Title: localization/translation question… Last modified: August 18, 2016 --- # localization/translation question… * [Kahil](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kahil/) * (@kahil) * [20 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/localizationtranslation-question/) * OK, I’ve been doing some searching and I cannot find an explanation for what I would like to do exactly… * I’ve seen a few translation plugins out there, but they only have a hadnful of languages (mostly european). I’ve seen in the codex that there are many more localizations. Is there a way to use those localized files and make it so that someone could click a link/flag image/etc. and have my whole site translated into the selected language? I would like to have the languages that the translation plugins use, but there are some languages that they don’t have that I would like, such as arabic. I had thought about downloading and installing the different localizations in different directories to make sure things are the same and the way i want them. * What do you guys think is best? Any ideas? * Thank you, Kahil Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total) * Thread Starter [Kahil](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kahil/) * (@kahil) * [20 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/localizationtranslation-question/#post-373977) * any ideas on what would be the easiest way to do this? * Thank you, Kahil * [moshu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moshu/) * (@moshu) * [20 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/localizationtranslation-question/#post-373978) * When it comes about localization and translation basically there are two distinct issues: a) the localization/translation of WP itself (and themes) b) the translation of the content (posts, Pages). * a) You can have installed more localization (.mo) files on the same WP blog and use the polyglot plugin, for example; IN this case you do a “manual” translation of all your posts into the languages you have installed; * b) For translating the content there is one plugin that I know of – but 1) it doesn’t have Arabic among the languages supported; 2) it uses the Google’s translation service to do that; I don’t know of anything else that would ‘translate’ automatically the content. * A while ago I’ve posted about the multilingual blogging issues: [http://crosscultural.transycan.net/blog/archives/2005/06/03/multilingual-blogging/](http://crosscultural.transycan.net/blog/archives/2005/06/03/multilingual-blogging/) * Thread Starter [Kahil](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kahil/) * (@kahil) * [20 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/localizationtranslation-question/#post-373979) * so if i were to make another wordpress install in another directory using, lets say, the arabic localization, and then in the wp-config I connect it to the same database as my current install, It won’t be in arabic? Sorry, I’m not exactly sure on how the translations work… * Thank you’ Kahil * [moshu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moshu/) * (@moshu) * [20 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/localizationtranslation-question/#post-373980) * I can’t promise I can explain it clearly but I’ll try. * 1. Unless you make some tweaking you cannot point two different WP installs to the same database: remember, the two URIs (site_url and home) are stored in the database, and it cannot have two values for each. 2. Translation. When we speak about “translating WordPress” it is about the backend: the admin panel, the messages, the whole user interface. 2a. Some themes are also translated (in earlier versions the Default was translated with the whole WP package), and that means the menu items in your sidebar, the post meta info (Filed under, posted by etc.) will be translated. Nothing else. * Having a localized (=translated) version of WP it will never ever translate your content, i.e. your posts and Pages and comments. * For translating the content, see what I posted earlier. Does this help? * Thread Starter [Kahil](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kahil/) * (@kahil) * [20 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/localizationtranslation-question/#post-373981) * yeah… so I would either have to find a plugin that will do all this in the languages I want, or translate each of the pages and posts in said language myself…lol… damn…never easy…lol * [pandem](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pandem/) * (@pandem) * [20 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/localizationtranslation-question/#post-374042) * There are two plugins (to my knowledge) providing multilingual support for WordPress. They allow visitors to click a link or flag to read the whole site in any of the languages available, and switch locale to the choosen language: - The [Polyglot plugin](http://fredfred.net/skriker/index.php/polyglot) allows you to write posts in as many languages as you like using some special tags. You can provide switching languaje links for the whole site or on per-post basis. - The [Gengo plugin](http://jamietalbot.com/wp-hacks/gengo/) creates some database tables to store each language separately. You can show the number of available posts for each language. * The first one seems more adecuate for fully multilingual blogs, as you can edit a post written in several languages simultaneously. While the second seems better for blogs with just some content in different languages or variable content for each one, as you create separate posts for each language. Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total) The topic ‘localization/translation question…’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [Localization](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/localization/) * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/) * 6 replies * 3 participants * Last reply from: [pandem](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pandem/) * Last activity: [20 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/localizationtranslation-question/#post-374042) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics