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All about repetitions

How wxrks detects repeated segments in a file, replicates their translation automatically, and asks before propagating a change to every other repetition.

A repetition is a segment whose source content is identical to another segment somewhere else in the same file (or, for a multi-file project, in another file joined to it). Instead of making you translate the same sentence over and over, wxrks fills every repetition in automatically from the first one it finds, top to bottom.

This matters beyond convenience: repetitions are counted separately in a project's Logfile and priced differently from new content, so understanding how they're detected and propagated affects both translation speed and project cost.

💡 Who is this for? This guide is for Vendors (translators and reviewers) working in the wxrks Editor, and for Account Admins and Project Managers who want to understand how repetition counts feed into a project's Logfile and cost.


How wxrks identifies a repetition

Two segments are treated as repetitions of each other when their source content matches exactly - wxrks does not consider formatting tags when making this comparison, only the text to be translated. So a segment with bold text and a plain-text segment with the same words still count as repetitions of each other, even though their tags differ.

When a segment is a repetition, a small numbered badge appears at its lower right corner showing its position in the repetition chain - the first occurrence, then each one after it numbered in order.

Three identical segments in the Editor, each carrying a numbered Repetition badge

Repetition propagation

Edit and confirm the first occurrence of a repeated segment, and every repetition below it can be filled in with the same translation automatically - propagation only ever flows top to bottom, never upward. If you instead edit a repetition that isn't the first one, only the repetitions positioned after the one you changed are affected; anything above it is left alone.

Editing and confirming a repetition's target now opens a Repetition Propagation Check dialog before anything is applied elsewhere, rather than propagating silently:

Repetition Propagation Check dialog asking whether to propagate changes to subsequent confirmed and unconfirmed repetitions

Three choices are offered:

  • Do not propagate - keep the edit on this one segment only.

  • Propagate to unconfirmed only - apply the change to every repetition below that hasn't been confirmed yet, leaving already-confirmed ones untouched.

  • Propagate to all - apply the change to every repetition below, confirmed or not.

Locked segments are never affected by any of these options, regardless of which one you choose. Choosing Propagate to all fills in every subsequent repetition immediately:

Editor after propagation - the next repeated segment now shows the same edited translation

Repetitions with mismatched tags

wxrks still pays attention to tags once it's decided two segments are repetitions of each other. Based on the previous version of this article and not independently re-verified against a live tag-mismatch scenario this session: if repeated segments carry the same number of tags but different content around them, wxrks respects each segment's own source tag placement rather than forcing identical tags everywhere. Conversely, if you save a repetition with a tag missing (for example, deleting a tag that should have carried over), the repetitions that come after it can pick up that same missing tag. If a translation looks like it's missing a tag it should have, check whether it's a repetition and whether an earlier occurrence in the chain was saved with that tag stripped out.


Repetitions across files

Repetition detection and propagation aren't limited to a single file. When two or more files are joined in the same project, segments with identical source content are linked as repetitions across those files too, and the same Repetition Propagation Check dialog above governs whether an edit carries over to the linked segments in the other file(s).

Cross-file repetitions are counted in the project's Logfile and included in cost calculation the same way same-file repetitions are, so consolidating similar content into fewer, larger files (or deliberately joining related files) can reduce the effective word count a project is priced on.


Related articles

  • wxrks Editor - the rest of the Editor's layout, including the segment list where repetition badges appear.

  • wxrks Editor Menu for Vendors - the Filter tab's metadata conditions include filtering segments by whether they're a repetition.

  • All about Logfiles - how repetitions are counted and priced, including the toggles that change whether a 100% TM match or a non-translatable segment is counted as a repetition instead.

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