This article explains how to access and manage your existing workflows. Looking for an introduction? Check out Introduction to Workflows.
Account Owners can access and manage workflows in two ways:
Users with a Project Manager role can only access the Project-Level Workflow Management page, where they can only view and manage project-level workflows.
How to Access the Account Workflows Page
- Click Account Settings > Settings > Account Workflows.
- This will open the Account Workflows page, where you can create and modify account-level workflows.
Working in the Account Workflows Page
- Only Account Owners can access the Account Workflows Page
- Only account-level workflows can be created or modified from this page.
- Only Manage Step is available for workflow steps, Manage People is not available from this page. To Manage People on a workflow step, use the Project-Level Workflows page.
- By default, the workflow list is automatically filtered for account-level workflows. You can update the filter to view project-level workflows, but they cannot be managed from this page.
- Project-level workflows have direct navigation to their respective project-level workflow management pages.
How to Access the Project-Level Workflow Management Page
- Go to a project in Smartling.
- Click the Settings tab to enter the Project Settings.
- On the left side, click Workflows to enter the Project-Level Workflow Management page.
Info: From the Project-Level Workflow Management page, users with an Account Owner role can view and manage all account-level workflows, as well as any project-level workflows for the selected project. Users with a Project Manager role can only view and manage project-level workflows.
Search and Filters
Filter | Options / Definition |
Workflow |
Search by workflow name. |
Workflow UID |
Search by workflow UID. |
Workflow Level | Filter by Workflow Level: Account-level or Project-level. |
Translation Provider Type |
Filter by Translation Provider Type: Machine translation or Human translation. Content that moves through a workflow that uses MT, results in MT Word Usage. |
MT Profile |
Filter by a particular MT Profile. |
Only show workflows managed by SLS |
Select the checkbox to filter for workflows managed by Smartling Language Services (SLS). |
Only show workflows that use AI |
Select the checkbox to only show workflows with at least one AI Toolkit feature enabled. Content that moves through a workflow that uses AI, results in AI Word Usage. |
How to Add Steps to a Workflow
To add steps to a workflow:
- Click Add Steps (on the right) and use the + button to add a step before or after an existing step.
- Once you have selected a step type, click Next to configure the step.
- When you are finished adding steps to your workflow, click Done.
Workflow Step Types
When adding workflow steps, it’s essential to choose a step type that accurately reflects the work being performed in that step, as different step types can impact rates, cost estimates, how content is saved to the translation memory, SmartMatch functionality, and more. For detailed information about the various workflow step types, please refer to this article.
Delete Steps on a Workflow
Click on a workflow step and select Delete Step.
All translators and agencies will be unassigned from the step. If there are still strings in the step, they will be automatically submitted to the next step of the workflow.
- If the selected step is the only Translation step in the workflow, it cannot be deleted, as a workflow must contain one Translation step.
- If the selected step is a Translation step on a workflow branch, all subsequent steps on that branch must be deleted first.
For more information, see Workflow Branches and Dynamic Workflows.
Edit, Delete, or Copy a Workflow
Click the ellipsis menu on the right to edit, delete or copy the workflow.
Edit
Here you can rename the workflow, update the content type, or modify the language pairs the workflow supports.
Delete
Removes the workflow from the account. This action cannot be undone.
All linguists and agencies will be unassigned from the workflow and all unpublished strings in this workflow will be unauthorized. This means that for any languages in progress using that workflow, the content will be removed for that language, and you will see No Content under the Job progress column. To re-authorize the content for a locale, remove the language from the Job and re-add the language.
It is not possible to delete a workflow if it is used as the default workflow for a target language in any of your projects. Only Account Owners can delete account-level workflows.
Copy
The copy action duplicates a workflow while retaining the same scope (workflow type) as the original. Users with a Project Manager role can only view and copy project-level workflows, whereas Account Owners can copy both account-level workflows and project-level workflows.
Information and Settings That Will be Copied
The following details will be retained in the copied workflow:
- Workflow content type
- Managed status (SLS managed or non-managed)
-
Locale pairs
- Type
- Users can revise content setting
- Automatically submit edits by users setting
- Enable content assignment setting
- Allow claiming by linguists setting
- Allow offline work setting
- Pre-publish strings setting
- Claiming enabled setting
- Users can reject and edit published content setting
- User workflow assignments
The following information will not be retained in the copied workflow:
- Quality Assurance (LQA) settings
- TM match skipping (automation for post-translation steps)
- Idle strings rules
- AI Toolkit settings
The copied workflow will retain all user workflow assignments from the original workflow.
Additional Documentation on Workflows
- Learn how to create a workflow.
- Learn how to configure workflow steps.
- Learn about assigning agencies and translators to workflow steps.
- How to Set a Default Workflow for a language.