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Protected Terms Glossary in String Catalog

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Protected Terms Glossary in String Catalog

Configure protected terms in String Catalog to preserve brand names, product terms, and required wording across iOS and Android localization workflows.

Use Protected Terms (Glossary) to lock words and phrases that should never be translated.

This is useful for:

  • Brand names
  • Product names
  • Legal or compliance terms
  • Technical tokens that must remain exact

What Protected Terms Do

During translation, String Catalog temporarily protects matching terms, translates the remaining text, then restores those terms unchanged.

This helps prevent accidental translation of terms like:

  • String Catalog
  • Product SKU names
  • Required legal language

Matching Behavior

Protected term matching is designed to be predictable:

  • Whole-word matching by default (does not match inside larger words).
  • Case sensitivity can be enabled per term.
  • Multi-word terms are supported.
  • Punctuation-safe matching works around commas, quotes, and parentheses.

If multiple terms overlap, longer terms are prioritized to reduce partial matches.

Add and Manage Terms

From the project Glossary page, you can:

  1. Add a protected term.
  2. Set case-sensitive matching (optional).
  3. Save notes/context for translators (optional).
  4. Edit or delete terms later.

Re-Localize Impacted Strings

After glossary updates, String Catalog can re-localize impacted strings so existing translations align with your new term protections.

Use Update impacted localizations when prompted.

For repository-based projects with source-control connected, you can also use Update and open PR.

When the Update Callout Appears

The glossary update action appears when:

  • Protected terms were updated recently.
  • At least one active non-base language exists.
  • Impacted base-language strings are detected.

Best Practices

  • Add protected terms before bulk translation runs.
  • Keep terms concise and specific.
  • Use case-sensitive mode only when casing is semantically important.
  • Re-run impacted localization updates after term changes.

Troubleshooting

If a term is still translated:

  1. Confirm the term exists in the project glossary.
  2. Verify case-sensitive mode matches source casing.
  3. Check whether source text contains a larger token where whole-word matching should not apply.
  4. Run impacted localization update again after saving changes.