Create and manage a multilingual website

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Choosing languages
• Translation of strings
• Switching between languages in the back office
• Translating a page
• Adding different languages to the menu
• Using a different image per language

← Go back to section III. Let’s start : create and manage your website contents

1, 2, 3 languages and more: Minos is compatible with many WordPress plugins that enable translation and management of pages in multiple languages.

For multilingual sites, Minos works with the Polylang plugin by default. This guide covers the features of the free version of Polylang, which is more than sufficient in most cases. The paid version (Polylang Pro) adds additional features, such as sharing or translating web addresses based on language and automatically translating your content via DeepL Translate.

Choosing languages

Once the plugin is installed, you can select the different languages you want in the dedicated menu: left bar, at the bottom.

In this tab, you can choose a language from all the available options, rename it if necessary, choose a flag for it, and specify its reading direction.

In the language settings, you can also choose what will be translatable on your site:

• publication types (Teams (members), Events, FAQs, etc.)
• your content taxonomies, if so, and for which content(s)
• media
• URLs
• ...

Translation of strings

This settings tab is also where you translate strings.

Strings are all the words and phrases on the site that are not managed in blocks.

For example (headings in the footer):

Some sites have very few of these types of texts; others have hundreds.

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In the preview, the translations visible on your page do not appear.

In the configuration (of all indexes and advanced block pages, the 404 page, and the search page), you will see some fields that are grayed out. You are invited to change the text directly in Polylang (access: Left menu, Languages tab, then Translations).

This somewhat special string of characters begins with front. and may be visible on your site if it has not been modified.

In the preview

In Polylang

Note: in the preview, the special character string will always remain, even after adding translations in Polylang. To see if the translation has been saved, you need to go to the relevant pages on your site.

Switching between languages in the back office

When content is available in several languages, it is sometimes easier to work with only one or the other. You can choose the language to display or view them all using the button in the top bar:

Translating a page

Once you have chosen and configured the languages, it's time to move on to the actual translation of your content.

In the list of your pages (or any other type of content, such as posts, Custom Post Types, etc.), language information is indicated by small flags to the right of the line:

• the flag in the line indicates the language of the page in question (here the page is in French)
• The + indicates that the version in another language has not yet been created; the page needs to be translated.
• The pencil indicates that the version in another language exists (and can therefore be edited).

On a page, the language settings and information are located at the bottom right.

Here, for example, the page is in French.

Before doing anything, save your page as a precaution.

To translate it into English, click on the + next to the English flag.

You will be taken to a new, completely blank page, which you can name.

At this point, you can choose to:

• either copy and paste the page in French to have an identical structure in English (see the chapter of this guide that explains how to do this - Copy and paste page)

→ you will then need to translate each field in each block

• or create a new page from scratch in English with its own blocks, content, visuals, etc.

Once your page is complete, save it.

On this new page, you will see that it is linked to its other versions in other languages: the titles of the other versions appear in the fields next to their respective flags.

You can also navigate from one version to another by clicking on the pencil next to the flag.

The frontend language selection menu (appearance according to the approved design) only allows you to switch between languages for a page if a translation of that page exists.

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NB: Despite an identical design, the appearance of your page may vary significantly from one language to another - this is due to the specific characteristics of each language! Some languages require more characters than others, and this can affect the aesthetics of a title, button, or menu. This is even more true if one of your languages uses ideograms or is read from right to left. If this is an important issue for you, you can use compositions and/or request a design for each language - this way you can be sure that it is suitable

Adding different languages to the menu

On Minos, when you configure the header, simply click and drag the “Language Selector” block to position it where you want it in the menu.

Using a different image per language

You may have a logo with text that differs from one language to another, or a chart with different captions, etc.

PolyLang, in its free or Pro version, gives you the ability to translate your global alternative texts (as opposed to local alternative texts) and to access only the images that correspond to the chosen editing language. All you need to do is enable the following feature once the extension is installed:

1. In PolyLang's settings, click on "Settings"

2. Enable it for media
3. Go back to the image library and select the image's language
4. Add the image as many times as you have languages, and add alternative text if needed in the applicable language. Learn more about image alternative text

5. On the page for your chosen language, you will only see images from the library that correspond to the editing language.