Translation with WPML
The easiest way to translate theme to the language
Last updated
The easiest way to translate theme to the language
Last updated
To install WPML:
Log into your WPML account.
Go to the Downloads page and download the OTGS Installer plugin. This is a light plugin that allows you to install the main WPML plugin and all the extensions you need.
Upload and activate the OTGS Installer plugin on your site.
On the screen that appears, click Register WPML and then Get a key for this site. This will take you to your WPML account and generate a key you copy-paste back to your site.
After successfully registering WPML, you can download and activate any WPML component in the list of plugins.
Learn more on the page about installing WPML.
After installing and activating WPML on your site, click the Configure WPML button in the notice that appears at the top of the screen. A wizard will start helping you select the most important options for your multilingual site.
The WPML setup wizard includes:
Selecting languages you want to translate your site into
Choosing how to translate your site – you can use automatic translation, local translators, translate yourself, or use a translation service. Check out the next section below for details.
Choosing additional plugins – WPML automatically suggests additional “glue” plugins that enable the translation of some popular third-party plugins, like WooCommerce.
During setup, you have two options for translating your site: Translate Everything or Translate Some.
When you select the Translate Everything mode, it automatically translates all your site’s content. Automatic translation happens immediately in the background as soon as you publish new content or edit existing content.
This feature works seamlessly with posts, pages, taxonomy terms assigned to posts and pages, as well as WooCommerce products.
You can also use this mode with any custom content like custom post types and custom taxonomies. Just make sure that they are marked as translatable on the WPML Settings page.
To ensure that automatic translation sounds natural, you can choose to have it reviewed by a professional translator. This guarantees top-quality translations for the least money.
Learn more on the page about automatic translation with WPML.
If you don’t want to translate your whole site automatically, the Translate Some mode gives you control over what you translate and who will translate it:
Set up translators as users on your site
Use one of many translation services integrated with WPML
Translate the content yourself
After selecting this translation mode, go to the WPML Translation Management page and select content to translate.
Learn more on the page about using WPML’s Translation Management.
To translate your posts and pages yourself, click on the plus and pencil icons on the content listing pages.
When you or a local translator click to translate the content, you’re taken to WPML’s Advanced Translation Editor. It’s a professional-grade translation tool with features like one-click automatic translation, glossary, spell-checker, and more.
Learn more on the page about using WPML’s Advanced Translation Editor.
WPML’s setup wizard provides you with all the most important options to get started. If you want to change any of them later, you can do so at any time:
Use the WPML Settings page to set the main translation mode, set translation options for post types and taxonomies, and more.
Use the WPML Languages page to add or remove languages, edit language switcher options, add language switcher to menus, and more.
Besides content coming from posts, pages, and taxonomies, websites usually feature texts coming from other places like the theme itself, installed plugins, widgets, forms, and more. A classic example would be the “Powered by…” message that many themes add to the footer.
WPML allows you to translate such texts using the WPML String Translation plugin. This plugin is included in the WPML Multilingual and Agency account types.
To translate texts coming from the theme and plugins, go to the WPML String Translation page from the admin menu. There, use the search at the top to find the text and click on the plus icon to translate it.
Instead of translating strings yourself, you can choose to send them to other translators. To do this, select the strings and the language you want to translate them into. Click the button to add them to the translation basket.
Then, go to the WPML Translation Management page and click the Translation Basket tab. Finally, review the basket and click to send it to translation.
If you cannot find the string you are looking for, you need to scan the theme or plugin in question. To do this, go to the WPML Theme and plugins localization page, select the theme or plugin and click to scan it.
Learn more on the page about using WPML’s String Translation.
WPML allows you to translate your whole WooCommerce-powered store:
Translate products, variations, categories, store emails, and more
Use multiple currencies
Translate texts on the cart and checkout pages
Works with all popular WooCommerce extensions
To translate your WooCommerce store, you need to install WPML’s WooCommerce Multilingual plugin. This plugin is included in the WPML Multilingual and Agency account types.
After installing the WooCommerce Multilingual plugin, you will be prompted to start its setup wizard. The wizard helps you set up the most important options for your multilingual store. To adjust any of these settings later, go to WooCommerce > WooCommerce Multilingual and click the Status tab.
With WooCommerce Multilingual, you can use multiple currencies on your sites. To enable it, go to WooCommerce > WooCommerce Multilingual and click the Multi-currency tab. There, you can configure secondary currencies, set different prices per currency, adjust currency switcher options, and more.
You translate WooCommerce products just like posts and pages. You can use the Translate Everything mode, choose to translate yourself or send products for translation to other translators or a translation service.
Learn more on the page about using WooCommerce Multilingual.
Of course, there are other types of content that WPML allows you to translate. Here is the list of most commonly used ones, with links to the documentation:
Many themes come bundled with different plugins for building pages, forms, sliders, and more. WPML documentation provides detailed documentation for many such plugins.
Learn more by searching through our directory of compatible third-party plugins.
Our WPML documentation holds a lot of additional information and again, we’re here to help.
Here’s a list of WPML’s top documentation pages that cover most of what a typical user needs to know when creating a multilingual website:
