Getting Started
The WPML plugin makes it easy to build multilingual sites and run them. It’s suitable for corporate sites and blogs.
Note: WPML is a premium plugin and does not have a free version. However, you can go and experience Live Demo on their website, and they offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.
In this manual, you will learn the following:
Installing WPML
Go to the WPML site and log in with your credentials.
This page will show up:
Go to your profile in the upper right corner and click "Downloads".
You will get to this page:
Scroll down the page until you find the Download WPML manually button and click on the Download WPML manually button.
Download the WPML Multilingual CMS and String Translation files to your computer by clicking on the download icons.
Go to your WordPress dashboard.
Head over to the Plugins section on the left column and click on the Add new plugin.
In the open window, click on the Upload plugin button.
Then click on the "Choose file" and choose the file WPML Multilingual CMS you downloaded.
Click on the Install Now button to upload the plugin file.
This window will show up. Here, you need to click on the Activate Plugin button.
You will be redirected to this page. Click on the Add New Plugin to upload the second file String Translation.
Click on the Upload Plugin on the next window.
Then choose the String Translation file from the file you downloaded and click on Install Now.
Click on the Activate Plugin button at the next step.
Registering WPML for updates
After uploading WPML for your website, go to the Your Registered Sites page.
Scroll down this page and click on the Add new site.
In the open pop-up, you need to enter your website URL.
After pasting your website URL, click on the Continue button.
In the next step, choose the site type and click on the Continue button.
Then select the number of automatic translation credits by WPML you want to give to your site and click on the Continue button.
In the final stage, you'll get a key for your site. Copy this code for the next step.
Go back to your WordPress dashboard, Add New Plugin section, and click on the Commercial section.
Find the WPML Multilingual CMS and click on Register.
On the open page, enter the Site Key from WPML you copied earlier and register.
Now, you have registered your site with WPML.
Setting up WPML
Initial Setup of WPML is straightforward with its quick setup wizard.
On the left sidebar of your WordPress dashboard, find the WPML plugin and click on it.
This page will open up. It consists of 7 steps to complete:
In the first step, you need to choose the translation language(s) and click Continue.
In the second step, choose how you would like your site's URL with the translation to look.
You can choose the format you want when setting up WPML for the first time. If you would like to change it to a different format after setting up WPML, you can do so by going to WPML > Languages and scrolling to the Language URL format.
In the third step, there will site key and you need to click Continue. We got this key while registering our website on WPML. You can also use the Get a key for this site link to quickly get a key if you have not.
In the fourth step, choose who will engage in the translation process of your website, then click Continue.
On the fifth step, you will be asked to give permission to WPML to send the list of plugins and themes to wpml.org. This enables you to get faster support for WPML. Choose one of the Yes or No options, and proceed by clicking Continue.
On the 6th step, you will be asked to install the recommended plugins by WPML. You can skip this step.
In the seventh step, wait a little bit till success messages appear, and you are done!
After a successful setup, a drop-down list of the selected languages will appear in the area of your dashboard.
To translate the Register and Modal windows, you need to go to WPML > Languages. In the section called Languages filtering for AJAX operations, mark the option "Store a language cookie to support language filtering for AJAX" and save the settings.
Translation Flow of the LMS Platform
After setting up the WPML plugin, you can translate your LMS Website. The flow of translating your existing content should be as follows:
LMS Pages
In this step, existing LMS Pages should be translated. They are User Account, Checkout, Courses, Certificate, etc. The full list of the LMS Pages can be found by following WP Dashboard > MS LMS > Settings > LMS Pages, and additionally, they will be highlighted with MasterStudy labels on the WP Dashboard > Pages tab.
Quizzes*
Quizzes in MasterStudy LMS are a collection of questions. But questions and their answers are linked to each other, and this complex connection makes the questions untranslatable, unlike other LMS content. However, you can translate the quiz title.
As a solution, a new quiz with questions in other languages can be created from zero for the course inside the Course Builder.
Static Strings
These are texts that are hard-coded in your WordPress themes or plugins. They remain the same unless someone manually changes them in the code. For example, you cannot edit texts in your plugin settings, menus in the student dashboard, or any texts inside buttons. These texts don’t change unless the developer updates the code. We need a third-party plugin to translate them.
You can use the WPML String Translation plugin or Loco Translate to translate them.
Translation with WPML
There are two methods you can use to translate your content with WPML
WPML Translation Management (example)
This method is widely used if you want to apply the WPML plugin's automatic translation feature. However, you have to make an extra purchase to use the feature, and it saves a lot of time.
However, we will use the manual translation case as an example.
To reach this tab, follow WP Dashboard> WPML > Translation Management:
On this page, you can use the automatic translation of WPML by enabling the toggle:
However, we will use the manual translation case as an example.
On the Translation Management page, translatable items on your website are being displayed by categories (pages, posts, courses, lessons, etc.). Select some of them to translate and click on the Translate your content button:
The system automatically takes you to the bottom of the page to complete the next step. Choose the desired translation method (in our case, it's Translate myself) for each language and click on the Translate button:
After clicking the button, please don't close this page or refresh it, as doing so will cancel the translation process.
Now our selected items have been added to the Translation Queue:
Now move to the WP Dashboard > WPML > Translations tab. Here you can see the Translation Queue:
You can check the status of the translations and get the rest of the info about the translation. To begin translating, click on the Translate button:
Once you provide the translation for each of the texts, you have to click on the 💾 Save button or press the Ctrl + Enter keys to save the translation:
The WPML Editor offers a list of markers for text formatting options like bold, italic, and strikethrough. To format a portion of text, simply select its alternative from the translated text and choose the appropriate button from the list.
Finish the translations and click on the Save & Complete button:
In the translation queue, you can see that our translation has been completed. You can follow the same process to complete the translation in the rest of the languages:
On-Page Translation Buttons
Instead of adding the translation to the translation queue from WPML Translation Management, you can use the special Add Translation buttons on the MasterStudy pages. It can be applied to Lessons, Assignments, Quizzes, and Courses.
Open the page you want to translate. Let's say I want to translate a lesson, so I will open the Lessons tab:
On this page, you can filter the items by language and see what kind of translation has been added. There are three statuses for the translations on this page in the WPML column (column with flags):
- item has been added to the translation queue, translation has been started but not completed.
- translation completed and already accessible.
- not translated yet.
Any of the buttons (statuses) opens the WPML Translation Editor:
Finish the translation and save it. The process is the same as the previous method for the next steps:
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