Manual translation
A free-form AI translate box in the dashboard — for text that isn't a term, with glossary and custom-prompt control.
Manual translation (LangSync → Manual translation) is a translate box for text that isn't a term: a marketing tagline you're drafting, a support reply you want in the customer's language, a paragraph you're checking before it becomes ten terms. Nothing you translate here is stored anywhere — it's a scratchpad.
How it works
Two panes, like any translator you've used:
- Pick a Source Language and a Target Language.
- Type or paste into the source pane ("Enter text to translate…"). The translation appears in the right pane automatically as you type — requests fire after a short pause in typing, and the right pane shows "Translating…" while one is in flight.
- Copy the result with the copy button (each pane has one).
The swap button between the language selectors flips source and target and moves your current translation into the source pane — handy for round-trip checking ("translate it back — does it still say what I meant?").
Controls that shape the output
Two controls in the page header apply to every translation on this page, and re-translate the current text immediately when changed:
- Use glossary (checkbox, on by default) — applies your organization's glossary to the translation, exactly like term auto-translate does. Turn it off to see what the AI would do without your terminology constraints.
- Custom prompt (dropdown) — attach a custom prompt to steer tone, register, or formatting ("Formal Czech — use vykání consistently"). The dropdown also offers creating a new prompt inline, so you can iterate on a prompt and test it on real text in one loop.
This page is currently the place where custom prompts are applied — use it to develop and validate a prompt's wording with instant feedback.
What it costs
Manual translations aren't stored, so they never add to your billed translation count. Each translation is an AI call, though, and counts against the shared AI rate limit — 200 calls per organization and 50 per user, per hour (see Limits and errors). Fast typists take note: every pause-and-retranslate is a call.
When to use what
| You want to… | Use |
|---|---|
| Translate ad-hoc text, nothing saved | Manual translation (this page) |
| Fill missing translations for stored terms | Auto-translate |
| Get an AI suggestion for one term, then save it | The sparkle button in the side-by-side editor |
| Test how a custom prompt changes AI output | Manual translation with the prompt selected |
The API behind it
The dashboard calls the POST /translations/translate endpoint —
arbitrary text, source and target language (by ID or code), a
useGlossary flag, and an optional custom prompt reference. If you
want programmatic ad-hoc translation, that endpoint is available with a
user session token; see the API reference. Note it's
part of the dashboard API, not the read-only
Public API — API keys can't call it.