A source key is a segment of text stored in Localazy, representing content in your source language. It’s a single string of text in your source language, e.g., a button label or a short paragraph of text in a dialogue window of your application. It can even be a short blog article written in Markdown syntax. In the picture below, there are three source keys; as you can see, each contains a different type of content.

You can imagine a source key as a single row in a spreadsheet you were previously using for translations.

Translations to other languages are unlimited, and translating your project to more languages does not affect the number of source keys used. I.e., the content of one source key translated into 10 languages still counts as one source key.

Yes. Put one language per column and write the language code in each header cell, for example en, de, fr.

During file upload, choose the structure of columns that applies to your file.

If you are using Localazy CLI add multilingual to features in the upload section of localazy.json and map the columns with columns=key,content,comment. The content type covers every column between key and comment, so you can add more languages without changing the configuration. Localazy reads the language from the header, not from your project settings. A header row is required for multilingual files.

Yes, both the legacy XLS format (Excel 2003) and modern XLSX (Excel 2007 and later) are detected automatically. The format you upload is the format you download: XLS in means XLS out, with the same column layout.

Localazy covers the parts of localization that a spreadsheet cannot handle once content changes and more than one person touches it.

1. Content stays connected to the source. The CLI, integrations, and Translation API pull strings from code, CMS, or e-learning tools and push translations back. Format Conversions handle different file types for front end and back end. Nobody copies cells into resource files by hand.

2. Changes are tracked per string. When a source text changes, Localazy marks the translation as outdated and keeps the previous versions. A spreadsheet shows a cell. The translator has to guess whether it is new, changed, or already handled.

3. Context is attached to the string. Context screenshots, string keys, character limits, placeholders, and comments are handled per string. The system flags a broken placeholder before the translation is saved. In a spreadsheet, context is a column someone has to fill in and keep current.

4. Plurals work per language. Plural handling follows CLDR rules for about 200 locales and shows translators the forms their language needs. A spreadsheet has no way to represent this without extra rows per one string and a convention everyone must remember.

5. Translation memory, glossary, and style guide work automatically. A string translated once is suggested the next time through Translation Memory. The Glossary and Style Guide keep terms and tone consistent across all content. Localazy AI uses the same context for a first-pass translation.

6. Several people can work without conflicts. User roles and language permissions control who edits what. Branching covers parallel development. Connected Projects share translations across several products. There is no “final_v3.xlsx” and no merging two versions by eye.

7. Quality has a process. Review steps, approval states, and QA checks are part of the workflow. Reviewers see the same context as translators and can accept, reject, or edit on the spot. A spreadsheet has no concept of “approved,” only extra column adding to the chaos.

8. You can hand the work to Localazy. With human translation services, the Localazy linguists run translation inside the same platform.You can decide which markets to enter and how the brand should sound. The rest runs in the background. This is not possible with a shared spreadsheet because the spreadsheet carries none of the context the linguists need.

Spreadsheets are fine for a one-time translation of a short list. Teams that start there can import the Excel file into Localazy and continue from it.

Not convinced yet? Read more in our article 12 reasons why Localazy is better than spreadsheets for localization projects