---
title: Human translation services - Manual translation
related:
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k8/multilingual-websites/configuring-translation-services/human-translation-services-translations-com.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k8/multilingual-websites/configuring-translation-services/human-translation-services-e-mail-translation.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k8/multilingual-websites/translating-content-using-external-services.md
---

> Agent instructions:
> **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown.
>
> - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version.
> - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt).

> **Info:** **Kentico EMS required**
>
> Features described on this page require the **Kentico EMS** license.

The manual service exports the translation data onto the file system. Every translation submission is converted to a zip archive containing _.xlf_ files (the source data in XLIFF format) and instructions. You can deliver the translation assignment by:

- Sharing the export folder
- Manually sending the submission package to the translators (the default folder is _\~/App\_Data/Translations/Export/_)

The service checks for finished translations in a designated import folder. The translators can also manually upload the completed zip package through a system page (the default instructions in the translation package provide a link).

> **Note:** **Important!**
>
> The package containing the completed translation must have the same names as the original source package for all .xlf files and the parent zip archive. The system uses the names as identifiers when importing the translated data.

## Configuring the manual translation service

To set up the manual translation service, open the **Settings** application, select the **Content -> Translation services** category and configure the settings in the **Manual translation** section:

| Setting                              | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| ------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Translation submission export folder | Specifies the path of the folder where the service creates the zip packages with the translation source data (XLIFF files and instructions).<br>If empty, the _\~/App\_Data/Translations/Export/_ folder is used. |
| Translations import folder           | Sets the path of the folder from which the system imports zip packages containing completed translations.<br>If empty, the _\~/App\_Data/Translations/Import/_ folder is used.                                    |
| Delete ZIP after successful download | If enabled, the system deletes the zip packages containing finished translations after importing the XLIFF data.                                                                                                  |

## Customizing the instruction files

In addition to the .xlf files that store the translation source data, the manual translation service places instruction files into the exported zip packages. The instruction files are created as copies of template files found in the _**\~/App\_Data/CMSModules/Translations/Template/**_ folder under your web project.

By default, the folder contains the **Instructions.html** file. You can modify the content of this file according to your own requirements and even add additional instruction files that the service will include in the zip packages.

You can use [macro expressions](https://docs.kentico.com/k8/macro-expressions.md) in the text of instruction files to dynamically insert the values of the given submission. For example:

- **{% Submission.SubmissionSourceCulture %}** - returns the culture code of the translation source language.
- **{% Submission.SubmissionTargetCulture %}** - returns the culture code of the target language.
- **{% GetTranslationPriority(Submission.SubmissionPriority) %}** - returns the priority set for the submission (low, normal or high).
- **{% Submission.SubmissionDeadline %}** - returns the date and time of the submission's deadline.
- **{% Submission.SubmissionInstructions %}** - returns the additional instructions entered for the submission.
- **{% Submission.SubmissionWordCount %}** - returns the total number of words in the translation source text.
- **{%SubmissionLink%}** - returns the URL of a system page where users can upload finished translation packages.