Google Translate | The Blog Pros

July 26, 2023

Modern Technology And The Future Of Language Translation

Multilingual content development presents its own set of difficulties, necessitating close attention to language translations and the use of the right tools. The exciting part is that translation technology has advanced remarkably over time.

In this article, we’ll explore the growth of translation technology throughout time, as well as its origins, and lead up to whether machine translation and artificial intelligence (AI) actually outperform their conventional counterparts when it comes to managing translations. In the process, we’ll discuss the fascinating opportunities offered by automated approaches to language translation as we examine their advantages and potential drawbacks.

And finally, we will speculate on the future of language translation, specifically the exhilarating showdown between OpenAI and Google in their race to dominate the AI landscape.

The Evolution Of Translation Technology

Translation technology can be traced back to Al-Kindi’s Manuscript on Deciphering Cryptographic Messages. However, with the arrival of computers in the mid-twentieth century, translation technology began taking shape. Over the years, significant milestones have marked the evolution, shaping how translations are performed and enhancing the capabilities of language professionals.

Georgetown University and IBM conducted the so-called Georgetown-IBM experiment in the 1950s. The experiment was designed primarily to capture governmental and public interests and funding by demonstrating machine translation capabilities. It was far from a fully featured system. This early system, however, was rule-based and lexicographical, resulting in low reliability and slow translation speeds. Despite its weaknesses, it laid the foundation for future advancements in the field.

The late 1980s and early 1990s marked the rise of statistical machine translation (SMT) pioneered by IBM researchers. By leveraging bilingual corpora, SMT improved translation accuracy and laid the groundwork for more advanced translation techniques.

In the early 1990s, commercial computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools became widely available, empowering translators and boosting productivity. These tools utilized translation memories, glossaries, and other resources to support the translation process and enhance efficiency.

The late 1990s saw IBM release a rule-based statistical translation engine (pdf), which became the industry standard heading into the new century. IBM’s translation engine introduced predictive algorithms and statistical translation, bringing machine translation to the forefront of language translation technology.

In the early 2000s, the first cloud-based translation management systems (TMS) began appearing in the market. While there were some early non-cloud-based versions in the mid-1980s, these modern systems transformed the translation process by allowing teams of people to work more flexibly and collaborate with other company members regardless of their location. The cloud-based approach improved accessibility, scalability, and collaboration capabilities, completely changing how translation projects were managed.

2006 is a significant milestone in translation management because it marks the launch of Google Translate. Using predictive algorithms and statistical translation, Google Translate brought machine translation to the masses and has remained the de facto tool for online multilingual translations. Despite its powerful features, it gained a reputation for inaccurate translations. Still, it plays a pivotal role in making translation technology more widely known and utilized, paving the way for future advancements.

In 2016, Google Translate made a significant leap by introducing neural machine translation (NMT). NMT surpassed previous translation tools, offering improved quality, fluency, and context preservation.

NMT set a new commercial standard and propelled the field forward. By 2017, DeepL emerged as an AI-powered machine translation system renowned for its high-quality translations and natural-sounding output. DeepL’s capabilities further demonstrated the advancements achieved in the field of translation technology.

From 2018 onward, the focus has remained on enhancing NMT models, which continue to outperform traditional statistical machine translation (SMT) approaches. NMT has proven instrumental in improving translation accuracy and has become the preferred approach in today’s many translation applications.

What Translation Technology Came Into Place Over the Years

Translation technology has evolved significantly over the years, offering various tools to enhance the translation process. The main types of translation technology include:

Computer-assisted translation (CAT)
These software applications support translators by providing databases of previous translations, translation memories, glossaries, and advanced search and navigation tools. CAT tools revolutionize translation by improving efficiency and enabling translators to focus more on the translation itself.
Machine translation (MT)
Machine translation is an automated system that produces translated content without human intervention. It can be categorized into rule-based (RBMT), statistical (SMT), or neural (NMT) approaches. MT’s output quality varies based on language pairs, subject matter, pre-editing, available training data, and post-editing resources. Raw machine translation may be used for low-impact content while post-editing by human translators is advisable for high-impact or sensitive content.
Translation management systems (TMS)
TMS platforms streamline translation project management, offering support for multiple languages and file formats, real-time collaboration, integration with CAT tools and machine translation, reporting features, and customization options. TMS solutions ensure organized workflow and scalability for efficient translation project handling.

Translation technology advancements have transformed the translation process, making it more efficient, cost-effective, and scalable.

