---
title: Understanding Tags
description: Tags are labels that define the way a certain information should be processed. In CAT tools generally, tags are used to mark parts of a text that have different formatting i.e. different fonts, differ
---

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# Understanding Tags

Tags are labels that define the way a certain information should be processed. In CAT tools generally, tags are used to mark parts of a text that have different formatting i.e. different fonts, different font sizes, or different colors. However, sometimes they are just minor (or even invisible) changes. 

Matecat uses **tags** to guarantee layout and formatting correspondence between source text and target text.

Here you can find some examples of how a formatted text is displayed within Matecat.

---

Ex.1

Matecat is a free and open-source CAT tool (Computer-aided translation), that is a collaborative working platform for translators and project managers.

In Matecat UI you will see:

![](https://guides.matecat.com/hubfs/image-png-1.png)

---

Ex.2

**Matecat** is a free and open source **CAT tool** (Computer-aided translation), which is a collaborative working platform for translators and *project managers*.

In Matecat UI you will see:

![](https://guides.matecat.com/hubfs/image-png-2.png)

In this example, tags 1 and 2 correspond to text in bold, while tag 3 corresponds to text in italic.

---

Ex.3

Matecat : is a free and open source CAT tool (Computer-aided translation), that is a collaborative working platform for translators and **project managers**

In Matecat UI you will see:

![](https://guides.matecat.com/hubfs/image-png-Jan-29-2021-10-54-05-27-AM.png)

In this example, tag 1 corresponds to underlined text, while tag 2 corresponds to text in bold.

---

 

The ![](https://guides.matecat.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-Jan-29-2021-10-56-06-39-AM.png?width=23&name=image-png-Jan-29-2021-10-56-06-39-AM.png) represents an opening tag, the ![](https://guides.matecat.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-Jan-29-2021-10-57-42-09-AM.png?width=32&name=image-png-Jan-29-2021-10-57-42-09-AM.png)represents a closing tag. For each opening tag, you should have a matching closing tag.  

If Matecat detects tag issues in the job, it shows a warning icon. [Here](https://guides.matecat.com/fixing-tags?hsLang=en) you can read more about how to handle tag issues.

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