Translate content into other languages

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Note

An administrator enables languages; see Languages.

To set the CMS (SaaS) user interface language, see Set a personal language preference.

Many large applications display content in several languages. Optimizely Content Management System (CMS) has powerful support for multi-language management, including translating content into a wide range of languages and switching languages for the editorial user interface.

How does CMS know which language to display to visitors? CMS enforces the language to be visible in the URL, path, or domain part of the URL. When an application visitor selects a language option (if available), content in that language displays. Alternatively, the preferred content display language may be detected by the browser used by the visitor.

When a language is enabled, you are ready to translate existing content or create content in a specific language. Content here can be, for example, pages or blocks on an Optimizely Content Management System (CMS) application or product-related content on an ecommerce application. When a language is enabled in CMS, content properties that are not global are available for translation. See also Global properties.

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Note

An administrator can set access rights differently for different languages to prevent editors from accidentally creating content in the wrong language. If implemented, you can only edit and create content in languages you can access.

Enable content languages

Usually, an application has a default content language set up at the time of installation and might be set up with other languages.

Administrators can also set up different access rights to different languages so that you can access English and French content but not German and Spanish, for example. See Translate content to translate CMS content into different languages.

Switch language and viewing language versions

To switch the language in CMS, go to the Language selector and select the desired language to work with. The user interface reloads, displaying the page tree in the selected language.

To create content in a language other than the master language, select the desired language, then select the page branch or folder where you want to create the content and create a page or a block. Add content and follow the content publishing flow to save and publish.

If your master language is English and you switch to Swedish, pages not yet translated into Swedish are displayed in italics in the page tree and with the language code (en for English; de for German). Pages that exist in Swedish are displayed in normal font.

To view only translated pages, select Show Content in Current Language Only from the page tree's Settings button. This filters out other language versions. You can also use this option in the assets panel and the Versions gadget to view blocks and versions only in the current language. Click Show All Languages to see the entire content tree again.

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Note

When you only show content in one language, you can move pages to another location in the page tree structure by drag and drop or copy and paste, but you cannot sort pages. Sorting is disabled because sorting in one language, where you may not see all pages, can cause unexpected results in other languages.

The setting Show Content in Current Language Only is enabled individually for each panel or gadget instance. This means that you, for example, can add the Versions gadget twice and display only the current language in one of the instances and languages in the other.

You can also switch languages by selecting the desired language in the Header when editing translated content in the All Properties view. The user interface reloads, displaying the content in the selected language.

You can use the Versions gadget to see the different language versions when you translate content. By selecting a language in the version list, you can switch to editing in another language using the switch option in the notification bar.

You can search for language versions for some content by typing a keyword in the search field for Pages or Blocks in the assets panel.

Delete language versions

Select More > Delete Version or More > Delete All [language] Versions in the Versions gadget to delete one or more language versions for content.

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Warning

Deleting one or more language versions cannot be undone.

Translate existing content

The Language selector displays the languages available for content creation. Languages are shown in italics if they are enabled on the application but not enabled for editing.

Translate an experience

The tree structure displays experiences and other content items in the Pages tab in the main language. In the following image, English is the selected language and the font of the content in the tree is regular because all the items are in English.

Do the following to translate an experience:

1. In the Language selector, select the desired target language for translation. The interface reloads, and you are taken to the Pages tab.

2. When you select another language from the Language Selector (such as Svenska in the following image), the tree structure displays the same items, but any content item (experience) that is not yet translated is displayed in italics. The Mosey Bank Sweden content was translated and is shown in regular font. For example, to translate the Savings page, select More > Translate.

   

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   Note

   Select the Settings gear icon > Show Content in Current Language Only to see only content items that are translated in the selected language.

3. Select the desired page to translate in the page tree, and click Translate in the notification bar at the top. (Or, select More > Translate in the page tree.)

4. Click the compare view icon to translate in one panel while simultaneously seeing the original version in the other panel.

5. Edit the content and follow the content publishing flow to save and publish the translated page.

Translate a page

The Pages tab displays pages in the tree structure. Pages that are not yet translated into the selected language are displayed in italics.

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Note

Select the Settings gear icon > Show Content in Current Language Only to see only content items that are translated in the selected language.

Do the following to translate a page:

1. In the Language selector, select the desired target language for translation. The interface reloads, and you are taken to the Pages tab.
2. Select the desired page to translate in the page tree, and then click Translate in the notification bar at the top. Or, select Translate in the context menu for the page in the page tree.
3. Click the compare view icon to translate in one panel while simultaneously seeing the original version in the other panel.
4. Edit the content and follow the content publishing flow to save and publish the translated page.

Translate a block

You can access language versions for blocks from Blocks in the assets panel. By default, all blocks are displayed, including those not translated; these are shown in italics.

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Note

Select the Settings gear icon > Show Content in Current Language Only to see only content items that are translated in the selected language.

To translate a block:

1. In the Language selector, select the desired target language for translation, and the interface reloads.

2. Expand the assets panel and select Blocks.

3. Select the desired block to translate in the block structure and then the Translate option in the context menu.

   

4. Click the Compare view icon to translate in one panel while simultaneously seeing the original version in the other panel.

5. Edit the content and follow the content publishing flow to save and publish the translated block.

Global properties

Depending on your implementation, some properties may be globally shared, and you can edit them in the master language. These properties are marked as non-editable when editing the content in another language. Switch to the default language if you need to edit these. When editing in the All Properties view, the default language is usually the first language listed next to Languages in the header.