Finding The Right Translation Approach: Machine Vs. Human

Finding the proper translation approach involves weighing the benefits and drawbacks of machine translation (MT) and human translation. Each approach has its own strengths and considerations to take into account.

Human translation, performed by professional linguists and subject-matter experts, offers accuracy, particularly for complex documents like legal and technical content. Humans can grasp linguistic intricacies and apply their own experiences and instincts to deliver high-quality translations. They can break down a language, ensure cultural nuances are correctly understood, and inject creativity to make the content compelling.

Collaborating with human translators allows direct communication, reducing the chances of missing project objectives and minimizing the need for revisions.

That said, human translation does have some downsides, namely that it is resource-intensive and time-consuming compared to machine translation. If you have ever worked on a multilingual project, then you understand the costs associated with human translation — not every team has a resident translator, and finding one for a particular project can be extremely difficult. The costs often run high, and the process may not align with tight timelines or projects that prioritize speed over contextual accuracy.

Nevertheless, when it comes to localization and capturing the essence of messaging for a specific target audience, human translators excel in fine-tuning the content to resonate deeply. Machine translation cannot replicate the nuanced touch that human translators bring to the table.

On the other hand, machine translation — powered by artificial intelligence and advanced algorithms — is rapidly improving its understanding of context and cultural nuances. Machine translation offers speed and cost-efficiency compared to that manual translations, making it suitable for certain projects that prioritize quick turnarounds and where contextual accuracy is not the primary concern.

Modern TMSs often integrate machine and human translation capabilities, allowing users to choose the most appropriate approach for their specific requirements. Combining human translators with machine translation tools can create a powerful translation workflow. Machine translation can be used as a starting point and paired with human post-editing to ensure linguistic precision, cultural adaptation, and overall quality.

Translation management systems often provide options for leveraging both approaches, allowing for flexibility and optimization based on the content, time constraints, budget, and desired outcome. Ultimately, finding the proper translation approach depends on the content’s nature, the desired accuracy level, project objectives, budget considerations, and time constraints. Assessing these factors and considering the advantages and disadvantages of human and machine translation will guide you in making informed decisions that align with your or your team’s needs and goals.

AI and Machine Translation

Thanks to machine learning and AI advancements, translation technology has come a long way in recent years. However, complete translation automation is not yet feasible, as human translators and specialized machine translation tools offer unique advantages that complement each other.

The future of translation lies in the collaboration between human intelligence and AI-powered machine translation. Human translators excel in creative thinking and adapting translations for specific audiences, while AI is ideal for automating repetitive tasks.

This collaborative approach could result in a seamless translation process where human translators and AI tools work together in unison.

Machine-translation post-editing ensures the accuracy and fluency of AI-generated translations, while human translators provide the final touches to cater to specific needs. This shift should lead to a transition from computer-assisted human translation to human-assisted computer translation. Translation technology will continue to evolve, allowing translators to focus on more complex translations while AI-powered tools handle tedious tasks. It is no longer a question of whether to use translation technology but which tools to utilize for optimal results.

The future of translation looks promising as technology empowers translators to deliver high-quality translations efficiently, combining the strengths of human expertise and AI-powered capabilities.

The Rise of Translation Management Systems

Regarding AI and human interaction, TMSs play a crucial role in facilitating seamless collaboration. Here are five more examples of how TMSs enhance the synergy between human translators and AI.

Terminology Management

TMSs offer robust terminology management features, allowing users to create and maintain comprehensive term bases or glossaries, ensuring consistent usage of specific terminology across translations, and improving accuracy.

Quality Assurance Tools

TMSs often incorporate quality assurance tools that help identify potential translation errors and inconsistencies. These tools can flag untranslated segments, incorrect numbers, or inconsistent translations, enabling human translators to review and rectify them efficiently.

Workflow Automation

TMSs streamline the translation process by automating repetitive tasks. They can automatically assign translation tasks to appropriate translators, track progress, and manage deadlines. This automation improves efficiency and allows human translators to focus more on the creative aspects of translation, like nuances in the voice and tone of the content.

Collaboration And Communication

TMSs provide collaborative features that enable real-time communication and collaboration among translation teams. They allow translators to collaborate on projects, discuss specific translation challenges, and share feedback, fostering a cohesive and efficient workflow.

Reporting And Analytics

TMSs offer comprehensive reporting and analytics capabilities, providing valuable insights into translation projects. Users can track project progress, measure translator productivity, and analyze translation quality, allowing for continuous improvement and informed decision-making.

