WPML offers an all-purpose solution for multilingualism.
We have been using WPML for years – and the longer we use it, the less the possibilities of the alternatives are enough for us. Some advantages can be recognized quickly – others only become clear when you regularly work with translations.
WPML is extensive – and offers countless features that you don’t know you’ll need yet. This article is intended to give you a preview and inspiration about the possibilities.
You can also learn how your website can be automatically translated.
WPML
May it also be something more?
WPML offers numerous possibilities.
WPML offers unbeatable advantages and gets out everything that is possible in multilingualism – many assistants and automations offer great structures and processes to reliably translate a website into numerous languages. At the start, many options can certainly be skipped. But if you want to take full advantage of multilingualism, then in addition to your content, such as post pages, also think of the following components of your website:
- WordPress Core & Backend
- Navigation menus
- Theme, Plugins
In addition, WPML offers the possibility to automatically translate contributions and pages – more on that later.
String Translation
Translate everything
With the translation of strings in WPML, you can translate pretty much every aspect of your website. Some plugins and themes are already pre-translated – either by the author or the free translation community of WordPress.
Often, however, you will notice that you still have to translate some strings new or different to fit your website. With WPML’s String Translation, you can usually translate all the strings of your plugins and theme – just like the WordPress Core – the standard texts for the WordPress system itself can be found under the text domain “default”.
Special case: Changing original texts
You will realize that the original strings – mostly in English – cannot be changed by you.
WPML justifies this with the fact that it is not intended for the modification and maintenance of source texts, but for translations. As a workaround, WPML recommends setting up the source language as the target language.
Navigation Menus
Translation and synchronization
Show required content types
Some content types are hidden by default. You can use the Screen Options to display them. The options can be reached at the top right via the button “Adjust view”.
This is important so that you can, for .B, link correctly to archive pages – see the next point.
Make sure that you insert as few “individual links” as possible into the navigation menu!
Instead, use the possibility to insert references, i.e. pages, contributions, categories, etc. – The advantage is that WPML always uses the translated version of the content in the respective language.
Synchronize navigation menu
With WPML, you can now conveniently synchronize any menu between languages.
Themes & Plugins
Strings, Strings, Strings
The string translation is also made available by WPML via a second entry page – here you can see all string domains divided by themes and plugins and get an overview where the translations are not yet complete.
Translation Management
Manage translations
WPML offers various wizards,
to facilitate translation management.
Translation Dashboard
The Translation Dashboard gives you an overview of which content has already been translated.
Translation Roles
Assign rights to individual users for translation tasks, for example to allow them only to translate into certain languages.
Translation Services
Have your website translated into any language by professional translators. You have the choice of numerous international agencies, which you can commission from WPML for the translation of individual texts.
Translation Jobs
You can create translation tasks from all types of content, which can then be implemented by the translators.
Advanced Translation Editor
Separate translations from layouting
One of the biggest time savers in translation is when you can concentrate purely on this task.
Technically, the translation of a contribution takes place in such a way that a duplicate is created and the texts are exchanged with the translations. We know of no other solution that makes this possible as elegantly as WPML. To do this, activate the Advanced Translation Editor in the WPML settings – this function is too compatible with the Gutenberg Editor.
When you edit a translation, you will see a comparison of the original language and the translation. You can now translate the page sentence by sentence.
The highlight: If you should change the original page later – whether content or by a layout adjustment – it is enough to save the article once in the Advanced Translation Editor and the current layout and the changed content are transferred to the translation – the editor will show you which new sentences you still need to translate and retain the translations of the un changed sentences – you can change them here at any time if necessary.
machine translation
Artificial intelligence translates surprisingly well
Syntax, context, style: the best translations are obtained by a human professional – but artificial intelligence is catching up and machine translations are getting better and better. Just give it a try, because for many websites the free monthly quota of WPML is sufficient.
You have the choice between the translation services of Microsoft, Google and Deepl.
Machine translation integrates seamlessly with the Advanced Translation Editor – the content is automatically translated and you then have the opportunity to correct the sentences afterwards. The results of machine translations are usually surprisingly good and, above all, save a lot of time.
result
WPML offers numerous other functions, finds broad support with other plugins and maps almost every scenario confidently
WooCommerce shops in particular benefit from the extensive possibilities of WPML.
The many possibilities are realized by countless configuration options and WPML provides interfaces for further programming.
For you as a website operator, this means that you definitely have to expect training effort at WPML – for this you will be gifted with an all-in-one solution.
WPML increases the loading time of the website a bit, especially in the backend – this will probably only change when multilingualism is part of the WordPress Core. Until then, caching plugins help to achieve top speeds in the frontend again.
In the backend, the speed can also be increased by some tweaks.
WPML is a multi-language system solution for WordPress and accordingly time should be invested to achieve an optimal configuration.
Article series: WordPress Multi Lang
This series of articles gives an overview of the current possibilities, advantages and disadvantages as well as an outlook on the future.
You can set up a WordPress website in any language – but not inherently in multiple at the same time. Here’s why.
Multilingualism in WordPress can be achieved in different ways – each has its advantages and disadvantages.
It has never been so easy to make a multilingual website available to an international target group – we show you the concrete possibilities WPML offers.