Understand how updates and comments are translated

Updates and comments on a case's feedFeed The timeline of updates on a case, where the firm posts news and everyone on the case can comment. are machine-translated into each reader's language. Your client reads in Spanish what you wrote in English, and replies in Spanish for you to read in English. Anyone can switch to the words as written.

How it works

One rule. A message is translated from the language on its author's profile when they posted it, into the language on each reader's profile. Jane Sample's profile says Spanish and Alex Rivera's says English. Alex posts an update, and Jane reads it in Spanish. She comments in Spanish, and Alex reads her comment in English. When the two languages match, nothing is translated.

The languages are Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. A reader whose language isn't one of these reads in English.

On the feed, a message in another language shows translated, with Show original beneath it to switch to the words as written and back. A new translation usually takes a few seconds; meanwhile the original shows, with Translating… beneath it. If one takes more than about two minutes, the original stays until you open the case again. Mentions and links come through exactly as written.

In emails, the translation comes first, with the words as written under Original message. An email waits up to about two minutes for its translation, then goes with the original only. Texts never carry the message itself. An edited message is translated again the next time someone opens it, but no new email is sent.

What's translated: updates and comments on the feed, whoever writes them, including email replies that come back as comments and updates your automations post. Everything else stays as written: comments on tasks and e-signs, the names and descriptions of tasks, forms, e-signs and events, announcements, inquiry replies, files, and anything posted with an API key. Search finds the words as written.

Write in your profile's language. A message counts as written in it, whatever you type. If your profile says Spanish and you post in English, a Spanish-reading client sees your English untranslated. Changing your language later doesn't change what you've already posted. An automation's post counts as written in the language of whoever created its feed template; your hub's starter templates count as English.

Each person's language is their own. A new client starts with the language your firm gives them when it adds them; after that, only they change it. See Update your name, photo and profile details and, for clients, Change your language.

It isn't exact. The translation is made by a machine. It's weakest for legal terms and for Japanese, Chinese and Arabic, and a pair of languages without English goes through English. In a test, "la audiencia" (the hearing) came back as "the audience". Write short, plain sentences, one per line, since each line is translated on its own, and write dates, amounts and deadlines out in full. Readers can always check Show original.

When to use it

Translation is on for every hub and works by itself. An Admin can switch it off for the whole hub, and everyone then reads the words as written; see Turn translation of case updates on or off. There's no setting per case or per person: anyone who prefers the original chooses Show original.

Rely on it for everyday news and questions. Don't rely on it alone for legal advice, or for anything a client must act on exactly, such as a deadline or a settlement figure: say it plainly and check they've understood.