# Comments The **πŸ’¬ Comments** tab in Workbench's right panel is where per-segment annotations live. There are two sub-tabs: * **πŸ“ Segment** β€” comments you author while translating: context notes, queries for the client, reminders to yourself, anchored highlights on specific words. * **βœ… Proofreading** β€” read-only AI-generated proofreading feedback, keyed by the LLM that produced it. Both are stored on the segment itself and persist in the `.svproj` file. Segment comments are **exported to the final document as Word comments** (yellow comment bubbles in the right margin of the exported `.docx`), with the range highlight covering exactly the words you anchored the comment to. Proofreading comments are review-only and don't export. ### Segment comments #### Two kinds: segment-level and range-anchored There are two kinds of segment comment: * **Segment-level (no anchor)** β€” a general note about the whole segment. In the exported `.docx` the Word comment anchors to the entire paragraph. * **Range-anchored** β€” attached to a specific word or phrase you selected. In the exported `.docx` the Word comment highlights exactly those characters, the same way Trados and memoQ comments do. Both kinds coexist and you can have many of each on the same segment. #### Adding a range-anchored comment (Ctrl+M) 1. Click into the source or target cell of a segment. 2. Select the text the comment is about (e.g. `schroef`, `aangebracht`, or a multi-word phrase). 3. Press **Ctrl+M**. 4. A dialog opens showing which segment + which field (source or target) you're anchoring to, plus a snippet of your selection for confirmation. Type the comment, click **OK**. The anchored text immediately gets a soft amber background in the editor cell so you can see at a glance which words have comments attached. The new comment also appears in the all-comments list (see below). :::tip **Ctrl+M** matches memoQ's "Add comment" shortcut. (Trados Studio uses **Ctrl+Shift+N** for the same action.) You can also add a comment without the keyboard: **right-click in the source or target cell β†’ πŸ’¬ Add comment**. ::: #### Adding a segment-level (unanchored) comment Place the cursor in the source or target cell **without selecting any text**, then press **Ctrl+M** (or right-click β†’ **πŸ’¬ Add segment comment**). The comment is attached to the whole segment rather than to a specific range. Useful for a general note, or for adding another comment to a segment without disturbing an existing one. #### The all-comments list The Segment sub-tab shows **one entry per Comment** β€” not per segment. A segment with three comments shows three entries, in document order. Each entry has: * A clickable **Segment #N** header. For anchored comments, the header reads `Segment #N βš“ source` or `Segment #N βš“ target` to tell you what kind of anchor it has. * For anchored comments: a quoted snippet of the anchored text, so you can see what the comment is *about* without jumping to the segment. * The full comment body. * A small footer line with the author and timestamp, plus a `(right-click for edit/delete)` hint. Clicking the **Segment #N** header jumps the grid to that segment (cross-page-aware β€” switches pagination first if needed). **Right-click** on a Segment header (or anywhere on the entry) opens a context menu with **✏️ Edit comment…** and **πŸ—‘οΈ Delete comment**. Edit opens a small dialog pre-populated with the existing text; saving with an empty text field deletes the comment. Delete prompts for confirmation. The list rebuilds itself in real time as you add, edit, or remove comments. :::note Earlier versions had a separate "Comment on current segment" box at the bottom of the tab. It only handled a single, unanchored note and overwrote the whole comment list when edited, so it was removed in v1.10.142. All comments β€” anchored and segment-level β€” now live in the one list, and you add them with **Ctrl+M** or **right-click β†’ πŸ’¬ Add comment** in the editor. ::: #### Editor visual cue: amber background Anchored comment ranges show a soft amber background in the source or target cell editors. This coexists with the existing syntax highlighting (tag pink, spellcheck underlines, etc.) β€” the amber is applied as a background colour on the anchored characters only. If you edit the target text after creating an anchored comment, the amber highlight stays at its original character offsets. If your edit shifts the anchor's intended target, the highlight may end up on slightly-different wording. The simplest workaround is to edit the text first, then create the anchored comment. #### Reaching a comment from the grid You don't have to open the Comments tab first to find a comment β€” you can get to it straight from the segment in the grid: * **Hover** the amber-highlighted range in a source or target cell to see the comment as a tooltip. * **Right-click** the highlighted range and choose **πŸ’¬ Open comment**. Workbench