The Project Folder

A Supervertaler project isn’t just the .svproj file – it’s a folder that holds the project file together with the documents it works on. Keeping everything in one folder means a project is self-contained: you can move, rename, zip or email the folder and it still opens and exports correctly.

What’s in a project folder

My Project/
├─ My Project.svproj     ← the project file
├─ My Project.svproj.bak ← the previous save (see Backup)
├─ source/               ← the original documents you're translating
├─ target/               ← the translated documents you export
└─ tm/                   ← the auto-backup TMX

source/ – when you save a project, its original document is copied here, and the project remembers it by a path relative to the folder. That’s what makes the project portable: it no longer depends on the document staying at the exact location you first imported it from. Move or rename the original afterwards and your export still works.

Files you export back into, such as a memoQ bilingual DOCX or XLIFF, a Trados package (SDLPPX), SDLXLIFF files, or a CafeTran, Déjà Vu or PO file, are copied here too. Supervertaler keeps using your original as long as it can find it, so the export is still offered next to it. The copy in source/ is used only when the original is gone, for example after you moved the folder or opened the project on another computer; the export is then offered in target/. A file is copied again only when it has changed, and two different files with the same name get separate copies (doc.sdlxliff, doc_2.sdlxliff).
target/ – when you run Project → Export → Export Translated Document (or Simple Text), the Save dialog opens here by default, so your finished translations land next to their sources. You can still browse somewhere else; this is only the default.
tm/ – the automatic backup (Settings → 💾 Backup) writes the project’s translations here as <project>_backup.tmx.
.svproj.bak – the project as it was at the previous save. If the project file is ever damaged, Supervertaler offers to open this copy. See Backup.

Why this matters

Portability – hand the whole folder to a colleague, or move it between machines, and the structure-preserving export keeps working. Nothing points at a file that only exists on your computer.
No accidental cross-wiring – because the source is stored relative to the project folder, a project can never end up bound to an unrelated document.

Existing projects

Projects created before this layout existed still work – they reference their source by an absolute path, and Supervertaler resolves it as before. The next time you save such a project, its source is copied into source/ and the reference switches to the portable relative form automatically.

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