By leveraging the power of translation management systems, the interaction between AI and human translators becomes more seamless, efficient, and productive, resulting in high-quality translations that meet the specific needs of each project.

Google And OpenAI Competition

We’re already seeing brewing competition between Google and OpenAI for dominance in AI-powered search and generated content. I expect 2024 to be the year that the clash involves translation technology.

That said, when comparing OpenAI’s platform to Google Translate or DeepL, it’s important to consider the respective strengths and areas of specialization of each one. Let’s briefly consider the strengths of each one to see precisely how they differ.

Continuously Improved And Robust Translation

Google Translate and DeepL are dedicated to the field of machine translation and have been, for many years, focusing on refining their translation capabilities.

As a result, they have developed robust systems that excel in delivering high-quality translations. These platforms have leveraged extensive data and advanced techniques to improve their translation models, addressing real-world translation challenges continuously. Their systems’ continuous refinement and optimization have allowed them to achieve impressive translation accuracy and fluency.

Generating Text

OpenAI primarily focuses on generating human-like text and language generation tasks.

While OpenAI’s models, including ChatGPT, can perform machine translation tasks, they may not possess the same level of specialization and domain-specific knowledge as Google Translate and DeepL.

The primary objective of OpenAI’s language models is to generate coherent and contextually appropriate text rather than specifically fine-tuning their models for machine translation.

Compared to ChatGPT, Google Translate and DeepL excel in domain-specific sentences while factoring in obstacles to translation, such as background sounds when receiving audio input. In that sense, Google Translate and DeepL have demonstrated their ability to handle real-world translation challenges effectively, showcasing their continuous improvement and adaptation to different linguistic contexts.

The Future Of Machine Translation

Overall, when it comes to machine translation, Google Translate and DeepL have established themselves as leaders in the field, with a focus on delivering high-quality translations. Their extensive experience and focus on continual improvement contribute to their reputation for accuracy and fluency. While OpenAI’s ChatGPT models technically offer translation capabilities, they may not possess the same level of specialization or optimization tailored explicitly for machine translation tasks.

It’s important to note that the landscape of machine translation is continuously evolving, and the relative strengths of different platforms may change over time. While Google Translate and DeepL have demonstrated their superiority in translation quality, it’s worth considering that OpenAI’s focus on language generation and natural language processing research could benefit future advancements in their machine translation capabilities. Together, the three systems could make a perfect trifecta of accurate translations, speed and efficiency, and natural language processing.

OpenAI’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of AI technology and its track record of innovation suggests it may invest more resources in improving machine translation performance. As OpenAI continues to refine its models and explore new approaches, there is a possibility that it could bridge that gap and catch up with Google Translate and DeepL in terms of translation quality and specialization.

The machine translation landscape is highly competitive, with multiple research and industry players continuously striving to enhance translation models. As advancements in machine learning and neural networks continue, it’s conceivable that newer platforms or models could emerge and disrupt the current dynamics, introducing even higher-quality translations or specialized solutions in specific domains.

So, even though Google Translate and DeepL currently hold an advantage regarding translation quality and domain-specific expertise today in 2023, it’s essential to acknowledge the potential for future changes in the competitive landscape in the years to come. As technology progresses and new breakthroughs occur, the relative strengths and weaknesses of different platforms may shift, leading to exciting developments in the field of machine translation.

Conclusion

In summary, the evolution of translation technology has brought advancements to the multilingual space:

The choice of translation approach depends on project requirements, considering factors such as accuracy, budget, and desired outcomes.
Machine translation offers speed and cost-efficiency, while human translation excels in complex content.
Collaboration between human translators and AI-powered machines is best to get accurate translations that consider voice and tone.
Translation management systems are crucial in facilitating collaboration between AI and human translators.

While Google Translate and DeepL have demonstrated higher translation quality and specialization, OpenAI’s focus on human-like text generation may lead to improvements in machine translation capabilities. And those are only a few of the providers.

That means the future of translation technology is incredibly bright as platforms, like locize, continue to evolve. As we’ve seen, there are plenty of opportunities to push this field further, and the outcomes will be enjoyable to watch in the coming years.