switches the right panel to the **πŸ’¬ Comments β†’ πŸ“ Segment** sub-tab and briefly flashes the matching entry β€” handy when the Match Panel (or another tab) was showing. Segment-level comments have no highlighted range to aim at, so they're reachable two other ways: * **Right-click anywhere** in a commented segment's source or target cell β†’ **πŸ’¬ Open comment(s)** (opens the segment's first comment). * **Hover or right-click the Status cell** of a commented segment: the tooltip lists the segment's comments, and right-clicking offers **πŸ’¬ Open comment(s)**. #### Comments in exported documents When you export your project back to a Word document (**File β†’ Export β†’ Export Translated Document…**), every segment comment becomes a Word comment in the output `.docx`. Behaviour per comment kind: * **Range-anchored to target text**: the Word comment's range highlight covers exactly the anchored characters. If the anchor boundaries cut mid-run (e.g. inside a bold word), Workbench splits the run cleanly and preserves the formatting on both halves. Visually identical to a Trados or memoQ comment. * **Range-anchored to source text**: the source text isn't in the exported (target-only) DOCX, so Workbench falls back to anchoring the comment to the whole paragraph, with the source snippet prefixed in the comment body. Example: `[Re: "schroef" (source)] translated as 'screw' based on context`. The reviewer reading the file sees the comment with the relevant source quote inline. * **Segment-level (unanchored)**: anchors to the whole paragraph, like a paragraph-wide annotation. The comment author defaults to the **Translator Name** field in **Settings β†’ User Identity** β€” set that if you want comments attributed to your real name rather than your system username. Initials are derived automatically (multi-word names take the first letter of each word, e.g. `Michael Beijer` β†’ `MB`; single-word names take the first two characters uppercased, e.g. `mbeijer` β†’ `MB`). After export, Workbench logs how many comments were attached: ``` βœ“ Attached 4 segment comment(s) as Word comments (2 range-anchored) ``` If any comments couldn't be matched to a paragraph (rare β€” usually because the target text was heavily reformatted by the Okapi merge step), the log says so and the export still completes β€” the comment-attach step is purely additive. #### Comments and bilingual table exports For bilingual-table export formats (Supervertaler Bilingual Table, memoQ, CafeTran, etc.), segment comments are written to a dedicated **Notes** column rather than as Word comments. Anchored and segment-level comments are concatenated into a single string in that column; the anchor metadata is **not** carried over (these formats don't have a native concept of in-cell anchoring). Re-importing the bilingual table later preserves the comments as a single segment-level comment per segment. If you need range-anchored comments to survive a round-trip, export as DOCX rather than as a bilingual table. ### Proofreading comments The **βœ… Proofreading** sub-tab is read-only. It shows AI-generated feedback for the current segment, organised by which LLM produced it (so if you ran the same project through multiple proofreading passes with different models, you can compare what each model flagged). To populate this tab, run **AI β†’ Batch AI Proofread** on your project. Each segment that the proofreader flagged gets an entry, with the model's findings shown verbatim. There's no editing β€” you read the feedback, decide whether to act on it, and either change the target text or leave it alone. Proofreading comments are **not** exported to the final document. They're a translator-side review tool. ### Quick reference | Action | Shortcut / How | | ----------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Add a range-anchored comment to selected text | **Ctrl+M** with text selected, or right-click β†’ **πŸ’¬ Add comment** | | Add a segment-level comment | **Ctrl+M** with no selection (cursor only), or right-click β†’ **πŸ’¬ Add segment comment** | | Jump to a commented segment | Click its **Segment #N** header in the all-comments list | | Open a comment from the grid | Hover the highlight for a tooltip; right-click the highlight, the cell, or the Status cell β†’ **πŸ’¬ Open comment(s)** | | Edit a specific comment | Right-click its header β†’ **✏️ Edit comment…** | | Delete a specific comment | Right-click its header β†’ **πŸ—‘οΈ Delete comment** | | Configure the author name for exported comments | **Settings β†’ User Identity β†’ Translator Name** | ### Related * [Editing & Confirming](/help/editor-and-translation/editing-confirming.md) * [Keyboard Shortcuts (Workbench)](/help/editor-and-translation/keyboard-shortcuts.md) * [Segment Statuses](/help/editor-and-translation/segment-statuses.md) --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. 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