Extract text from translation files (XLIFF)
To convert XLIFF translations to another format, you need Trados Studio or other Developer software.
To convert other file formats to the "Localization File" file type, you need software like Trados Studio or a similar tool.
An .XLIFF file is an XML Localisation Interchange File Format document, created by the OASIS consortium to standardize how translatable text is passed between different systems. These files store source text, translated text, and metadata in a structured XML hierarchy. They are typically used by translators and developers working with Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tools like Trados Studio, MemoQ, or Poedit. You can learn more about the technical specifications of XLIFF on Wikipedia.
The main disadvantage of the .XLIFF format is its highly verbose and rigid XML structure. Non-technical reviewers or clients cannot easily open these files. If you try to open an .XLIFF in standard spreadsheet software, the complex <trans-unit>, <source>, and <target> nodes will fail to parse cleanly, resulting in a messy, unusable document. Furthermore, manual editing without a dedicated CAT tool often breaks the XML validation, ruining the file.
To share translations with non-translators, you must convert the .XLIFF file. The best target formats are CSV or XLSX to create simple bilingual tables for easy review, or TXT to extract the raw text content.
Because .XLIFF relies on strict schema validations, standard text converters often fail to extract the text pairs correctly. Just drag and drop your file to convert.guru to identify the format, view it, and convert it when possible. We can inspect the file, read the internal XML content, and if our analysis detects a supported embedded format, viewing or extraction of the text pairs may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your XLIFF file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted XLF, SDLXLIFF, XLIF, MXLIFF, MQXLZ, MQXLIFF, XLZ, XBPKG, DOCX, SDLPROJ, TXT, ZIP and XML files.
If you want to convert XLIFF file to CSV, TMX, SDLXLIFF, JSON, PDF, XML, XLF, TXT, RTF, DOC, DOCX or ODT, you can use Trados Studio or similar software from the "Localization Data Exchange" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert PDF, DOC, ASC, TODO, NFO, MEMO, README, DOCX, JPG, TXT, NOTE or RTF files to XLIFF, try Trados Studio or another comparable tool in the "Localization Data Exchange" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our XLIFF converter.