Overview: Multiple Languages & Localization
Localize Your Knowledge Base in 50+ languages.
Written by Emil Hajric
Updated at January 24th, 2024, by Amanda Stançani
Table of Contents
How To Add Languages How to Add Translations How To Create and Manage Translations From The Editor How To Manually Add A Translation To An Article How To Auto-Translate an Article How To Link Existing Articles How To Unlink Article Translations Article Translation Status Side-by-side Translation View Adding A Language Switcher To The Frontend How To Translate And Adapt The Design To The Frontend Additional SettingsArticle Languages & Translations allows you to translate and link content in more than 50 different languages.
By adding translations to your articles, users can easily access the content in their preferred language with a click of a button
How To Add Languages
You can add languages in the Language & Translations Settings page at yoursubdomain.helpjuice.com/admin/settings/languages_and_translations
How to Add Translations
You can automatically translate your entire knowledge base in the Language Settings page, or, manually translate each article by accessing it, and creating a translation of it from the existing languages added to your knowledge base.
How To Create and Manage Translations From The Editor
How To Manually Add A Translation To An Article
To add a new article translation simply follow the instructions below:
New Editor
- Open your article
- Click on
- Select the language, article destination, and the user you want to assign the translation to.
- If you would like us to automatically translate the article, enable the Automatically Translate This Article feature.
- If there is an existing translation of the article, you can link it by selecting the Link an existing article as Selected Language, and then searching for the existing article.
- Click on Add Translation one more time!
Legacy Editor
- Open your article
- Click on Add Translation
- Select the language, article destination, and the user you want to assign the translation to.
- If you would like us to automatically translate the article, select the Automatically Translate This Article option.
- If there is an existing translation of the article, you can link it by selecting the Link an existing article as Selected Language option, then searching for the existing article.
- Click on Add Translation one more time!
A pop-up window will open with the following options and, when clicking on "Add Translation", the article will be created in the chosen language.
- Select a Language - Select the language to which you want to add a translation.
- Article Destination - Select the category in which you want to place the article.
- Assign Translation to - Choose which users will be assigned as translators. They will be notified via email.
- Automatically Translate this Article - Check this option if you want to automatically translate the article.
- Link an existing article - This allows you to link the translation to the content written in your default language. Check the section below for more details.
How To Auto-Translate an Article
Auto-Translate is an automatic machine translation using an AI engine. You can copy everything from one language to another and automatically translate all content or you can run Auto-Translate for each article.
While in the editor, if you retranslate the content, any custom changes made to the translations will be overwritten, and the system will retranslate everything again based on the default language setting.
To revert changes or access previous versions, you can use the Revision History section on the editor or restore a backup.
How To Link Existing Articles
Let's say you have an article in English (and this is the original article, which means it was the first content created - not necessarily in your default language) and also in French.
If you want to link them together, access the original article view (which in this case is the English content) click on "Add Translation", select "French (fr_FR)" and click on "Link an existing article as French (fr_FR)". Once you select this option, a list of all French articles that are not linked will be displayed. Select the article and click "Add Translation". That's it!
How To Unlink Article Translations
To unlink an article translation from its original article, you can follow the steps below depending on the editor you are using, and your article translation will be unlinked.
New Editor
- Open the original article
- Hover over the
icon - Click on Unlink this Translation
Legacy Editor
- Open the original article
- Hover over the
icon - Click on Unlink this Translation
Article Translation Status
Article translation can have 3 statuses:
Missing Translation (Legacy Editor) – If you create an article translation and don't check the "Automatically Translate this Article" option, the article will have a Missing Translation status.
Verify Translation (Both Editors) – This status will remind you that the content needs to be verified.
New Editor
If you create an article translation and don't check the "Automatically Translate this Article" option, the article will have a Verify Translation status.
Legacy Editor
Every time you run the Auto-Translate option or the original article is changed, the article translation will display a Verify Translation status to remind you that the content needs to be verified.
Mark as Translated (Both Editors) – If the content looks good, you can simply click on "Mark as Translated". This means that your article is translated and ready to be published.
Side-by-side Translation View
You can use the side-by-side option to compare the original content and its translation while you are working on the translation.
To switch to the side-by-side mode, click on the blue icon displayed next to the translation tabs.
On the left side, you will always see the original article (non-editable) and on the right side, you can view all other article translations.
You can run Auto-Translate or manually translate the article. Once the article is done click on Save & Continue back to Editor.
Adding A Language Switcher To The Frontend
A language switcher may not appear if you do not have the latest theme, or implemented the language code (if you are using an older theme).
Please refer to how to add a language switcher, or submit a Customization Request if you do not see a language picker in your Knowledge Base.
How To Translate And Adapt The Design To The Frontend
When you add a new language the frontend is not automatically translated and the design is not carried over.
In this case, you just need to submit a Customization Request along with a list of custom styles that need to be adapted and the terms and their translations for the frontend and our team will be happy to update your Knowledge Base!
Additional Settings
To learn more about protected terms, and adding and deleting languages to your Knowledge Base, please check our Languages & Translations Settings article.