Translation guide for a WordPress site

You will receive a zip file containing:

• a file (or multiple files) ending with .po (refered to as „translation file“)
• a file (or multiple files) ending with .mo (you can ignore these)
• (optional) an excel sheet called „additional_translations.xls“ - you can edit the file using Excel or an alternative application and fill in the translation
• (optional) a directory named „admin-only“ - files in this directory translated items that are only used within the administration of WordPress and do not need to be translated (unless you want to localize the administrative area as well.)

You will need an application to translate these files (refered to as „POEdit“). You can download the application from this page (select the one you need: Windows/Mac/Linux)

The translation files contain all the text that can be translated on the site. We need your help translating it into your language. The text is usually in English. You will use POEdit when creating the translation. (POEdit is an application which assists you in translating the text inside the translation file(s)).

1. Begin by unzipping the .zip file you had received from us (you can extract it on your desktop for example). This will create a directory with a name based on your language (i.e. 'en_GB' for English or 'fr_FR' for French etc.) - we will call this a „project directory“
2. If you have not already done so, unzip the POEdit application you downloaded (anywhere you like, even on your desktop).
3. Inside the POEdit directory, you will find an application called „PoeditPortable.exe“ or „Poedit.exe“ or similar (depending on your operating system). Open the file to start the application
4. You will see a welcome screen, select „Edit a translation“, locate the project directory and select one of the translation files (for example 'name-of-the-plugin-fr_FR.po' for WordPress plugins or just 'fr_FR.po' for the theme - you might be able to skip some files, for example newsletters-lite-fr_FR.po if you are not using newsletters. Please send us a message if you are not sure.)
5. It is very helpful to sort the translations showing translated strings at the bottom: Select View from the main menu, then select „Untranslated entries first“
6. Sometimes it can also prove helpful to sort translations by „File order“ (View → Sort by File Order) - this usually means the related translations will be next to each other

Now you should see the following screen:

The first area contains all the text which can be translated.

Sometimes, you can see a part of the string in [brackets] - this is an explanation of the string itself - it tells you the context in which the string is used within the page. For example:

• I wish to sign up for an event [in the registration form]
• I wish to sign up for an event [on the event detail page]

You may wish to translate these strings differently depending on the use of your language.

Note that some of the text is only used in the WordPress administration and does not need to be translated. These strings have a context starting with [Admin - explanation] (again, if you do not wish to translate the administration, you can skip these) It looks like this:

Note that the context is also shown above the second area if it cannot fit on the line as shown here by the green highlight:

The second area titled „Source text“ contains the original text you have selected

The third area titled „Translation“ contains the translation into your language (empty if no translation is provided)

Now you need to select each string individually from the first area and type the translation into the third area

Most of the text is used as it is, however, there are exceptions when dealing with some plural forms. In an example in English, we use:

1 day | 2 days | 3 days | 5 days | 25 days

days is always used when there are more than one, so we only use either „day“ or „days“

But in many other languages, these can be different, for example in czech language, we have the equivalent of

1 den | 2 dny | 3 dny | 5 dnu | 25 dnu

Notice that in Czech, we have 3 forms: „den“, „dny“ and „dnu“

This is why poedit allows us to insert these translations as well. The form to input the plurals looks like this:

This is an example from Slovak or Czech language, where the plural is different for 1 day/2, 3 or 4 days/0, 5 or more days. We would insert it like this:

„den“ into the box from tab „One“; „dny“ into the box from tab „n → 2, 3, 4“; „dnu“ into the box from tab „n → 0, 5, 6, 7…“

Sometimes it is im