Skip Navigation
Home » WPML Blog – News and Updates for the WordPress Multilingual Plugin » WPML versions » WPML 4.5 Beta – The New “Translate Everything” Workflow

WPML 4.5 Beta – The New “Translate Everything” Workflow

WPML versions
92

We’re ready with WPML’s biggest release in the last few years. WPML 4.5 introduces a new workflow, which we call Translate Everything. This new mode makes it much easier to translate your sites and keep all translations up-to-date.

After reviewing hundreds of multilingual sites that use WPML, we realized that in most sites, clients are translating all of the site’s content. 80% of the sites using WPML translate up to 30,000 words into several languages. While WPML’s Translation Management lets you choose what content to translate, in most sites, you translate everything.

So, we decided to update WPML to better match how you use it.

Introducing the “Translate Everything” Translation Mode

The new Translate Everything mode uses a combination of automatic translation and human review to make the translation process faster and more affordable. We calculate that this will save about 90% of the effort to translate WordPress sites.

How Translate Everything works:

  1. You write the content in your language
  2. As you publish content, WPML automatically translates it in the background
  3. You review the translations and edit as necessary

Even when you’re translating to a language that you’re fluent in, editing a “pretty good” translation and making it “excellent” takes a fraction of the time needed to write the translation from scratch.

This feature translates pages, posts, custom post types, custom fields, taxonomies, WooCommerce products, and more. Smaller texts like strings, menus, widgets, and form fields still need to be translated using String Translation. This is because there usually isn’t enough context for automatic translation to translate them effectively.

Translation Management Merged into WPML Core

The first thing that you’ll see when you use WPML 4.5 is that there’s no more Translation Management plugin. It’s now merged into WPML core (available for Multilingual CMS and Agency accounts). The new Translate Everything mode relies on Translation Management, so we included it in the main plugin.

A New Setup Wizard Offering to Translate Everything

WPML 4.5 offers a new setup wizard. It has a modern look, improved usability and integrates the new translation mode. The first step in the new wizard offers to choose languages for your site. It has a new option to set-up a custom language right there in the setup wizard. This will help people who want to set a custom language as their site’s default language.

During the setup wizard, WPML asks how you want to translate your site. All existing translation methods still work. To get excellent translations, we still recommend that you try one of our partner translation services. To use a translation service or to keep picking the content that you’re translating in the site, select the option to Translate Some.

To try the new Translate Everything mode, choose it in the setup wizard or in WPML → Settings.

Front-End Review for Automatically Translated Content

Automatic translation is great, but it cannot give 100% accurate translation. In our measurements, we edited around 10% of the texts automatically translated, in order to achieve excellent translation.

To make this review work easy and fast, we created a completely new review process.

When new translations are ready for review, you will see a notice in the WordPress admin.

This notice will take you to the translation queue, where you can see what’s waiting for your review.

Click to review and you’ll arrive at the new front-end review page. From there, you can either publish the translation or edit it.

Editing will take you to WPML’s Advanced Translation Editor. You will see everything translated already and you can edit just these sentences that need improvement.

Credits for Automatic Translation

The automatic translation that WPML uses isn’t free. We’re using automatic translation from Google, DeepL and Microsoft. New WPML accounts will receive free credits that allow translating most sites completely. If you need more, we will offer additional quota, which you can buy as one-time packages or in a “pay as you go” program (if you’re not using, you’re not paying).

You choose which translation engine you prefer. The different translation engines have different “writing styles” and cost. Compared to the time it takes to translate manually, all are very affordable.

When you try WPML 4.5 beta, you don’t need to pay to use automatic translation. We will add credits to sites that use the beta, so that you’re not paying us to give us feedback (would be a bit weird).

Development and Production Site Keys

Another improvement to WPML 4.5 is the ability to register WPML with development site keys. This way, you don’t have to “waste” your site keys on development sites. For every WPML account, we will offer x3 development keys for every production key that you get. For example, the Multilingual CMS accounts will continue getting 3 production site keys and 9 additional development site keys.

The beta version only lets you register development site keys, as it’s still a beta and we’re not recommending it yet for production sites.

WPML 4.5 Will Come with New Pricing

When we release WPML 4.5 for production sites, we’re going to increase the price of WPML.

The new pricing does not affect existing clients. All existing clients with valid accounts get to keep their current pricing, including future account renewals.

