Manage protected terms

When auto-translation runs, some terms shouldn’t be translated at all (your brand name, product names, code identifiers) and others should be translated in a specific way that the AI translator won’t always pick up. Protected terms is where you tell the system both.

Open protected terms from Settings → Translation → Protected Terms.

When to use protected terms

• Brand and product names — “Atender”, “Sidekick”, “Email Studio”. Customers in any language should see the same name.
• Code identifiers — function names, API endpoints, configuration keys. Translating apiRequest() to apiAnfrage() is wrong.
• Local-language conventions — when “My account” should be “Mitt konto” in Norwegian (not the AI’s default of “Min konto”).
• Industry-specific terms — terms your AI translator might guess wrong because they’re niche or regulated.

Protected terms are managed per knowledge-base partition or brand. Use them to control terminology for the brand you’re working in without changing other brands’ glossaries.

Choose where protected terms apply

Protected terms have a master switch and per-module toggles.

1. Go to Settings → Translation → Protected Terms.
2. Use the master switch to turn protected terms on or off for the brand or partition you’re working in.
3. Choose which modules should use protected terms:
   Knowledge Base — on by default.
   Conversations — on by default.
   Web Chat — off by default until you enable it.
   Form Builder — off by default until you enable it.
   CSAT — off by default until you enable it.
4. Save your changes.

Leave a module off if you want that area to translate normally without protected-term rules.

Add a never-translate term

1. Go to Settings → Translation → Protected Terms.
2. Click Add term.
3. Fill in:
   Term — the exact text to protect (e.g. Atender, Sidekick).
   Case-sensitive — toggle if atender and Atender should be treated differently. Most brand-name protections want this on.
   Language overrides — leave empty for “never translate”.
4. Save.

Now every enabled module skips this term during translation — the original text appears in every language unchanged.

Add a per-language override

Use this when a term should be translated, but to a specific phrase rather than whatever the AI picks.

1. Go to Settings → Translation → Protected Terms.
2. Click Add term (or edit an existing term).
3. Set the Term in your default language (“My account”).
4. In Language overrides, add an entry per language:
   no → Mitt konto
sv → Mitt konto
da → Min konto
5. Save.

Translations in those languages now use your override in every module where protected terms are enabled. Languages without an override translate normally.

Edit or remove a term

Go to Settings → Translation → Protected Terms, then click the term in the list. Edit the form, save. Or click Delete to remove the protection — the term will start translating normally on the next translation job.

When changes apply

Protected term changes apply to future translation jobs. Articles already translated keep their existing translations until they’re re-translated. To force the change across the whole KB, edit the article — that re-queues the translation job for every active language.

Adding, editing, or deleting a protected term re-syncs translations for that partition only. Other brands’ glossaries and translations are unaffected.

For a bulk re-translation, contact support; there isn’t a “rebuild all translations” button in the UI.

What protected terms don’t do

• They don’t change the default language. Protected terms only affect non-default languages. Your articles in the default language still say what they say.
• They don’t apply to article slugs. Slugs are URL identifiers — they don’t translate at all.
• They don’t apply retroactively to manual edits. If you’ve edited a translation directly, that edit stays as-is even if a protected term would have changed it.
• They don’t apply to disabled modules. If Web Chat, Form Builder, or CSAT is off in the module toggles, protected terms won’t affect translations there until you enable that module.

Common patterns

• Lock down your brand and product names first. Add them all on day one, before customers see translated content.
• Add overrides as you spot mistranslations. When a customer or teammate flags an awkward translation, fix the protected term rather than the article — the fix propagates everywhere the module is enabled.
• Keep the list short and intentional. Hundreds of overrides slow translation jobs and make the term list hard to maintain. Prefer fixing translation prompts over piling up overrides.