Documents
Part of Translation management software: workflow fit
Comparing translation workflow and terminology features
Compare assignment, review and glossary controls with one sample term and a clear hand-off between translator and reviewer.
Compare workflow and terminology together by following one approved term through translation and review. A completed task does not show whether the approved wording was used. A glossary entry does not show who was allowed to change it. Define both rules before comparing products.
Prepare a comparison case
Use fictional content in two target languages. Include a product name that must stay unchanged, a term with an approved translation and wording that should be avoided. Repeat one sentence so you can distinguish term guidance from translation-memory reuse. Assign a translator, language reviewer and terminology owner.
Question / What to check in the proposed account
- Assignment
- Which content and languages does each person receive?
- Guidance
- What appears when the translator encounters the term?
- Control
- Who can add, edit or forbid a term?
- Review
- Can a reviewer find and correct an unsuitable choice?
- Later change
- What must happen to translations completed before a term changes?
Decide in advance whether a term change should prompt another review. Do not assume that adding a term changes earlier translations.
Compare the documented controls
Lokalise Expert can generate translation and review tasks under configured workflow conditions. Its glossary can show matching terms and descriptions in the editor, including entries marked non-translatable or forbidden. The glossary starts at Growth.
A contributor needs the relevant permission to add or edit terms, and readable and editable languages are assigned separately. Translation memory supports phrase-level reuse; its management features start at Advanced. Custom workflows are documented for Enterprise. The workflow feature described here is not currently available in Lokalise Vantage.
Phrase TMS organises document jobs into steps such as Translation, Revision and Client Review, with linguists assigned to steps. A term base can be attached in read, write or QA mode. A new term does not automatically revise earlier translations.
A linguist's ability to edit every term in an attached term base depends on a separate user right. With that right off, editing is limited to terms they added where the term base is writable. One project cannot have different workflow-step sets for different languages.
A similarly named review step does not establish the same release rule in both accounts.
Judge the hand-off
Ask each supplier to show the translator using the sample, the terminology owner changing one term and the reviewer inspecting both languages. Record what appeared in the editor, which older translations remained unchanged and how each correction was assigned and approved.
A workable configuration identifies the terminology owner, gives translators usable guidance and provides a correction route for older content. Where a term change leaves earlier translations in use, assign a separate review or controlled search before delivery.
