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AI quickly delivers a first version of your translations. Tolk protects placeholders, sends along the glossary and a style instruction, and checks the result. Managers and developers can start AI in all languages, translators in their own languages.

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How to translate with AI

1

Open the dialog

Click Translate with AI (Vertalen met AI):
  • in the editor of a target language: that language is chosen. If you have selected keys or a filter is active, Tolk suggests translating only those;
  • on the project’s Languages (Talen) tab or in the editor of the source language: you choose the target languages yourself, with Select all (Alles selecteren). On the Languages tab a progress line per language shows how far the translation is.
2

Choose languages

Choose one or more target languages. A language for which an AI translation is already running shows Already running (Loopt al).
3

Choose what to translate

  • Only untranslated keys (Alleen niet-vertaalde keys): empty and outdated translations. This is the safe default.
  • All keys (Alle keys): existing translations are overwritten too. Tolk tells you how many.
4

Glossary and cost

Turn Use glossary (Glossary gebruiken) on or off. You see the Estimated cost (Geschatte kosten) in euros and how much is left of this month’s budget (from the customer’s plan).
5

Start

Click Translate (Vertalen). You can keep working; the translations appear in the editor by themselves. The progress is shown at the top, where you can also Stop (Stoppen) the translation.
For a new language you can also have everything translated right away: in Add language (Taal toevoegen), check Translate with AI right away (Direct vertalen met AI).

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Keys without a source text

AI translates from the source language, so every key needs a text to start from:
  • The source text of the key, when the source language has one.
  • The key itself, when the source language has no text and the key is written as text: a key of a Laravel JSON file (__('About us')) or a WordPress msgid. Laravel and WordPress show the key when there is no translation, so it is the source text. Once you fill in the source text, AI uses that instead; a translation made from the key only becomes outdated if the source text differs from the key.
  • Nothing, for a key of a Laravel PHP file (such as auth.failed in lang/en/auth.php) and for a plural key without a source text: such a key is a name, not a text, so AI skips it.
The dialog tells you how many keys it skips (… keys zonder brontekst worden overgeslagen). When nothing is left to translate, it explains why and links to the editor of the source language: fill in the source texts there, or import them.

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Direct or through the Batch API

  • Direct: smaller jobs are translated immediately. Tolk estimates how long it takes, usually a few minutes.
  • Batch API: with many keys (from about 2,000), Tolk uses OpenAI’s cheaper Batch API. It costs half as much, but the result arrives within 24 hours. The status line then says Tolk is waiting for OpenAI instead of showing a progress bar: a batch returns all translations at once.

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What the AI receives

  • The source and target language, including the variant (de_CH, for example, does not use ß).
  • The customer’s style instruction (tone of voice, formal or informal address, audience) and the project’s Instruction for AI (Instructie voor AI) (Settings, Instellingen).
  • The glossary terms that occur in the texts, with the do-not-translate list.
  • Per key the name, the description, the maximum length and the plural forms of the target language.
  • For an outdated translation, the old translation, so the tone stays the same.
Only texts, key names and descriptions are sent to OpenAI, never user data.

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Checks afterwards

Before translating, placeholders are replaced by tokens; afterwards they are put back and checked. If a translation still has an error, Tolk retries once with the error message included. If the error remains, the translation is saved with a placeholder error. The notification afterwards shows how many keys were translated, how many have a placeholder error and how many were skipped because someone changed them in the meantime.

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When AI does not start

If you may start AI but it is not available, the Translate with AI button is grayed out. Hover over it or focus it to see why: Messages you may see after starting: