WPML is the most powerful plugin for translating your WordPress installation into other languages, adding multilingual functionality across the board. This plugin will add a number of options to let you translate all elements of your site: from posts and pages to taxonomies, widgets, and menus.
Our themes fully integrate with WPML, and provide full support for multilingual sites, so that every bit of your site can be fully translated. Keep in mind that the plugin itself does not come bundled with our themes. Instead, the themes are prepared to provide the following features once it has been installed and activated.
Embedded Language Switcher
The latest premium themes (from Brilliance onwards) come with an embedded language switcher in the header, which appears once WPML is active. This switcher is meant to provide an instant, no-fuss language switcher in an accessible area without having to use the one WPML provides.
The switcher will display all selected languages, and the layout may vary from theme to theme.
Multiple Theme Options per Language
Likewise, when WPML is active, the Theme Options page will incorporate a small navigation menu on the top right area. This menu will allow you to navigate between each language, effectively letting you set different option schemes for each language.
Translating The Theme
All themes come with .PO files that let you translate all the small bits of text included in the theme.They are located in the /languages folder, including a Spanish translation by default. If you wish to translate the theme to another language, you need to create copies of the en_US.PO file and name them accordingly . The naming must be in the form of LANGUAGE_TERRITORY, where each code corresponds to the following standards:
For instance, the filename for the German language should be de_DE.PO, the French one should be fr_FR.PO, and so on. In the case of the United States, the code is EN_US since the language itself is English, but the territory corresponds to the United States themselves.
To translate them, you need to download the PoEdit utility and open the files with it. You can then translate the theme to each language by going through the list of texts and manually translating each one. Once you’re done, simply save your progress. PoEdit will save your changes to the .PO file, and generate a .MO file in the same folder. This .MO file is the one that will be used by the theme to display your translated texts.
Once you’re done translating them, simply upload the /languages folder into your WordPress installation and you’ll be done.
Displaying Different Widgets For Each Language
If you wish to display different widgets for each language and you’re using WPML, we recommend you use the Widget Logic plugin to do so. Once you install it, you can add the following line to the Logic field in each widget:
ICL_LANGUAGE_CODE == ‘es’
Where ‘es’ is the code of the language you want it to appear on, according to ISO 639-1. This will enable you to create multiple widgets and show them in specific languages.