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Translation Memory eXchange

Translation Memory eXchange (TMX) is an XML specification for the exchange of translation memory (TM) data between computer-aided translation and localization tools with little or no loss of critical data.

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Jun 22, 2026
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Translation Memory eXchange (TMX) is an XML specification for the exchange of translation memory (TM) data between computer-aided translation and localization tools with little or no loss of critical data.

TMX was originally developed and maintained by OSCAR (Open Standards for Container/Content Allowing Re-use), a special interest group of LISA (Localization Industry Standards Association), and first released in 1997.1 Specification 1.4b of 20052 remained current as of 2020.3 It allows the original source and target documents to be recreated from the TMX data. A working draft of TMX 2.0 was released for public comment in March 200745 but no work was done on the new version; in March 2011 LISA was declared insolvent3 and as a result its standards were moved under a Creative Commons license and the standards specification relocated.2

TMX forms part of the Open Architecture for XML Authoring and Localization (OAXAL) reference architecture.

Example

An example of a TMX document with one entry:

<tmx version="1.4">
  <header
    creationtool="XYZTool" creationtoolversion="1.01-023"
    datatype="PlainText" segtype="sentence"
    adminlang="en-us" srclang="en"
    o-tmf="ABCTransMem"/>
  <body>
    <tu>
      <tuv xml:lang="en">
        <seg>Hello world!</seg>
      </tuv>
      <tuv xml:lang="fr">
        <seg>Bonjour tout le monde!</seg>
      </tuv>
    </tu>
  </body>
</tmx>
References

References

  1. "TMX Format Specifications Version 1.0". Open Standards for Container/Content Allowing Re-use (OSCAR). 25 November 1997. Retrieved 25 June 2014.
  2. Savourel, Yves; Lommel, Arle (26 April 2005). "TMX 1.4b Specification". The Localisation Industry Standards Association (LISA).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  3. "LISA OSCAR Standards". Globalization and Localization Association (GALA). Retrieved 25 June 2014.
  4. "TMX: Translation Memory eXchange -TMX 2.0 released for public comment". LISA Standards Association. 28 March 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-10-26.
  5. "TMX 2.0 Specification - OSCAR Working Draft". LISA Standards Association. 28 March 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-10-11.