The Display Filter is a powerful review feature that allows you to limit the display in the Editor to show only segments with certain characteristics. For example, you can display only unconfirmed segments, only segments with comments or tracked changes, or only segments containing certain text strings, so as to isolate difficulties at the review stage and make the task of resolving them more efficient.
The Display Filter sits in the Review tab, as in the following screenshot:
The main actions in the Display Filter are as follows:
- To display only certain types of segment: Click the All segments dropdown and choose the type of segment to display. For example, choose With comments to display only segments with comments so that you can address the issues in the comments from within the document in one go. In the sample file, this will display only Segments 7, 16, 23, and 29, and any others to which you have added a comment. Alternatively, filter on Translation rejected to show only segments that you have rejected during the review.
- To redisplay all the segments: From the dropdown on the left, choose All segments and press Enter. Alternatively, click the Reset Filters button on the right.
- To display segments containing certain text: Type the text in the Search field, specify whether to filter on the source or target using the dropdown on the left, and press Enter. This is a useful way to check how well a particular choice of wording works in different contexts throughout the document. In the sample file, try this with the word turnover. The Display Filter retains a history of the last things you typed, which will reappear as you type the first letters in the Search field.
Tip
If you use Find and Replace to replace text in the target segments with the Display Filter active, only the filtered segments shown in the Editor at that time will be changed. This allows you to limit text replacement operations to certain segment contexts. By using the Display Filter to display segments containing the words that you want to change before you run the replace operation, you can see in one glance how that change works in all of the affected segments (although by the same token some segments will be hidden, which may prevent you from seeing their surrounding context). As an example, try this in the sample file by using this technique to change all target segment words ending in "ization" to "isation".
It is important to remember that, if you want to replace a certain term throughout the whole SDLXLIFF, you must first reset the Display Filter by redisplaying all segments, otherwise you may not catch every instance of the term in the file.
- To use regular expressions in the display filter: The Search function in the Display Filter also works very powerfully with regular expressions. For example, typing turnover|revenue will match segments that contain either of the words turnover or revenue (as in the sample file).