Approve or flag a translation
Sign off a translation as correct, or send it back for another look, one string at a time or in bulk.
Approving is a reviewer's decision, separate from writing. Members with the Reviewer or Admin role, and the account's Owners, can approve and flag. A reviewer scoped to particular languages can only review those languages. Translators and Developers can write translations but not approve them; in Side by side they see "Approving is a reviewer’s right. Yours is to translate, so this string moves on when a reviewer reads it."
Review one string
Open the strings to review
In the editor, choose the language. To see only what needs you, open Filters and tick Needs checking or Waiting for approval, or follow Review or Approve from the project overview.
Read it
Read the translation against the source. If it needs a correction, make it and save it first.
Decide
Select Approve to approve it and move to the next string, or Flag for a check to mark it as needing another look. ⌘ Enter also approves and moves on.
Approve is unavailable, with the reason shown on it, when:
- you have an unsaved change: "Save your change first. Approve applies to the saved text."
- the string has no translation: "Nothing to approve yet: this string has no translation."
- it is already approved: "Already approved."
When the source text changed after the translation was written, the editor warns "The source changed after this was written. Read it again before approving it." You can still approve it.
Review many at once
Tick the rows in Table view, then select Approve or Flag in the bar above the table. Approving more rows than fit on one screen asks you to confirm first. Rows that changed after you loaded them are skipped, never approved unseen. See Act on many strings at once.
What happens next
| Action | Result |
|---|---|
| Approve | The translation becomes approved and any flag on it is cleared. Approving changes the sign-off, never the text. |
| Flag | The translation is marked needs checking. An approved translation drops back to edited, because it is no longer signed off; a Glossa draft stays a draft. |
Both are recorded in the string's history with your name, and in the project's activity.
An approved translation is never overwritten by AI. If you publish to the CDN with drafts held back, approved strings are published and Glossa drafts wait until someone approves or edits them. See Publish a locale.
Require a second reviewer
On Team plans and above, a workspace can stop anyone approving a translation they wrote themselves. An Admin turns on Require a second reviewer under Policy on the workspace's People page. It applies to every project, including to the account's Owners and Admins.
With it on, Approve is unavailable on your own translations and reads "You wrote this one, so someone else has to approve it. Flag it to send it back." In a bulk approval, your own rows are skipped and counted as needing a second reviewer.
Ask a reviewer to look
Members who cannot approve can still ask for a review. In Table view, Ask for a check on a row flags it and notifies the project's reviewers. See Translate a string.
If it doesn't work
- The Approval section and the bulk Approve and Flag buttons are missing: you do not have review access to this project or language.
- "Someone else has to sign this off: this workspace requires a second reviewer.": the workspace requires a second reviewer and you wrote this translation.
- "An empty translation cannot be approved: there is nothing there.": the string has no text to approve.