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Understanding Context ​

Last updated: Aug 13, 2025

In OmniTranslate, Context is the set of rules and information you provide to the AI to guide its translation process. By managing your context effectively, you can significantly improve the consistency, accuracy, and style of your translations, making them feel more professional and true to the original work.

Context in OmniTranslate is composed of two main parts:

  1. Glossary (Terms): A list of specific words or phrases and their desired translations.
  2. Translation Instructions: General guidelines that influence the style and tone of the translation.

Context Page

Scopes of Context: Global vs. Thread-Specific ​

OmniTranslate allows you to manage context at two different levels, or "scopes":

Scope Context

  • Global Context: This is your master set of rules. The glossary and instructions you define here apply to all of your translation threads by default. It's the ideal place for terms and styles that you want to apply universally across all your projects.

  • Thread-Specific Context: Each translation thread can have its own unique context. This allows you to tailor the glossary and instructions for a specific novel or series.

Rule of Precedence: If there's a conflict, the Thread-Specific Context always overrides the Global Context. For example, if you have a term defined in both your Global glossary and a Thread's glossary, a thread's version will be used for translations within that thread.

Glossary (Terms) ​

Glossary Section

The glossary is where you can define exact translations for key terms. This is crucial for maintaining consistency with things like:

  • Character names and titles
  • Place names and fictional locations
  • Story-specific items or concepts

OmniTranslate's AI automatically detects terms, but you have full control to add, edit, and manage them. For a deep dive into managing your glossary, see our Advanced Glossary Management guide.

Translation Instructions ​

Translation Instructions Section

Translation Instructions are general guidelines you can give the AI to influence the overall style of the translation. This is an advanced feature that allows you to shape the narrative voice.

By combining a well-maintained glossary with clear translation instructions, you can achieve a level of quality and consistency that is tailored to your specific needs.

NOTE

The translation instructions in the image above are just an example. By default, there are no instructions. You can add your own instructions to guide the AI. Here are some examples:

  • "Use easy-to-understand English, do not use words that are too complicated or flowery."
  • "Translate line-by-line, making sure each line of the source text corresponds to a line in the translation. Keep the same sentence structure and aim for a literal translation."
  • "Don't use em or en dashes in your translation. Keep the English natural and idiomatic."
  • "DO NOT transliterate the honorifics unless the glossary says so. For example, you should use 'Senior Brother X' instead of 'X-shixiong'."
  • "Make sure the prose flows smoothly. Combine lines and/or modify sentence structures if you think it will improve the flow."