Linking Strings

Link repeated strings that have the same meaning in different context

How to Link a string

Linking is a multi-edit option, found in the “More” dropdown menu. Mark all strings that should be linked (1) with the checkboxes and under “More” (2) chose “Link” (3).

Preconditions

• All source values must be the same or only one string has a source value
• All metadata must be the same or only one string has a metadata value
• All translation must be the same or only one string has a translation

So only if all strings that should be linked have the exact same source (e.g. English) value, the same metadata values across all linked strings (e.g. have the exact same description) and the same translation across all existing languages, they can be linked together.

Alternatively, if only one string has a value for one of the fields (source values, metadata value, translation), these strings can still be linked and the one available value will become the value of the linked string.

Impact of Linking strings

• In all exports, linked strings will be exported individually and as such keep there source file reference.
• For all counts, linked strings appear as the number of individual strings linked together. Example: if only a linked string, consenting out of 3 underlying strings is untranslated in a given language, the count for Untranslated strings will show “3”.
• Changes made to a linked string will be applied to all underlying strings. If the strings are unlinked, all changes made while linked together will be preserved.

How can I find strings that can be linked?

With the “Duplicates” filter in the Base language view. This filtered view will give you a list of all strings with the same base language value (e.g. the same English text). Here you can also review the metadata of a string in the detail view and align it before linking.