When you import a TMX file into a Translation Memory (TM), wxrks now keeps the custom <prop> metadata your other tools wrote into it: document symbols, original file names, client codes, and anything else. This article explains what gets kept, where you and your linguists can see it, who can see it, and how it travels back out when you export the TM.
Who this is for: Account Admins and Project Managers who import and manage TMs, and the Vendors and Clients who see TM matches in the wxrks Editor.
Requirements:
To import a file, you need the TM Segments Import permission. Account Admins and Project Managers have it by default.
Custom properties are visible to every role. See Who can see custom properties.
What counts as a custom property
A TMX file (the standard format for exchanging TMs between tools) can attach <prop type="..."> elements to a whole translation unit (<tu>) or to one language variant of it (<tuv>). wxrks already reads some property types into its own fields: Previous text, Next text, Context key, File, the created and modified dates and authors, and the reviewed, aligned, and right-to-left flags. Any other type is a custom property. wxrks stores it on the segment exactly as named in the file.
For example, this unit carries one property for the whole unit and two on the English variant:
<tu>
<prop type="x-original-file">(Draft) A78_42_EF</prop>
<tuv xml:lang="en-US">
<prop type="filename">annual-report.docx</prop>
<prop type="x-document-symbol">A78/42</prop>
<seg>The committee approved the annual report.</seg>
</tuv>
<tuv xml:lang="fr-FR">
<seg>Le comité a approuvé le rapport annuel.</seg>
</tuv>
</tu>
After the import:
Segment | Custom properties stored |
English |
|
French |
|
A property on the
<tu>is copied to every language of that unit. That's why the French segment also getsx-original-file.filenameis a property wxrks already maps, so it appears under File, not as a custom property.
Import a TMX file with custom properties
Go to Context > Translation Memories and open the TM.
Click Import, click Browse to select your
.tmxfile, and click Upload. See All about Translation Memories for the full import options.
You don't need to turn anything on. wxrks captures custom properties during every TMX import.
ℹ️ Note: Custom properties are captured only when a file is imported. TMs you imported before this feature existed don't have them. Import the original TMX file again to add them.
Limits
Limit | What happens when exceeded |
50 custom properties per segment | Properties beyond the 50th are skipped. The rest of the segment, and the rest of the file, still import normally. |
2,000 characters per property value | The value is cut off at 2,000 characters. |
If the same property type appears on both the <tu> and the <tuv>, the value on the <tuv> is kept for that language.
View custom properties on the TM page
On the TM's page, run a search. See How to use the Translation Memory search.
Hover over a segment's text. The tooltip lists the segment's metadata, followed by each custom property under its own name.
The Edit segment window lists the same custom properties under the segment's metadata. See How to add new segments to Translation Memories.
ℹ️ Note: Custom properties are for display only. TM search and its metadata filters don't search their names or values.
View custom properties in the wxrks Editor
Linguists can check where a match came from, such as its source document, without leaving the wxrks Editor.
TM suggestions
Click in a segment's target box. The Suggestions panel lists its matches under Translation memory.
Click a translation memory suggestion. Its details open in the CAT Info panel (CAT: computer-assisted translation), with each custom property as a row at the end of the table.
ℹ️ Note: A TM suggestion is the stored translation, so CAT Info shows the custom properties of the target-language segment. A property that was only on the source <tuv>, like x-document-symbol in the example above, doesn't appear here. To make a property visible to linguists on every suggestion, put it on the <tu> in your TMX file.
Search TM
Open Search TM from the Editor's side panel and run a search. Hover over a result to see that segment's metadata, including its custom properties. Each language shows its own segment's properties.
Who can see custom properties
Custom properties are shown to users with the View TM Extra Metadata permission. Every role (Account Admin, Project Manager, Client, and Vendor) includes it, so anyone who can open a TM's page or see TM matches in the Editor sees its custom properties. In People > Users > [User] > Permissions, the permission appears switched on and locked because it comes from the user's role. Account Admins can't turn it off for individual users.
⚠️ Warning: Don't import custom properties your linguists or clients shouldn't read, such as internal client codes or confidential document titles. Remove those <prop> elements from the TMX file before you import it.
Export custom properties back to TMX
When you export a TM as TMX, each segment's custom properties are written back as <prop> elements on its <tuv>, with their original names and values. Other CAT tools can read them after the export. See How to export the Translation Memory.
ℹ️ Note: A property that was on the <tu> in the original file comes back on each language's <tuv> in the export, because wxrks stores it on every segment of the unit.