---
title: "Language filter strings"
slug: "language-filter-strings"
tags: ["Reference", "Site Administrator", "How-to", "Developer"]
updated: 2025-07-22T10:52:18Z
published: 2025-07-22T11:18:01Z
canonical: "totara.help/language-filter-strings"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://totara.help/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Language filter strings

To help translators or developers you can enable the **Show origin of language strings** setting. When this option is enabled, if you add the parameter **strings=1** to a request URL, it will show the language file and string ID beside each string that is output.

To enable this setting, follow these steps:

1. Go to *Quick-access menu > Development > Debugging.*
2. Check the box next to **Show origin of languages strings**.

Otherwise, after following the steps to [change a word or phrase](/19/docs/change-a-word-or-phrase) you will see these filter options.

| **Filter option** | **Description** | **Notes** |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Show strings of these components | Click or Ctrl+click to select one or more files that contain the string you want. | Components represent the areas, modules and plugins within Totara. |
| Customised only | Check this field to display only those strings that have already been changed within your site. | - |
| Help only | Check this field to display only contextual help text. | Contextual help is identified by a question mark icon. |
| Modified only | Displays only the strings that have have been changed since last saving the string into the language pack. | Customised strings (already saved in a file) are highlighted in green. Modified strings (not saved in a file yet) are highlighted in blue. |
| Only strings containing | Insert one word or a phrase that must appear in the string. For example, if you enter the word 'learner' here, you will get only those strings that contain this word. | The **Only strings containing** filter can be used to perform a complete search for a term used in your Totara site for the selected language pack. |
| String identifier | If you know the string identifier (it is the first parameter of the `get_string()` function), type it here. | For example: totara_appraisal.php, report_participation, certificate.php |

Join the [Totara Community](https://totara.community/) for more resources to help you get the most out of Totara.

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