You write your site once, in one language. Each other language gets a dictionary that maps your original text to its translation.
There are no translation IDs to manage. The original text is the key. When a page, menu, footer or form shows a text, your site looks that exact text up in the dictionary of the visitor's language.
If the dictionary has the text, the visitor sees the translation.
If it does not, the visitor sees the original text as you wrote it. A missing entry never breaks a page.
There is no fallback from one language's dictionary to another's.
Placeholders for dynamic values are filled in after the translation is looked up, so a translation can contain the same placeholders as the original text.
1
Open Translations
In your admin panel, go to System Configuration and choose Translations.
2
Click Add Language
Pick the language from the list and confirm.
3
Choose the default
The Is Default column marks your default language. The default language cannot be deactivated.
Visitors can currently reach the English and Spanish versions of your site. You can add and fill other languages, but visitors cannot open them yet.
Only active languages are offered to visitors. Use Activate and Deactivate on the table to change that.
Choose Edit in a language's row menu to open its translation editor. Each entry has a Key, which is your original text, and a Text, which is its translation.
1
Add an entry
Click Add key, paste the original text into Key and write the translation in Text.
2
Find entries
Use the search box to filter by key or by translation.
3
Save
Click Save translations.
Keys must match the original text character for character, including capitals, punctuation and spaces. Copy them from the page rather than retyping them.
Every address on your site starts with a language code, such as /en/ or /es/. On a first visit, the site picks the language from the visitor's previous choice or their browser language, and falls back to English.
Add the Language switch element to your menu or footer to let visitors change language. It lists your active languages, and the visitor stays on the same page.
A few habits keep your dictionaries in step with your pages.
When you edit a text on a page, its old dictionary entries stop matching. Add entries for the new text in every language.
Keep placeholders, HTML tags and links inside a translation exactly as they are in the key.
Your default language's dictionary can stay empty for page text, because that text needs no translation.
