Note: This article describes how file upload and download work in Lokalise Vantage. File management is also available in Lokalise Expert, but the interface and workflow differ. If you are using Lokalise Expert, see Uploading translation files and Downloading translation files.
This article explains how files work in Lokalise Vantage: which formats are supported, how files are uploaded, and how to download translated versions.
Vantage is designed for marketing and creative content, such as documents, presentations, marketing materials, and support content. When working with files in Vantage, you upload complete documents instead of managing individual keys or strings. Vantage then handles segmentation, translation, and updates automatically.
Supported file formats
Vantage supports document-style formats typically used for marketing and creative content. You can upload:
DOCX
PPTX
HTML
Markdown (MD)
IDML
XLSX
These formats are commonly used for:
documentation
marketing materials
slide decks
knowledge base articles
email templates
If you need to localise key-value files (such as JSON, YAML, Android XML, or iOS strings), you should use Lokalise Expert instead and create a Web and mobile project type. Expert projects are optimized for software localization and structured content workflows.
How to upload files
Files are initially added when you create a Vantage project. During project setup, you can upload one or more files you want to translate.
At this stage, Vantage:
checks the file type and size
estimates the word count
Once the project is created, Vantage automatically:
reads the uploaded content
breaks it into segments
generates translations for the selected target languages
runs the configured translation workflow
You can upload additional files later directly from the editor. To upload files, open your Vantage project and in the content management side panel, open Files:
Click Upload file.
Select the files you want to add. The same translation workflow configured for the project starts automatically for the newly uploaded content.
While files are uploading, Vantage shows the upload progress directly in the editor. You can monitor individual files, see when an upload is complete, or cancel uploads if needed.
Uploaded files appear in the Files panel, where they are organized by their current state, such as In progress or Done.
Exclude text from translation in DOCX files
You can exclude specific text from translation in DOCX files while keeping it in the original document.
Note: These options apply to DOCX files. Other supported file formats may handle non-translatable content differently.
Vantage supports the following methods:
Apply a style named NoTranslate or DoNotTranslate to the text you want to exclude from translation.
Highlight text in magenta to exclude the highlighted content from translation.
Style names are case-sensitive.
Excluded content is preserved in the document but is not sent for translation. If only part of a paragraph is excluded, the remaining text is translated normally. This can be useful for content such as product names, legal text, placeholders, or other text that should remain unchanged.
Update a file without starting over
TL;DR: You cannot edit the source text directly in Vantage. To update it, upload a new version of the file with the same file name from the content management panel.
If your source content changes, you don’t need to create a new project. You can upload a new version of the file with the same file name from the content management panel. Vantage will compare the new file with the previous version and update the project automatically.
During this process, Vantage:
detects what changed in the document
reuses existing translations where possible
translates only new or modified content
applies the project workflow to newly added or updated content
Important
In some cases, a file may be treated as fully changed even if only small edits were made. This can happen if the file was modified by third-party tools that change its internal structure or encoding (for example, converting a DOCX or PPTX file through Google Docs or Slides and exporting it again).
To avoid this, try to keep the same file format and editing tool when updating content.
This allows you to keep translations up to date without restarting the workflow.
How Vantage handles changes
When a file is re-uploaded, Vantage analyzes the document in groups of related content (for example, paragraphs), rather than individual sentences.
Note: Even small edits may cause a larger portion of text (such as a full paragraph) to be reprocessed, since updates are handled at the content level rather than per individual sentence.
Depending on what changed:
Unchanged content keeps its existing translations and approvals.
Removed content is excluded from task progress and removed from task scope.
New or modified content is treated as new and goes through the translation workflow again.
Impact on processed words
When updating a file, Vantage does not reprocess the entire document. Only words that belong to newly added or updated content are counted toward your processed words usage.
This means that:
unchanged content does not increase your usage
only new or modified parts of the document are counted
Impact on translation history
Translation history is tied to the current source segment.
When content remains unchanged during re-import, its existing translations, approvals, and translation history are preserved.
If a source segment is replaced during re-import, its previous translation history is lost because Vantage treats it as new or modified content. This may happen when the text changes, or when the file structure changes enough for Vantage to reprocess that content as a new segment.
This is especially important when files are edited or converted using third-party tools, as they may change the internal structure of the file even if the visible content looks similar.
What happens to review tasks
If the project uses the AI + human review workflow, review tasks are updated automatically after a file is re-uploaded. Vantage will:
keep existing task content that is still part of the document
remove outdated content from task progress and scope
add newly added or updated content to the review workflow
How to download translated files
Once translation and any required review are complete, you can download translated files directly from the Files panel in the editor.
Select one or more files to open the available file actions.
Download all language versions
To download the selected files in all available target languages, open your Vantage project and in the content management side panel, open Files. Select one or more files and under Download, click All languages.
You will receive a ZIP archive containing translated versions of the selected files for each target language. The exported documents preserve the original layout and formatting.
Download specific language versions
To download translations only for selected languages, open Files in the content management side panel, select one or more files, and under Download, select Choose languages.
Select the target languages you want to download.
Confirm the download. The download action becomes available once the required translations are ready.
Technical limitations
File size
Uploaded files must be no larger than 50 MB. This is a per-file limit; if your file is over the limit, the upload won’t go through.
Alternative text for images is not supported
Currently, alternative text (alt text) for images in DOCX and PPTX files is not imported into Lokalise. That means any alternative text added in your original file won’t show up for translation, and it won’t be preserved in the translated output.
Speaker notes in PPTX files are supported
Speaker notes in PPTX files are supported and will be translated along with the rest of the content.