# Goals

New in version 2.5.1.

Goals provide a way to group work based on any criteria. They can be prioritized to allow translators to focus on the most important work.

By using project goals goals can be applied to the same file across all the languages in the project.

Note

Currently goals can only be applied to individual files.

## Regular goals vs project goals

Pootle supports two types of goals:

1. Regular goals (or just goals)
2. Project goals

Project goals are available in all languages. They are applied to files in the template translation project. This allows project managers to easily define a goal shared across all languages in the project.

The goal type can easily be changed using the goal editing form.

Project goals are shown below regular goals in the goals tab.

The statistics for a goal in a translation project will only include files that are part of that goal, and won’t be displayed at all if the goal doesn’t have any matching files in the current directory of the project.

## Goals tab

The goals tab is shown on the overview page for any translation project with goals applied to any of its files. When shown, the goals tab provides a comprehensive list of all the goals in that translation project, including statistics for each goal and links for working on the translations.

The goals tab is also displayed on any directory, if there is any goal applied to files inside that directory and its subdirectories.

### Drill down into a goal

It is possible to drill down into each goal on the goals tab to see the files and directories that belong to a goal. This works like the regular files view with some small differences:

- In the upper level .. will return you to the list of goals,
- Breadcrumbs includes a reference to the current goal,
- Every translate link in the table points to a translate view restricted to the goal that is currently being viewed.

## Adding and removing files from a goal

Goals are special tags which start with goal: (including the colon) and that have some additional attributes.

Note

Like tag names, the goal names are case insensitive (they are automatically converted to lowercase), and must be composed of only letters and numbers, and can have spaces, colons, hyphens, underscores, slashes or periods in the middle, but not at start or at the end.

Note

If you create a goal without the goal: prefix then an ordinary tag will be created instead.

Goals can be added and removed from a file as you would add and remove tags. If the goal did not previously exist then a bew goal is created. While if you remove a goal from a file it will simply remove the association of that file to the goal, the goal itself will not be removed.

## Editing goals

To modify the properties of goals go to the goals tab and drill down into the goal. Use the form in the Description section to modify any of the goal properties.

Note

Remember that if the goal is not applied to any files then it is not possible to edit the goal, as you won’t have access to it in the goals tab. Simply add a file to the goal and you will be able to edit the goal.

You can modify the goal description and turn it into a project wide goal as needed.

## Translating goals

The goals tab and goals drill down views provide translation links as in the normal file view that will take you to the translation editor. Each link allows you to translate strings limited to the current goal.

Once in the translation editor the different filters are restricted to the stores in the given path that belong to the chosen goal, thus allowing you to focus on the work in the current goal.