Translate your app in 2 seconds to 200 languages you don’t know

If you have worked with enterprise software, you've probably been asked to translate your app at some point. This implies translating small pieces of text, such as buttons, checkboxes, radio buttons, etc. This process often implies exporting CSV files from some database, sending these files to the employee doing the translation, importing the files into the database afterwards, etc. It's normally an insanely manual process, requiring some of your most expensive employees, working with the problem for hours and sometimes days. With Magic you can completely automate this process however.

In the above video, I demonstrate how you can automate this job, by looking up entities you need to translate using Google Translate. I've used this pattern myself several times, and Google Translate actually does a decent job 95% of the times, especially for Latin languages. Sometimes it'll mess up things for far east languages, such as Japanese, Chinese, etc - But for these cases, you can easily edit the translated entity afterwards, by giving access to the "translation app" to some back office worker responsible for that language.

February 27, 2020

How to Easily Create a Multilingual WordPress Site

Do you want to translate your WordPress site in multiple languages?

WordPress powers more than 35% of all websites on the internet. Many of them serve non-English or multilingual audiences.

In this article, we will show you how to easily create a multilingual WordPress site. We will cover three different solutions, so you can choose the one that works best for you.

With each solution, you’ll be able to easily translate your WordPress posts, pages, tags, categories, and themes into as many languages as you like.

What is a Multilingual WordPress Website?

A multilingual WordPress website serves the same content in multiple languages. It can automatically redirect users to a language based on their region, or users can select their preferred language using a dropdown link.

There are few different approaches used to create a multilingual website.

The first approach allows you to manually translate all the content into languages of your choice with the help of human translators.

The second method does not actually create a multilingual site but uses machine translations of your existing content by using auto-translate services.

However, Google Translate has stopped supporting new accounts for website translation. The other options are either not-free or not very good in quality.

It goes without saying that manually translating your content is a much better approach. This allows you to maintain quality throughout your website. You can translate the content yourself or hire professionals to do that.

Choosing a WordPress Multilingual Plugin

There are several WordPress plugins that you can use to translate your website into multiple languages. You need to choose a plugin that helps you easily manage translations without making things unnecessarily difficult for your users.

In this guide, we will show you three of the top WordPress multilingual plugins with step by step instructions on how to set them up.

If you know which plugin you are going with, then you can directly jump to the instructions.

TranslatePress
WPML
Polylang

All three of them comes with the necessary features you’ll need to make a robust multilingual website.

They allow you to translate posts, pages, products, and other post types
You can easily translate your categories, tags, plugins, and themes
They allow you to set up SEO friendly URLs for each language

With that said, let’s get started.

1. Create Multilingual WordPress Website Using TranslatePress

TranslatePress is one of the best WordPress translation plugins on the market. It is a bit different than other solutions mentioned in this guide.

Normally, multilingual plugins ask you to create multiple versions of the same article in order to translate it. TranslatePress allows you to create translations at the same time.

It also allows you to use a live editor to translate all the visual aspects of your website.

Most importantly, you can combine machine and human translations. This means you can use Google Translate or similar AI-powered tools to generate machine translations and only improve the parts that artificial intelligence missed.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the TranslatePress plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

If you want to translate your website to more than one language, then you will also need to install ‘Extra Languages’ add-on. You can do this from the download addons button under your account on the TranslatePress website.

After downloading the add-on, you can install and activate it like any other WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit Settings » TranslatePress page to configure plugin settings.

First, you need to switch to the license tab and enter your license key. You can find this information under your account on the TranslatePress website.

After that, you need to switch to the General settings tab to set up other settings.

The first option on the page is to choose the default language of your website, and the languages you want to translate your website into.

Next, you need to choose whether you want to display language names in the native language. The default option is ‘No’ which means language names will be shown in the default language.

After that you need to choose whether you want to display the default language name in the URL as a subdirectory. For example, http://example.com/en/.

The default choice is no which means only the other languages will have the language name in URL as a subdirectory. We recommend leaving this setting as-is for best SEO.

This brings you to the next setting, ‘Force language in custom links’. The default option is ‘Yes’, because that will change custom links for translated languages making the URLs more SEO friendly.

Next, you need to choose whether you want to use Google Translate for automatic translations. The default choice is ‘No’, but you can change that if you would like to use Google Translate.

You will need to provide a Google Translate API key in the next option. You will find a link under the option which will show you instructions on how to get one.

Finally, you will come to the options on how you want to display the language switcher on your website. TranslatePress provides you with three choices.

You can use a shortcode, add switcher to your navigation menu, or display a floating menu. We will show you how to add the language switcher to your website later in this article.

