Translation madness

I’ve had success with the WordPress Multilingual Plugin. It gives you admin control to translate strings.

Hi dandelionweb,

Translate strings? What does that mean? I had a look at the web page, it looks like a very complicated program that demands a lot of reading and studying. I took a look at the demo and entered the FAQ, then I saw the massive amount of “if this happens then don’t this but this” sentences, then I started to read the documentation but it looks like something that would work for anyone that needs their site to be multilingual. I don’t know what that program does that other programs don’t? Anyways, Iv’e already spent the better part of the last year trying to learn how all the themes Ive been buying work, then I’ve been trying to translate them since may 2012. That’s one year and one month in all. This need to stop at some time and I must admit that reading trough more of those extremely massive and complex user guides and documentation files doesn’t seem tempting now.

The thing is that I can translate every theme that provides a .pot fil in a program like Poedit but as mentioned I can’t translate the WP front-end words. I don’t have the energy to read guides and study the structure of all plug-ins out there. What the world needs is a button in WordPress that reveals all the front-end end language generated by WordPress, and another button that translates the words like any other translation software, like Google translate or something. Then the user could just go in and tidy up any mistakes the software engine made afterwards.

This translation thing seems to be a massive challenge. Looking at user forums it is the most discussed thing but no one seems to have the solution. Not WordPress, not the theme designers, not users. The big problem seems to be the one I have, separating the WP front-end language and the themes front-end language, and how to translate these two without having to have two different sets of pot and mo files on the server.

If the theme is not providing translation-ready strings for all of its output, then it could be argued that it is the theme itself that is the problem.

But some function ( ex. the comment form / date ) is a default wordpress function, how do one go about translating those? The theme can’t provide anything in regards to that?

Yes they can – via the comment_form_default_fields filter.

Ok, I didn’t know that. Here is what they write in their response to this: “Some function ( ex. the comment form / date ) is a default wordpress function, so there’re no need for the theme provider to mess with it or add it to our theme.”

The theme is called BlueDiamond and is made by GoodLayers. I’m quite fed up of them never taking responsibility for their product. It’s not just translation issues.

If a theme uses any of the WordPress default strings, then they will not be changed unless you change the language for the whole of WordPress – including the back end. But themes do not have to use those default strings. In every case (that I know of), the theme can use it’s own, localised, strings either directly or via a filter & custom function.

With regard to dates specifically, what date format have you selected in Settings -> General? You may be able to sidestep some of these issues by choosing a purely numerical date format.

Can I also ask why you want to change the language for the front end of the site only?

With the WPML plugin you can use any theme. In the admin area you can scan for strings and if need be add your own manual translations. Such a great plugin for multilingual sites. I found it very straight forward to use.

esmi, I have tried any date format in General Settings but that doesn’t affect the way the dates are displayed in the blog, it says May nevertheless and I want it to say Mai, cause that’s what it’s called in Norwegian. It’s not just the date names, it’s all the small singular words that appears in the comment section like “Post Comment”, “by:” and many more words that appear here and there in the front-end.

I don’t want to change the back-end interface language because Norwegian is not a very good substitute for English when it comes to stuff like that, it doesn’t have good words for many of the features that are described. It is very common for all the Scandinavian countries to have English versions of everything on the computer. Windows, Office, WordPress and all the Adobe applications etc. English is the learning language as well when it comes to applications and software tools. However I do want to present the sites in the Norwegian language of course, cause the audience is domestic and I can’t offer a client (I’m a designer) a site that has a blend of Norwegian and English in the front-end.

In that case, you need to continue to look for themes that do not use WordPress default text strings. You may also find that the locale setting for your current server may have an effect. For example, if you are using a US server with a US locale, you’re never going to get Norwegian month strings by default. You’d have to find a way to create this strings via a coded solution.

Have you had a look at some of the multilingual plugins? Perhaps one of them could help?

dandelionweb, when you write “multilingual sites” do you mean a language switcher onsite? Or do you mean front-end in one language and back-end in another language? Cause as mentioned here I can’t seem to be able to have the front-end in one language and the back-end interface in English at the same time. Also, theres the issue as explained with some words coming from the theme provider and other words coming from the WP application.

I had a look at the product site and it doesn’t look that straight to me. It actually looks rather complicated and comprehensive.

esmi, my sites are all hosted in Norway with Norwegian server providers. I have looked at the plugin that dandelionweb suggested, but I must admite I don’t really understand what it does to prevent the same dilemma.

Just a follow up on this. After evaluating all of these language issues and translation dilemmas it becomes more and more clear to me that WordPress is not the right CMS for my purpose. I need a more flexible CMS that is not so constrained when it comes to front-end and back-end language. I need a CMS that I can run in English with Norwegian front-end language on the themes. Or any other language for that matter. It all depends on the client needs. Perhaps Joomla is a tad better in this department, I really don’t know before I try.

Anyhow I think it’s sad because I liked WordPress on many of levels, too bad they never developed a more multilingual application that could cater to users from all nations.