About File Usage

File usage indicates why a file has been added to a project. Only files with the usage for translation can be translated. Most files are added to the project to be translated, but you can also add files that are not going to be translated in SDL Trados Studio. For example, you may want to add files so that you can manage them together with translatable files.

By default, if SDL Trados Studio supports a file type, it opens files of that file type with the usage for translation. If you have added files for other purposes, change the usage of those files in the Change File Usage dialog box.

To specify file usage when you are:

·         Creating a project in the New Project wizard, see How to Specify File Usage.

·         Adding new files in an existing project, see How to Add Files to an Existing Project.

Box	Description
Translatable	Translatable files are files which can be converted to SDL XLIFF files for translation.
Localizable	Localizable files are files that require localization work but which cannot be converted to SDL XLIFF format.(It might be included in the project so that it can be managed with other project files.) For example, graphics files that are marked as Reference may contain text that needs to be localized. You can change the usage of such files to Localizable to flag this.
Reference	Select this if the file has been included in the project for reference purposes only.

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