Automatic translation for multilingual sites

Last updated: April 28, 2025

Some website use an extra translation plugin for automatic translations. With this plugin only the main languages has to be maintained and the connected languages will translate and update automatically. It is possible to override automatic translations and update urls. In this manual you will find the following information:

1. 1. Explanation on how translations are created
   2. Manually override translations
   3. Updating urls and other global attributes
   4. Globally exclude words
   5. Getting access to translations

1. Explanation on how translations are created

Translations are created automatically when a translated page is visited. If a page is available in the main language, but not yet translated, the page will be translated on first visit and show the translation immediately. Editors don’t have to do anything for this. Publishing and editing an item in the main language is enough to make sure translations will be created or updated on page visit. On the first visit the automatic translation is saved in the website. It is possible for an editor to manually override the translation.

In the background DeepL is used to created the automatic translations.

2. Manually override translations

Translation Mode

When your site has automatic translation enabled, you will see an extra option in the admin bar: Translate Site. When you click this option , you will see the site in Translation mode.

In Translation Mode, you have two available options. Option 1 is the Translation Editor, option 2 is String Translation, which will be explained in the next section.

Updating translations

First you can choose the language you want to view the website in, in Translation Mode, using the dropdown. If you select a translated language here, the second dropdown will show all available texts from the original language.

In the Translation Editor you see the website with a sidebar on the left. Whenever you hover over any text element in the website you see a box around the text and a floating Edit button with a pencil. When you click on the Edit button you will see the original text and all its translations in the sidebar. You can now enter or change the translations for each language in the sidebar. When you’re finished with your changes, press the Save button on top of the sidebar to apply the changes. Links in Translation Mode still work, so you can navigate the website by clicking any link and make more updates on other pages.

Some remarks on updating translations:

• Reusing translations
  Translations that occur on more places with the exact same text, will use the same translation. When you translate a common string like ‘Read more’, your translation will be visible on all other places where this text occurs.
• Type of translation
  Whenever you’ve made a manual update you will see an icon next to the language name above the text box, indicating the text is a Human translation. If no update is made the icon show a cloud with an arrow, indicating the translations is an automatic translation.
• Updating the default language
  The default languages can’t be changed in Translation Mode, if you want to do so. You can close the translation mode by clicking the Top left close button.

3. Updating urls and other global attributes

In Translation Mode a second option is available in the sidebar, String Translation. In this mode you can translate urls, and other default texts. All urls are translated automatically, so you only have to update these texts if the translation is not suited in any way. In String translation mode you have two relevant sections: Slugs and Gettext. The tab Emails is not relevant for the TSG website.

Updating slugs

The first section gives you the ability to manage URL slugs translation. The slug is the last part of the url, containing the link to the specific page on the website. You can update the translation of each element by clicking the original text in the table and enter/update the translation in the language you wish to update.

The following slug types are relevant for translation:

• Taxonomy slugs
  Give you the ability to translate the section in the url that indicates a category. For instance tsg-solutions.com/product-category/payment-solutions/. If the translation of this part of the url should be different you can click on The only visible taxonomy slug is for product-category, the other slugs are not displayed in the website.
• Term slugs
  A term slug is used to indicate an item of a specific taxonomy. In the above example url tsg-solutions.com/product-category/payment-solutions/, payment-solutions is the term slug. You can update the slug for each term. In the table you will see what the taxonomy of the term is.
• Post slugs
  This table shows all pages of all different post types. Each row show the slug in the original language and it’s corresponding post type.
• Other slugs
  This table shows slugs of overview pages, link Employment.

Post type base slugs are not displayed in the website and can be ignored.

Gettext

Gettext contains a table of all predefined texts in the website, not only from the TSG website, but also from plugins and WordPress itself. The only relevant section to check here is the filter Filter by domain. Choose tsg-ssd from the dropdown Filter by Domain and press Filter. You will now see all predefined texts that are used in the frontend of the website. You can update the translation of the translated languages. Because the original gettext strings are in English, you can also update the translations of the base language.

4. Globally exclude words

It is possible to exclude words or sentences from automatic translation. This way these excluded texts will never be translated. Words like TSG Solutions, alls activity names and product names are already excluded. To make new exclusions you need to have Administrator rights in the website. If you do not have admin rights, you should ask an admin to add the exclusions.

To add an exclusion you can do the following:

1. Go to Settings > TranslatePress and click the tab Advanced, then navigate to the sub tab Exclude Strings & pages.
2. You can choose to exclude an entire page from translation in the section ‘Do not translate certain paths’
3. In the field Exclude strings from automatic translation you can add a new row and add the exclusion for each word or sentence that has to be excluded. Be aware that already translated text is not updated after adding a string here.
4. Make sure you save your changes by clicking the Save changes button at the bottom of the page.

5. Getting access to translations

If you are an editor in a website that has automatic translations activated and you do not see the Translate Site button in the admin bar, please ask the digital marketing manager to upgrade you account. You need an extra privilege to edit translations.