Adobe Express is Adobe's design app for creating social graphics, flyers, posters and other marketing content. With Smartling's Adobe Express add-on, you can submit content for translation, track progress, and apply translations directly within Adobe Express. This article covers installation, configuration, submitting content for translation, checking status, and applying completed translations.
The Adobe Express add-on allows you to send content for translation either by adding the content to a new or existing job or by generating an instant translation using your preferred MT engine or LLM provider, including Smartling's pre-configured options, Smartling Auto Select LLM and Instant AI Translation.
You can monitor translation progress in Adobe Express and apply completed translations back to your design assets.
Please note that this add-on is a paid product. For pricing information, please reach out to your Smartling Customer Success Manager.
Key terms
Term | What it means |
Asset | One Adobe Express design. (e.g., a graphic, flyer, poster.) Assets contain the text to translate. |
Page | One page within the asset. Pages contain the text to translate. |
String | One piece of translatable text on a page. |
Job | A batch of strings sent to Smartling for translation, with a name, due date, and target languages. Used for the standard (non-instant) translation flow. |
Source language | The language your content is in now (usually English). You translate from this. |
Target language | The language(s) you want translations in (French, Italian, Japanese, etc.). You translate to these. |
Project | The Smartling project the add-on is connected to. This determines where jobs are created and which target languages are available. The connected project's source language should match the source language of the Adobe Express assets you're sending for translation. |
How it works
The Smartling Adobe Express add-on supports two ways to translate your content, both from the add's Translate tab:
Standard translation (the Submit sub-tab): content is added to a Smartling job and goes through a translation workflow.
Instant Translation (the Instant sub-tab): content is not added to a Smartling job and does not go through a translation workflow. No strings are ingested into the Smartling platform. Instead, translations are completed using your preferred MT or LLM Profile and delivered directly back to Adobe Express near-instantly.
Choose Instant Translation when you don't need content to move through a translation workflow, and MT- or LLM-generated translations without human review are sufficient. For highly creative or high-visibility content, use the standard job-based flow instead so a linguist can edit and review translations as needed.
Instant Translation counts toward your account's AI Hub usage. For more information see Instant Translation for Connectors & Plugins.
Before you start
Make sure you have all of these:
Access to Adobe Express - an Adobe account with edit access to the asset you want to translate.
A Smartling account with the right user role - You need to be an Account Owner, Project Manager, or Requester in Smartling to use the Adobe Express add-on.
Edit access to the asset in Adobe Express - Viewer access isn't enough, you need to be able to edit the asset.
FAQ: How do I check what role I have in Smartling?
Sign in to Smartling, click your profile icon (top-right), and look at your role. If you can’t sign in or your role is something else (like Translation Resource or Content Viewer), contact your Localization Manager.
Setting up the Adobe Express add-on
Install and open the add-on
Navigate to the Smartling Adobe Express add-on page and click Add. You can find the page by clicking More in the left sidebar, selecting Add-ons, and searching for "Smartling."
Open the Adobe Express asset you want to work with.
In the left sidebar, click Add-ons and open the Smartling add-on. It should be listed under the Your add-ons tab once you've added it.
Connect the add-on to a Smartling project
The standard translation flow sends content to a specific Smartling project, so the add-on needs to know which project to use. Do this the first time you use the add-on, or whenever you want to switch projects.
In the add-on, click the Settings tab. Under Account, you'll see "Connect this add-on to your Smartling project" and a Log in with Smartling button at the bottom. Click it. A browser tab opens.
Sign in to Smartling with your credentials. When you see "You're logged in to Smartling. Close this window and return to your application," close that tab and go back to Adobe Express.
Back in the Settings tab, you'll see a green Signed in badge. If no project is set yet, it says "No project saved." Under Change Project, click the Select Project dropdown and choose the Smartling project you want to use for sending content for translation. If you haven't already created a dedicated Adobe Express project, create one now and then select it from the dropdown.
Click Save. The button stays disabled (grayed out) until a project is selected.
FAQ: I don’t see my project in the dropdown.
