View menu

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:

  1. Place your cursor in the target segment where you want the markup to appear.

  2. Open the Edit > Markup submenu.

  3. 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.

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Mode

What it does

Tooltip on hover

Standard (default)

Shows each piece of markup as a small label with a short identifier (for example [1], b, <span>).

Show markup as a small label. Hover to view its content.

Inline

Shows the actual markup content directly inside the label (for example {character_name} instead of [1], or Bold instead of b).

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.

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Standard markup mode (document markup in gray, font styling in blue)
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Inline markup mode

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.

<span>, {character_name}, [1]

Font styling

Blue

Inserted by the translator using Edit > Text format (Bold, Italic, Underline, Subscript, Superscript) or the formatting toolbar.

b, i, u, sub, sup

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

{character_name}, {gold_count}, %s

Gaming, mobile and web app localization.

iOS Strings

%@, %1$@

Mobile app localization.

Java properties

{0}, {name}

Software localization.

YAML

{title}, ${var}

Configuration files, software i18n.

CSV

Custom regex placeholders

Marketing copy, retail catalogues.

XLIFF 1.x and 2.0

<ph>, <g>, <ec> content

Industry-standard translation exchange format.

XML

Element and attribute content, embedded HTML, regex captures

Documentation, structured content, custom industry formats.

HTML

<a href="...">, <img alt="...">

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

.docx, .xlsx, .pptx

OpenDocument

.odt, .ods, .odp

PDF

.pdf

Adobe InDesign

.idml, .indd

Adobe FrameMaker

.fm

Adobe InCopy

.icml

Adobe Photoshop

.psd

Microsoft Visio

.vsd, .vsdx

Trados / Transit legacy formats

.bak, .ttx, Star Transit packages

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.