, the Resources dialog becomes inactive and memories cannot be selected individually.
Settings
Click the gear icon in the panel header to open settings. Click Restore Defaults to reset all options to their original values.
Filtering
|
Setting |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Minimum % match threshold |
Set the lowest match quality to display (default: 80%). Use the slider to adjust between Min. and Max. Lower values show more results but with lower quality matches. |
|
Include unreliable results (MT, fuzzy, and red-status) |
When enabled, shows results not confirmed as reliable, such as machine translations, fuzzy pretranslations, and red-status entries. When disabled, only confirmed reliable results are shown. Disabled by default to prioritize human-reviewed translations. |
|
Select which Project Memories to search (all enabled by default) |
When enabled, all project memories are searched automatically and you can select or deselect individual memories in the Resources dialog. When disabled, the Resources dialog becomes inactive. |
Display
|
Setting |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Toggle markup visibility |
Show or hide formatting tags and markup in results (enabled by default). |
|
Show differences between grid and hit segments with track-changes |
Highlights non-overlapping text between the focused grid segment and the selected result using track-changes styling (enabled by default). |
|
Highlight partial matches |
Marks overlapping text in the results list based on the active grid segment (enabled by default). |
Insert
|
Setting |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Auto-fill source if no appropriate match is found |
Copies source text into the target cell when no suitable memory match exists (disabled by default). |
|
Auto-fill with top 100% match |
Automatically inserts the best exact match if the active segment is empty (enabled by default). |
|
Remove tags upon insert |
Strips all formatting tags when inserting a translation (disabled by default). |
The Memory Finder Settings dialog showing Filtering, Display, and Insert options with their default values.
Example Scenarios
|
Use Case |
How To |
|---|---|
|
Quickly reuse an exact translation from a previous project |
Select the segment in the grid. If a 100% match appears at the top of the list, click the Insert text icon next to it. With Auto-fill with top 100% match enabled, this happens automatically for empty segments. |
|
Find a translation you know exists but the automatic results do not show it |
Type the text in the search field and press Enter. Switch between Source and Target to search in either language. |
|
Review only high-quality matches and skip low-confidence results |
Open Settings and increase the Minimum % match threshold (for example, from 80% to 90%). Disable Include unreliable results (MT, fuzzy, and red-status) to exclude machine translations, fuzzy pretranslations, and red-status entries. |
|
Check whether a memory hit was translated by a person or a machine |
Click the info icon on the result to expand Translation details. The Last change field shows the author. |
|
Focus your search on a specific translation memory |
Click the Resources button and uncheck the memories you want to exclude. Only the selected memories will be searched. |
|
See how a fuzzy match differs from your current segment |
Enable Show differences between grid and hit segments with track-changes in Settings. Select a fuzzy match and the details area will highlight what has changed between the memory entry and your current segment. |
|
Insert a translation without its formatting tags |
Enable Remove tags upon insert in Settings. When you click Insert text, all formatting tags will be stripped and only the plain text will be inserted. |
|
Ensure every segment has content, even without a memory match |
Enable Auto-fill source if no appropriate match is found in Settings. Segments without a suitable match will be filled with the source text as a starting point. |
Learn More
-
Term Finder Panel: Look up approved terminology from your term bases while translating.
-
QA Panel: Run quality assurance checks to detect errors and inconsistencies before delivery.
-
Filters Panel: Narrow down which segments appear in the grid.