Editing Translations

This page covers the full editing workflow: toggling edit mode, using the modal editor, previewing changes, and working with history.

Edit mode

Press Ctrl+Shift+E (or your configured shortcut) to toggle edit mode. All translatable strings on the page get highlighted with blue dashed outlines.

Click any highlighted string to open the editor modal. Press Esc or click outside the modal to close it. Press Esc again to exit edit mode entirely.

The editor modal

The modal provides a tabbed editor with one tab per configured language.

Each language tab shows:

• Textarea for editing the translation
• PO file default (read-only) showing the baseline value from the .po file
• Translator hint extracted from .po file comments (#. lines), when available
• Active/inactive toggle controlling whether this translation is live

The modal header displays the original msgid with a copy button.

Saving

Click Save to persist changes across all tabs. On save:

1. The backend stores the translations (to .po files or database, depending on your backend)
2. The page updates in real-time to reflect the new translation, no reload needed
3. The action is recorded in edit history

Deleting an override

Click Delete Override to revert a language to its .po file default. This removes the database entry (DB backend) or the pending override comment (PO backend).

Plural translations

When editing a plural string (from ngettext, npgettext, or {% blocktranslate count %}), the modal shows multiple textareas per language tab, one for each plural form. The number of forms depends on the language: English has 2 (singular, plural), Czech has 3, Arabic has 6.

Each form is labeled "Form 0", "Form 1", etc. Form 0 is the singular form.

Validation

The editor validates translations before saving. Two types of validation run:

Placeholder validation checks that format strings like %(name)s and {name} match between the original msgid and each translation. For plural translations, each form is validated against the union of placeholders from both msgid and msgid_plural. This is enforced server-side. Mismatched placeholders block the save.

HTML structure validation checks for unclosed, mismatched, or stray tags in translations that contain HTML. This is client-side only and non-blocking.

When HTML issues are detected, the Save button changes to Save anyway. Editing the textarea clears the warning.

Preview mode

Press Ctrl+Shift+P to toggle preview mode. This overlays inactive translations on the page with amber borders, letting you review pending changes before activating them.

Preview mode is gated by the same permission check as edit mode.

Bulk activation

In preview mode, you can activate multiple translations at once:

1. Enter preview mode (Ctrl+Shift+P)
2. Hold Shift and click on inactive translations to select them
3. A floating action bar appears with the count and an "Activate" button
4. Click Activate to make all selected translations live

Edit history

The editor modal includes a history panel showing all previous edits for the current string.

Each history entry shows:

• Timestamp and the user who made the change
• Action type: create, update, delete, activate, or deactivate
• Word-level diff highlighting additions and deletions
• Restore button to revert to that value

History is stored in the TranslationHistory database table and is available with both backends. If the table doesn't exist (migrations not run), history is silently skipped.

Hint bar

A draggable bar appears at the bottom of the page showing available keyboard shortcuts. Drag it to reposition. Its position is saved to localStorage and persists across page loads.

Language switcher

When multiple languages are configured, the hint bar includes a language dropdown.

Switching behavior depends on the language type:

• Published languages: navigates to the language-prefixed URL (e.g. /de/about/) if i18n_patterns is detected, or sets the django_language cookie and reloads
• Draft languages: sets a cookie override (lt_lang) and reloads. The middleware renders the page in the draft locale without URL changes.

Draft languages are marked with an amber "Draft" badge.

Dynamic content (htmx)

Translations in dynamically loaded content work automatically with htmx. When htmx swaps in new HTML, the widget detects the swap and processes any translatable strings in the new content. Edit mode highlights, click-to-edit, and preview mode all work on dynamically loaded content the same as on the initial page.

For other dynamic content mechanisms (fetch + innerHTML, web components, etc.), call window.__LT_RESCAN__() after inserting the HTML. See How It Works for details.

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