Go ahead and click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

Translating Your Website Content

To translate your website, you can simply click on the ‘Translate Site’ tab on plugin’s settings page or the button in your WordPress admin bar.

This will open the live translation editor in a new browser tab.

In this live editor, you can click on any text on your website in the right pane and TranslatePress will load it in the left column to translate.

Now click on the language you want to translate the string into and then provide your translation.

After entering the translation, click on the ‘Save Translation’ button on the top and then click on the next button. TranslatePress will automatically load the next string on the page for you to translate.

You can also just click on the drop-down menu below your default language, and it will show you the list of translatable text strings on the page. You can select a string and then provide its translation.

You can translate all content on any page. This includes navigation menus, buttons, sidebar widgets, meta text, and more.

You can also visit any page by clicking on the links on the screen and start translating that page.

TranslatePress allows you to instantly start translating any page or post on your site when logged in. Simply click on the ‘Translate Page’ button on the top to enter the live editor.

Once you have translated a string, the plugin will automatically translate it for you on other places. For example, if you translated a post title, then the post title in your sidebar widgets will be automatically translated.

Adding Language Switcher to Your Website

Language switcher allows your website visitors to select a language when they visit your website. It usually displays the flag of each country to indicate languages available on your site.

TranslatePress allows you to add language switcher by using a shortcode, as a navigation menu item, or as a floating banner. The language switcher can be displayed as flags, language names, or both.

Adding language switcher in WordPress using shortcode

You just need to add [language-switcher] shortcode to posts, pages, or a sidebar widget where you want to display the language switcher.

Adding language switcher to your WordPress navigation menu

Simply go to Appearance » Menus page and click on the ‘Language Switcher’ tab in the left column. Now select the languages you want to display and then click on add to menu button.

You will now see languages added to your WordPress navigation menu. Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Menu’ button to store your changes.

This is how it looked on our test site:

Adding a floating language switcher

Go to plugin’s settings page and scroll down to language switcher section. From here make sure the box next to the ‘Floating language selection’ option is checked.

Don’t forget to click on the save changes button to store your settings.

You can now visit your website to see the floating language switcher at the bottom of every page on your website.

2. Create Multilingual WordPress Website Using WPML

WPML (short for WordPress Multi-lingual) is one of the oldest and most popular WordPress multilingual plugin.

First thing you need to do is install and activate the WPML (WordPress Multi-language) plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, the plugin will add a new menu item labeled ‘WPML’ in your WordPress menu. Clicking on it for the first time will take you to plugin’s settings wizard.

WPML will automatically detect your WordPress site’s language. You can change it here now if you want.

After that click on the next button to continue.

On the next screen, you will be asked to select the languages you want to enable on your site. Simply select the languages from the list that you want to add to your site.

You can always add or remove languages later if you need them. Once you have selected the languages, click on the Next button.

Now you will be asked to add a language switcher to your site. This language switcher will allow your users to choose a language to view content in their preferred language.

WPML allows you to automatically add content switcher as a sidebar widget, in your navigation menu, a plain list, or in the footer area.

Next, you will be asked if you like to send a compatibility report to WPML regarding the plugin and themes you are using.

It is up to you to decide whether or not you want to send this data to WPML.

As the final step, you will be asked to enter your site key. If you have not generated one yet, then you can click on ‘Generate a key for this site’ button.

This will take you to the WPML website, where you will be asked to add the site you are coming from to your WPML account.

Once your site is added, you can click on it to get to your site key. Copy and paste this key into your WordPress site.

That’s all you have successfully finished the WPML setup wizard. You can now click on the Finish button to exit the setup.

Adding Multilingual Content into WordPress with WPML

WPML makes it really easy to translate every area of your WordPress site into multiple languages.

You will be able to easily translate your WordPress posts, pages, tags, categories, and themes into as many languages as you like.

Adding Multilingual Posts and Pages

Simply click on the posts menu to view your existing posts. You will notice the language column next to your post titles.

WPML assumes that your existing content is in your site’s primary language. It will show Add buttons for each language next to your posts. Click on the add button under a language to translate a post.

You can also manage translations by editing a post.

On the post edit screen, you will notice the new ‘Language’ meta box to manage translations.

WPML also offers a better way to manage users who work as translators on your website. If you purchase their Multilingual CMS Plan, then you can use their translation management module.

The translation management module allows you to add users as translators regardless of what role they have on your WordPress site. You can even add subscribers as translators.

