Transept
Free tool✦

Convert XLIFF to CSV and back

Turn an XLIFF file into an editable spreadsheet, translate the target column, and rebuild the XLIFF with your work in place. Free, no sign-up, and processed entirely in your browser.

Your files never leave your browser. Everything runs on your device.

Step by step✦

How to convert an XLIFF file to CSV

The round trip takes four steps and about ten minutes for a typical file.

  1. Upload your XLIFF

    Drop your .xlf or .xliff file onto the converter. It opens in your browser; nothing is sent to a server.

  2. Download the spreadsheet

    You get an Excel or CSV file with one row per segment: the ID, the source text, an empty target column, and any notes.

  3. Translate the target column

    Open it in Excel, Google Sheets, or any editor and fill in the target column. Leave the ID column as it is and keep the formatting tags where they sit.

  4. Rebuild the XLIFF

    Switch to Spreadsheet → XLIFF, add your original file and the finished sheet, and download a new XLIFF with the translations written back in.

What is an XLIFF file?

XLIFF (XML Localization Interchange File Format) is the standard file that translation tools use to move text between systems. A CAT tool such as Trados or MemoQ exports the translatable text as XLIFF, a translator fills in the target language, and the file goes back to be rebuilt into the original document.

Underneath it is plain XML, but the inline tags and nested structure make it awkward to edit by hand. Turning it into a spreadsheet gives you a plain grid of source and target text you can translate in any editor, which helps when you do not run a full CAT tool or prefer to work in Excel. This converter does that, then writes your translations back into the original file so nothing else changes.

FAQ

  • Yes. It runs in your browser with no account, and there's no cap on how many files you convert.

  • No. The file is read and converted on your own device. Nothing is sent to a server, which matters when a translation memory holds a client's confidential text.

  • Both XLIFF 1.2, which Trados, MemoQ, Phrase and most CAT tools export, and XLIFF 2.0 and 2.1.

  • Yes, as long as you keep the formatting tags in the target column where they belong. When you rebuild the file, the converter checks each row and flags any where a tag went missing.

  • Yes. Download the CSV, translate it in any spreadsheet app, and export it back to CSV or Excel to rebuild the XLIFF.

  • Both hold the same columns. Excel opens the XLSX with the right encoding and a frozen header row; CSV is smaller and easier to script. Use XLSX unless you have a reason to prefer CSV.

  • The converter writes your translations into the original file instead of building a new one from the spreadsheet. That is what keeps every tag, note, and untranslated segment exactly where it was.

Translating more than one file?

Transept is a full translation editor. Import your documents, translate with AI, and keep a memory that reuses every choice you make so the next document starts where the last one finished. XLIFF import is built in.

Start translating in Transept