WordPress: translating your website text in just a few steps

At tolingo, the workflow for this is simple, but there are a few basic points to keep in mind. The aim is to capture all of your website text in an xliff export so that it can be sent to tolingo for professional analysis and used as a basis for translation. This also includes content that is not visible to users at first glance, but that may still be relevant, e.g. for search engine optimisation. Simply copying content into a file from your browser is not recommended, as this can cause numerous errors such as not all text being captured or text being linked to the wrong sub-page.

Another advantage to working with xliff exports is that the translated data can be imported directly onto the site as a new language version. This eliminates the time spent manually copying text into and out of WordPress. This process also allows the use of translation memories, which are created free of charge by tolingo for every translation, and which allow us to pass on cost savings for the current project and any future translations and ensure quality and consistent terminology in the long term.

To export data, you will need a paid plugin called WPML. WPML has a history of being one of the most professional plugins available, and is relatively easy to use. Priced from EUR 29 to EUR 79, it is a very affordable tool for maintaining multilingual content. Installation is extremely simple and takes just a few minutes.

1. Under the “WPML – languages” tab, please define the target languages that are to be displayed on your website.
2. In the “Translation management” tab, please click to select which texts should be translated into which languages. Afterwards, please click on “Add to translation cart”.
3. Go to the “Translators” tab. Please add yourself as a translator. You will need to enter your WordPress username to be assigned as a translator. Select the source and target languages, then click on “Local – Your own translators”.
4. In the “Translation management” tab, you can now choose the “Send for translation” option for all items in the translation cart by clicking the relevant button. This will assign the translations to you as translator so that you can then download the text to be translated

Click on the “Translation” tab to access the export dialogue for translators. The overview will display the texts you have assigned yourself in the previous step. Click the checkbox for the text you would like to export. Then select the export format. Please choose “EXPORT XLIFF 1.2” and click “Apply” to confirm. The export will start automatically and will be saved as a ZIP file in the download folder defined in your browser.

As soon as your translation is complete, the relevant file will be sent back to you in the same format. You can upload this directly to WordPress. You can then export either all or part of the website content for future translations. Our system recognises previously translated elements, and the resulting savings will be passed on to you.