Instead of editing posts, these translators will be able to add translations directly in WPML.

Adding Translations for Categories and Tags

WPML allows you to easily translate categories and tags, or any other custom taxonomies that you may be using.

Visit WPML » Taxonomy Translation and load the custom taxonomies you want to translate.

For example: in this screenshot we selected categories, and it displayed all categories from our example site.

Click on the add button next to the taxonomy term to add the translation.

Translating Navigation Menus

WordPress comes with a robust navigation menu system. WPML allows you to translate it just like you would translate posts or taxonomies.

Visit Appearance » Menus page on your site. If you have more than one menus, then select the menu you want to translate.

In the right-hand column, you will see your menu with links to translate into other languages enabled on your site.

Clicking on a language will create a new menu for that language. You will need to add the same menu items as in your primary language menu.

If you have your posts and pages in navigation menus, then you will first need to translate them. After that, you can add them from the tabs on the left in edit menu screens.

Don’t forget to click on the Save button to save your menu.

Translating Themes, Plugins, & Other Text with WPML

WPML multilingual CMS allows you to choose between official translations of themes and plugins or use its own string translator.

Go to WPML » Themes and plugins localization page.

By default, WPML will look for your plugin’s translation files if they are available, and use them.

However, if your WordPress theme or WordPress plugins are not translated into the languages you are using, then you can translate them using the WPML string translation feature.

Simply scan your theme or plugin to load the strings and then start translating those strings.

This module will also allow you to translate custom fields, widgets, and other translatable strings generated by WordPress.

3. Create Multilingual WordPress Website Using Polylang

Polylang is a free WordPress multilingual plugin with more than 500,000 active installs. It allows you to easily create a multilingual website without purchasing the premium version.

Note: If you are running WooCommerce or need support, then you may want to upgrade to the Polylang Pro or purchase their WooCommerce addon.

For this tutorial, we’ll be using the free version of the plugin.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the Polylang plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit Languages » Languages page to configure the plugin.

The language settings page is divided into three tabs. The first tab is labeled ‘Languages’. This is where you add the languages you want to use on your site.

You will need to add the default language, as well as select all other languages that users can choose on your site.

After adding the languages, switch to the ‘Strings Translations’ tab. Here you need to translate site title, description, and then choose the date and time format.

Next, you need to visit Languages » Settings page. From here you can set the URL settings for languages and set up SEO friendly URLs.

Once you are done, click on the save changes button to store your settings.

Translating Content in WordPress with Polylang

Polylang makes it super easy to add content in different languages. Simply create a new post/page or edit an existing one. On the post edit screen, you will notice the language meta box.

Your default language will automatically be selected, so you can first add content in your default language, and then translate it into others.

To translate, you need to click on the + button next to a language and then add content for that language.

Repeat the process for all languages. Once you are done, you can publish your posts and pages.

Translating Categories, Tags, and Custom Taxonomies

You can also translate categories and tags, or any custom taxonomies you may be using.

If you want to translate categories, then go to Posts » Categories.

Add a category in your default language and then click on the plus icon for each language to start adding translations.

Displaying Language Switcher on Your WordPress Site

Adding a language switcher allows users to select a language when viewing your site. Polylang makes it super simple. Just go to Appearance » Widgets and add the language switcher widget to your sidebar or another widget-ready area.

You can choose a drop-down, or use language names with flags. Once you are done, click the save button to store your widget settings.

You can now preview your site to see the language switcher in action.

FAQs About Creating a Multilingual WordPress Site

Having helped thousands of beginners start their websites, we know a thing or two about making a multilingual website. Following are some of the top questions we have been asked about multilingual WordPress websites.

1. Which WordPress multilingual plugin is the best?

All three plugins mentioned in this guide are the best. However, they are slightly different in some aspects.

If you are a beginner looking for an easier solution then we recommend using TranslatePress. Its live editor makes translations easier.

Advanced users and eCommerce websites may find WPML more comprehensive for their needs. Lastly, if you are looking for a free solution, then Polylang is the best option for you.

2. How to translate my WordPress admin area for users?

WordPress allows each user on your website to select the admin interface language. They simply need to edit their user profile and there they will find the option to select language.

3. How do I translate my WordPress theme?

All three plugins will allow you to automatically fetch theme translations. You can also find and translate a WordPress theme by yourself and then upload translation files to your website.

4. How do I translate a WordPress plugin

Many of the top WordPress plugins are translation ready. However, they may not be translated into all languages. TranslatePress and WPML allow you to easily translate strings within the plugin interface.