The dropdown only shows projects you have access to in Smartling. If the project you expect isn’t listed, ask your Localization Manager to confirm the project name and that your account has access to it.
Configure your preferred Profile in Smartling
This step is only required if you plan to use Instant Translation. If you only plan to use the standard job-based flow, you can skip this step.
Instant translations are completed using your preferred MT or LLM translation provider and settings. Only an Account Owner or Project Manager in Smartling can configure which provider to use for Instant Translation. If you are a Requester, please consult your Localization Manager.
To set the provider to use for Instant Translation:
From the top navigation of your Smartling dashboard, access the AI Hub.
In the Instant MT section, select the Adobe Express Plugin tab.
Toggle Enable Machine Translation for Adobe Express Plugin to On.
Under Default Profile, choose your preferred MT Profile or LLM Profile (for example, Smartling Auto Select LLM).
Under Language-Pair Configurations, click Add Configuration if you need a different Profile for a specific language pair.
Under Glossary Term Insertion, optionally select one or more glossaries to insert glossary terms in machine translations.
Once enabled, Instant Translation with the preferred Profile can now be used with the Adobe Express add-on. This Profile will be used for all Instant Translation requests submitted via the add-on.
Submit content for translation
Use the Submit sub-tab to add content to a new or existing Smartling job. It walks you through four steps: Pages, Strings, Job, and Review & Submit.
FAQ: What happens after I click Submit?
Your job is created in Smartling and goes to Awaiting Authorization (if pre-authorization was left unchecked). Your Localization Manager (or you, if you have access) reviews and authorizes it. Once authorized, linguists translate your strings. You can check progress any time from the Status sub-tab in the add-on, or in Smartling directly.
Generate an Instant Translation
Use the Instant sub-tab to translate content without creating a job.
Under Translate, click the Instant sub-tab. Under Target Languages, click Select Language(s) and choose one or more languages from the search list.
Click Translate to [N] languages (the button label updates to match how many languages you've selected) to start translation.
Every page you selected is translated automatically, using the Profile configured for the Adobe Express add-on. A status view shows each page moving through Translate, Download, and Apply, near-instantly.
Once all three steps show a checkmark, click the X to close the window, or click Translate more to generate translations for additional target languages.
Each translation creates a new page automatically, using the naming convention [original page name] [Language (Country) [locale-code] (locale-code)], for example Homepage [French (France) [fr-FR] (fr-FR)].
Running Translate or Translate more again for a page and language you've already translated creates another new page rather than replacing the previous one. If you re-translate the same page and language more than once, delete the earlier translated page(s) first to avoid ending up with multiple duplicate pages.
Check translation status and apply translations
Once a job is completed in Smartling, use the Status sub-tab to apply translations in Adobe Express.
Under Translate, click the Status sub-tab. Step 1, Jobs, lists the Smartling jobs linked to this asset under Translation jobs, each showing a status badge (Completed, In progress, etc.), the number of languages, and the due date. Click the external-link icon next to a job to open it in the Smartling dashboard.
Click Next to move to step 2, Locales. Under Choose what to apply, select the page(s) and locale(s) you want to apply (each shows Translated or Not yet applied, and the date submitted), or use Select all.
Click Apply Translation ([N]). The wizard moves to step 3, Applying, and shows progress until translations are applied. The final view shows how many languages were applied (for example, "Translations applied 2 of 2 languages") with a per-page breakdown of applied strings, and an expandable Activity log.
Applying translations creates a new, translated version of each page automatically, using the naming convention [original page name] [Language (Country) [locale-code] (locale-code)], for example Homepage [French (France) [fr-FR] (fr-FR)].
Applying translations again for the same page and locale creates another new page rather than updating the existing one. If you expect to apply translations for the same page and locale more than once (for example, after making corrections in Smartling), delete the earlier translated page(s) first to avoid ending up with multiple duplicate pages.
FAQ: What if I apply translations before the job is complete?
Some strings may stay in the source language because there is no translation yet. Wait until all languages are complete in Smartling, then click Apply Translation ([N]) again.