How to use Loco

What is Loco?

Loco is a tool your team uses to manage the text content of your apps and websites in multiple languages. Think of it as a shared workspace where every word, label, button and message in your product lives — organised, searchable, and always up to date.

Instead of sending spreadsheets back and forth or editing files by hand, everyone works from the same place. Translators and editors make changes directly in the browser — no installation required.

Signing In

Loco uses your company's existing sign-in system. You do not need a separate Loco password — just the same credentials you use for other internal tools.

Your Dashboard

The Dashboard is your home screen — an overview of everything happening across your applications.

What you see

• Applications — the projects you have access to. Each card shows the name and your role.
• Unedited translations — texts that have been added but not yet reviewed. This is your work queue.
• Recent activity — the latest changes made by you and your team, with timestamps.
• Language coverage — how complete each language is across your apps.

Finding and Editing Translations

This is where you will spend most of your time.

How to find a translation

How to edit

What are unedited translations?

When new keys are added by the development team, they start as unedited. Loco flags them so you can review and confirm (or improve) the value before the next release. Use the Unedited filter to see only those that need attention.

Uploading translations from a file

If you have a large number of translations to add at once — for example a new language or a full set of new keys — you can upload them as a ZIP archive instead of typing them one by one.

What does a translation file look like?

A translation file is a plain text file that lists every key and its translated value, one per line. It looks like this:

{
  "button.submit": "Submit",
  "button.cancel": "Cancel",
  "nav.home": "Home",
  "login.title": "Sign in to your account"
}

The part on the left of the colon (button.submit) is the key — a fixed identifier your app uses internally. Never change the key name. The part on the right (“Submit”) is the value — the text shown to users. This is what you translate.

Keys may also be written as nested groups. Loco joins them with dots, so the file below produces exactly the same keys as the one above:

{
  "button": {
    "submit": "Submit",
    "cancel": "Cancel"
  },
  "nav": {
    "home": "Home"
  }
}

.resx files are supported as well and can be mixed with .json files in the same archive.

Adding a new key to the file

To add a new translation key, add a new line inside the curly braces following the same pattern — key name in quotes, a colon, then the translated text in quotes, followed by a comma:

{
  "button.submit": "Submit",
  "button.cancel": "Cancel",
  "button.save": "Save changes"
}

Folder structure inside the ZIP

Loco takes the language from the folder name and the namespace from the file name. One folder per language, one file per namespace:

translations.zip
├── de/
│   ├── common.json
│   ├── admin.json
│   └── auth.json
├── en/
│   ├── common.json
│   ├── admin.json
│   └── auth.json
└── it/
    ├── common.json
    ├── admin.json
    └── auth.json

In this example de/admin.json is imported as language de, namespace admin. Language folders use the usual codes — de, en, it, si, or regional ones like en-US.

A wrapping folder around the language folders is fine, so this works exactly the same:

translations.zip
└── json/
    ├── de/
    │   └── common.json
    └── en/
        └── common.json

That is the structure Loco produces itself, so a ZIP you downloaded with the download button (↓) can be uploaded again unchanged. The downloaded archive contains a json/ and a resx/ copy of the same translations — you can upload the whole archive, or just one of the two folders.

The older flat format is still accepted. Here every key lands in the namespace common:

translations.zip
├── de.json
└── en.json

Add or overwrite, or delete and replace?

Before uploading you choose what should happen to the translations that are already in Loco:

Add or overwrite — new keys are added, existing keys get the value from the file. Nothing is ever deleted. Keys you removed from the file stay in Loco. This is the safe default.

Delete and replace — for every file in the ZIP, all keys of that language and namespace are deleted first, then the file is imported fresh. Use this when you want keys you removed from the file to disappear from Loco as well.

How to upload the file

Languages

Each application can support multiple languages. For every language, Loco tracks coverage — how many keys have been translated compared to the total.

A coverage of 100% means all texts have a value in that language. Anything below means some texts will fall back to the default language in your product.

Your Role

Your access depends on the role assigned to you for each application.

Need a different level of access? Contact the application Owner or your Loco administrator.

Platform roles

Separately from the per-application role, every user has a platform role that controls which administration features they can access.

Platform roles are set by a SuperAdmin from the Users section of the Administration area. If you believe your role is incorrect, contact your administrator.

History and Changelog

Every change made in Loco is recorded — who changed what, and when. You can always look back and understand the full history.

• Dashboard Changelog — global history across all your apps.
• Application Changelog tab — history for that specific app only.

Filter the history by author, date, language, key name, or event type to find exactly what you are looking for.

Achievements

Loco rewards activity with achievements — small milestones that track your progress as a translator and as an application owner.

• User achievements — earned by logging in, editing translations, and reaching translation counts.
• Application achievements — earned when an app reaches key milestones such as full translation coverage or a high number of keys.

A toast notification appears in the bottom-right corner when you unlock an achievement. You can review all achievements from your profile page.

Tips and Shortcuts