You can also translate WordPress plugins on your own and upload the translations to your website manually.

We hope this article helped you learn how to make a multilingual WordPress site like a pro. You may also want to see our guide on how to easily get more traffic to your website.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Easily Create a Multilingual WordPress Site appeared first on WPBeginner.

May 9, 2019

Warning when copying web-content from clipboard into MS Word 365

I try to mark content from a web-page (with pictures, hyperlinks etc) to clipboard and then paste it into Microsoft Word (belonging to the Office 365 Home suite).
Then I discover problems starting with the following warning:

"A potential vulnerability has been identified in Microsoft Office.

This document contains fields that can share data with external files
and Web sites. It is important that this file comes from a reliable
source."

(I do not use English as my working language, and this warning is translated to English using Google Translate... :-))

The screen is often flickering two or three times before the content is displayed.

In Office 2007/2010 it was possible to avoid this message by going to the Trust Center Setttings and under Privacy Options, select or clear "Check Microsoft Office documents that are from or link to suspicious Web sites" check box. But I do not find this check box in Office 365. :-(

What can I do to avoid this message ?

February 18, 2019

9 Best WordPress Translation Plugins for Multilingual Websites

WordPress is used by millions of non-English websites around the world. You can use WordPress to create a website in any language that you want.

However, WordPress does not come with the built-in capability to create a multilingual websites. Luckily, there are some powerful WordPress translation plugins that allow you to easily add multilingual content to your site.

In this article, we will show you the best WordPress translation plugins that you can use to create multilingual websites. We will take a look at their features, pros and cons, to help you pick the best option for your website.

Choosing a Translation Plugin to Create Multilingual WordPress Websites

Most beginners don’t know that you can install WordPress in your own language and use it to make websites in any language.

With the help of plugins, you can create bilingual or multilingual websites. You can even allow your users to translate content using Google Translate.

While there are many translation plugins available for WordPress, they can be characterized in two main categories.

WordPress multilingual plugins
Automated WordPress translation plugins

The multilingual plugins allow you to manually add multilingual content to your website. The main benefit of these plugins is the quality of your translations will be significantly better than any machine-generated online translation tools.

The second type of WordPress translation plugins are the ones that use online translation services to translate your content. These plugins don’t require you to write content in multiple languages, but the quality of translations is not as good as it can be.

That being said, let’s look at the best WordPress multilingual plugins and automated translation plugins.

Best WordPress Multilingual Plugins

Unlike automated WordPress translation plugins, these multilingual plugins allow you to manually translate every aspect of your website including content, theme, plugins, and more.

Following are our top picks for the best WordPress multilingual plugins to easily translate your entire website.

1. TranslatePress

TranslatePress is a full-fledged WordPress multilingual plugin to translate every aspect of your website. The main feature of TranslatePress is that it allows you to translate directly from the front-end.

You can easily switch languages during the translation, and the live preview will change instantly. Another benefit of this approach is that you can translate content, theme, plugins, and even meta-data without changing the interface.

TranslatePress is perfect for manual translations. You can translate yourself or assign the custom translator user role to any user on your site. These users will be able to translate content without access to the admin area.

If manual translations sound like a lot of work, then you can also use Google Translate for machine translations. This approach allows you to use AI-powered translations with manual corrections.

The plugin creates SEO friendly URLs for all languages, which gives you a boost in local SEO results.

To learn more, see our guide on how to easily translate WordPress with TranslatePress.

Pricing: Starting from €79 for personal license.

2. WPML

WPML is one of the most popular WordPress multilingual plugin. It comes with a powerful translation management system that allows you to translate content, themes, plugins, and more.

WPML comes in Multilingual blog and Multilingual CMS licensing plans. You’ll need the multilingual CMS plan for eCommerce, page builder support, custom fields, managing translation teams, and some other features.

It comes with an easy to use interface to add translations and manage multilingual content across your website. WPML supports all post types, taxonomies, custom fields, and strings generated by your WordPress themes and plugins.

It also allows you to connect your website to third-party translation service providers. You can select which content needs to be translated and get it submitted directly to your website.

For detailed instructions, see our step by step guide on how to create a multilingual WordPress site with WPML.

Pricing: $29 for Multilingual Blog version and $79 for Multilingual CMS.

3. Polylang

Polylang is another powerful plugin to easily create a multilingual or bilingual WordPress site. It comes with a simple interface to easily add translations for your posts, pages, custom post types, widgets, and more.

