The View menu lets you change how the Editor displays your segments. The options it offers affect appearance only — they do not change your translations or any segment data. Adjusting them is a per-user preference saved in your browser, so the Editor opens the next time exactly the way you left it.
The View menu currently exposes:
-
Whitespace: Show or hide whitespace marks (spaces, tabs, line breaks) in the segment text.
-
Labels: Show or hide colored segment labels in the grid rows. Keyboard shortcut Alt+Shift+L.
-
Markup: Choose how markup appears in the grid: a short label (Standard) or the actual content shown inline (Inline).
-
Reset column widths: Restore column widths to their default sizes after manual resizing.
Whitespace
The Whitespace option shows or hides whitespace marks in the segment text: spaces appear as small dots, tabs as arrows, and line breaks as a return symbol. Use it when you need to verify that whitespace is correctly preserved between source and target, or to spot accidental double spaces.
This is a simple on/off toggle. Click View > Whitespace to switch it.
Labels
The Labels option shows or hides the colored segment labels in the grid rows. Labels are used to categorize segments (for example: "approved", "needs review", "client query"). Hiding them reduces visual noise when you want to focus on the text alone.
This is a simple on/off toggle, with the keyboard shortcut Alt+Shift+L assigned by default. Click View > Labels or press the shortcut to switch it.
Reset column widths
The Reset column widths action restores all grid columns to their default sizes after manual resizing. Useful after experimenting with column widths or when content changes have made the layout uneven.
Click View > Reset column widths to apply. The action is disabled when columns are already at their defaults.
Markup
Translation files often contain markup: placeholder variables, formatting tags, or structural markers from the source document. By default, the Editor shows each piece of markup as a short label that hides its content, and you hover to see what it represents. The Markup submenu lets you change this so the most useful information is visible at a glance.
Inserting markup from the Edit menu
While markup display modes are part of the View menu, you can also insert markup directly into a segment from the Edit menu, useful when the source contains placeholders, formatting tags, or structural markers that need to be carried over manually.
To insert markup into a segment:
-
Place your cursor in the target segment where you want the markup to appear.
-
Open the Edit > Markup submenu.
-
Choose the markup you want to insert.
Inserted markup respects the markup display mode (Standard or Inline) you set under View > Markup.
Choosing a markup display mode
Open View > Markup to switch between the two modes. Hover either entry to read a short description.
|
Mode |
What it does |
Tooltip on hover |
|---|---|---|
|
Standard (default) |
Shows each piece of markup as a small label with a short identifier (for example |
Show markup as a small label. Hover to view its content. |
|
Inline |
Shows the actual markup content directly inside the label (for example |
Show the markup content directly inside the label. Useful for files with placeholders such as variable names. In some formats, structural markup stays collapsed. |
Your selection is saved in your browser and applies the next time you open the Editor.
Markup categories
The Editor distinguishes two kinds of markup using different colors. Both colors apply in both modes.
|
Category |
Color |
Source |
Example |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Document markup |
Gray |
Generated from your source file by the import parser, or inserted with Edit > Markup > Add markup. Includes XLIFF placeholders, gaming variables, HTML elements, and custom markup defined in your parser configuration. |
|
|
Font styling |
Blue |
Inserted by the translator using Edit > Text format (Bold, Italic, Underline, Subscript, Superscript) or the formatting toolbar. |
|
For font styling markup, Standard shows the short code (b, i, u, sub, sup) and Inline shows the full name (Bold, Italic, Underline, Subscript, Superscript). The blue color tells you it is a styling tag and not a placeholder in either mode. In the formats listed under Formats where Inline expands protected text only, font styling stays as a short code, because it is formatting markup rather than protected text.
Supported file formats
Inline mode is most valuable for files where each piece of markup represents a small, readable piece of content (a variable name, a placeholder, an HTML attribute). Office, DTP and binary formats also carry a great deal of formatting markup, so in those formats Inline expands only the markup that protects do-not-translate text, and leaves formatting markup as short labels.
Where Inline works best
|
File type |
Typical Inline content |
Common use case |
|---|---|---|
|
JSON |
|
Gaming, mobile and web app localization. |
|
iOS Strings |
|
Mobile app localization. |
|
Java properties |
|
Software localization. |
|
YAML |
|
Configuration files, software i18n. |
|
CSV |
Custom regex placeholders |
Marketing copy, retail catalogues. |
|
XLIFF 1.x and 2.0 |
|
Industry-standard translation exchange format. |
|
XML |
Element and attribute content, embedded HTML, regex captures |
Documentation, structured content, custom industry formats. |
|
HTML |
|
Web content, marketing emails, retail product descriptions. |
|
DITA |
HTML element content |
Technical documentation. |
|
Wordbee Localization Container (.wbloc) |
Markup carried from the original source format |
Beebox round-trip workflow. |
If your project uses regex-based markup capture in Do not translate > Words or terms, Inline shows whatever each regex was configured to expose: either the captured text, or the description if one was set.
Formats where Inline expands protected text only
In these formats Inline expands only the markup that protects text set as do not translate: text captured by a Words or terms rule, and text excluded by colour. A manager sets both in the file format configuration, under Do not translate.
Markup that comes from the file's own formatting (bold, text boxes, footnotes) stays as a short label, so rows do not become unreadable.
|
File type |
Extensions |
|---|---|
|
Microsoft Office |
|
|
OpenDocument |
|
|
|
|
|
Adobe InDesign |
|
|
Adobe FrameMaker |
|
|
Adobe InCopy |
|
|
Adobe Photoshop |
|
|
Microsoft Visio |
|
|
Trados / Transit legacy formats |
|
This matters most for pattern-based rules. Words or terms sets the markup name per rule rather than per match, so a rule protecting everything in curly brackets turns {burn}, {firebird} and {Nintendo} into identical x1/, x2/, x3/ labels. Colour-based exclusion always names its markup hidden. Inline prints the captured content into the row instead, so you can read it without hovering each label.
If a manager typed an optional description on a Words or terms rule, Inline shows that description rather than the captured text, so the original stays hidden. Colour-excluded text is truncated to 100 characters before it reaches the Editor.
In a view that mixes formats, such as a project view containing both a Word file and an XML file, the rule of the format you have open applies to every row. Memory Finder matches follow the open document's rule too, so a match and the grid row beside it always render the same way.
Tip
You can assign a keyboard shortcut to the Markup mode menu in Preferences > Shortcuts. Once set, the shortcut appears next to Markup in the View menu and opens the picker with one keystroke — handy when you switch modes often, for example to verify markup details quickly while revising a translation.
Learn More
-
Quick Toolbar: Insert formatting markup (Bold, Italic, Underline, Subscript, Superscript) and other quick actions while editing.
-
Memory Finder Panel: Search translation memories. Memory hits now follow the markup display mode you choose in View > Markup, so in Inline mode they show the real tag content.
-
Preferences: Configure your Editor settings including keyboard shortcuts, display options, and theme.