Polylang does not come with support to translate your WordPress theme and plugins. The default plugin doesn’t include eCommerce support, so you will need to purchase a paid addon for that.

It allows you to setup SEO friendly URLs for each language, and it works well with popular WordPress SEO plugins. For language selection, you can add the language switcher to your website using a sidebar widget.

For more details, see our tutorial on how to create a multilingual WordPress site with Polylang.

Pricing: The base plugin is free. You can get Pro version for €99 with a single site license.

4. Weglot

Weglot is a cloud-based website translation platform. It works with WordPress, Shopify, BigCommerce, and more.

During the setup, you will need to enter Weglot API to connect your WordPress site to their platform. After that, you will choose your preferred language, site language, and the languages you want to add.

You will have to use Weglot’s website to translate all your content, manage translations, and push them to your live website.

Other notable features include SEO friendly URL support, WooCommerce support, language switcher button, third-party translation services, and more.

Weglot uses a monthly pricing structure based on the number of languages and translated words. This may make it more expensive for you than some other multilingual WordPress plugins which come with a fixed yearly license.

Pricing: Starting from €8.25 / month for 1 language and 10,000 Words. Their popular PRO plan supports unlimited languages and 200,000 words for €41 per month.

5. MultilingualPress

MultilingualPress takes a slightly different approach to create multilingual websites with WordPress. Instead of running on a normal WordPress install, it uses the built-in WordPress multisite network for each language.

This allows the plugin to efficiently manage content for each language while improving performance by loading one language at a time. It comes with an easy interface to manage your translations from a single dashboard.

It supports posts, pages, custom post types, taxonomies, and more. Due to its architecture, each language can be on its own subdomain, directory, or even a custom domain name.

Pricing: Starting from $199 / year for a single multisite license.

Best WordPress Translation Plugins

These plugins allow you to translate your website using automated translation services or by manually providing translations for some parts of your website.

6. Translate WordPress with GTranslate

Translate WordPress with GTranslate is a Google Translation plugin for WordPress. It automatically connects to Google translate API and can fetch translations for any supported languages.

It allows you to add a language switcher to easily translate your web pages, or you can automatically translate content based on user’s browser language.

The plugin offers a paid version as well which allows you to choose SEO friendly URLs and let search engines index your translated content (more on this later in the article).

7. Transposh WordPress Translation

Transposh combines automated machine translations with manual human translations. You can also allow your website visitors to contribute translations with an easy to use in-context interface.

The plugin allows you to hire professional translation services to submit translations. Transposh’s automated translation feature supports Google, Bing, Yandex, and Apertium translation services.

8. Google Website Translator

Google Website Translator plugin allows you to use Google Translate API to translate your website content. It uses the default Google translate button which you can display anywhere on your website.

You can select the languages you want to show in the language switcher, which can be displayed using the sidebar widget or an inline shortcode.

The shortcode feature allows you to offer machine translations for specific pages as needed. The translated page will be visible to users when they select the language or the plugin detects it via their browser settings.

9. Loco Translate

Loco Translate is slightly different than other translation plugins in the list. It basically allows you to translate WordPress themes and plugins.

If your WordPress theme or plugin is translation-ready, then you can use Loco Translate to translate it inside the WordPress dashboard. It uses a simple user interface similar to popular translation tools with one column for original strings and the other for translation.

For more details, see our guide on how to translate a WordPress plugin.

Our Pick of the Best WordPress Multilingual Plugin

If you are looking for a multilingual WordPress plugin to manually translate content on your website, then we recommend using TranslatePress.

It is extremely beginner friendly and quite easy to use even for users with no experience of running multilingual websites. It is optimized for SEO and performance, two features that would benefit your business in the long run.

For automatic WordPress translations, we recommend using Translate WordPress with Gtranslate plugin. It is easy to use and even the free version is quite good for automtic translations.

Should I allow search engines to index automated machine translations?

Some translation plugins allow you to make automatic translations available for search engines to index.

These machine translations are not very good. They can be odd and even misleading at times. Allowing search engines to index this low-quality content is a bad idea. Google can identify such content and will consider it as spam which would damage your website’s search rankings.

However for manual site translations, yes you should definitely let Google index your translated versions, so you can rank higher in local SEO.

We hope this article helped you find the best WordPress translation plugins for your multilingual website. You may also want to see our practical tips on how to increase your website traffic.