The new pricing will be:

Multilingual BlogMultilingual CMSMultilingual Agency
First year$39$99$199
Renewals$29$74$149

This pricing will go into effect when we release WPML 4.5, which is planned for this summer.

If you have an existing account, your pricing doesn’t change. However, if your account expires, you will need to buy a new account at the new full price.

Together with the new pricing, clients buying WPML will also receive credits for automatic translation.

Try WPML 4.5 Beta and Give us Feedback

We recommend that you try this beta only on fresh sites or on sites that you’re currently developing. This version will be complete soon, but it’s not yet tested for production sites.

To download WPML 4.5 beta, go to the Downloads page and switch to the Beta channel. You can start by downloading only WPML core, and you can install String Translation as a step in the setup wizard.

Choosing the Beta channel on the Downloads page

If your site uses WooCommerce, please be sure to update your WooCommerce Multilingual plugin to version 4.11.6 or later. See more on how to check for WPML updates.

Get Free Automatic Translation Credits for Testing

To get 30,000 free automatic translation credits for testing, be sure to click Get a key for this site on the Register WPML step of the setup wizard. This passes an extra parameter to tell WPML you’re testing the WPML 4.5 Beta.

Let us know how it’s working for you and if you need help with anything.

92 Responses to “WPML 4.5 Beta – The New “Translate Everything” Workflow”

  1. Hi Allison, is 4.5 designed with better integration with the Oxygen builder?

    Also, will 4.5. reduce WPML plugins needed for other WordPress plugins (e.g. Advanced Custom Fields Multilingual, Contact Form 7 Multilingual, WPML SEO, etc.)?

    • Hi Dustin – We’ve met with the Oxygen Builder team and are investigating a solution together. Full compatibility won’t be coming with WPML 4.5, but both teams are definitely interested in making it work. We’ll provide more updates when available.

      Glue plugins are still required for full compatibility with ACF, form plugins, and SEO plugins.

  2. When you try WPML 4.5 beta, you don’t need to pay to use automatic translation. We will add credits to sites that use the beta, so that you’re not paying us to give us feedback (would be a bit weird).

    Hi

    Sorry but i ca not understand it’s paid or free ?

    Thanks.

  3. Hello Allison and WPML team,

    Hope you are doing good,

    Is the translating everything will translate drafted posts or it is an option to included or not in the translation everything process ?

    Thank you ..

    • Hi Shadi – Thanks for your question. Translate Everything will not translate drafts – only published content. This is so you don’t use credits on content you might not end up publishing.

  4. Hi Allison,

    the new features sound great!

    Four quick questions:

    1. Is Translate Everything compatible with Avada?
    2. How “risky” is it to work with the WPML 4.5 beta (losing translations, performance issues or the like)? If it’s still risky: What’s the roadmap for the full/stable version?
    3. Can we use Deepl with a glossary for special terms in WPML (as on Deepl.com)?
    4. Is it possible to export translations? That would be very useful if we have a complete website translated using Translate Everything (Deepl) and want to document and/or backup these translations.

    Looking forward to your feedback.

    • Hello – Thanks for your questions.
      1. Yes, Translate Everything is compatible with Avada.
      2. Beta versions should only ever be used on development sites as they are still being tested.
      3. Yes, you can use DeepL (see how to change your translation engine), and you can create a glossary as well. WPML’s glossary feature will be getting an upgrade in the 4.5 production version.
      4. You can export MO and PO files from the String Translation screen, or you can export your site as a CSV or XML file using WP All Export.

    • Hi Indi – Yes. You have 3 options: publish translations immediately without renewing, hold the translations for review before publishing, or publishing immediately and adding the translations to the queue to be reviewed later.

  7. Hello Ms. Allison,

    I am writing to you about the Beta version. I would like to know if this version has been tested by your developer and is it compatible with all your plugins? Can we use it in production mode on our site?

    Thank you for your answer.

    • Hello – We recommend only ever using beta versions on development sites, as they are still in testing.

      • Hello,

        Ok, thank you for your answer. When will the new Beta version be implemented approximately?

        Thank you for your answer.

        • Hi there – The beta is available now. We will release the production version later this month, but we don’t have a specific release date yet.

  8. Hi Allison,

    we are planning to go live with a new site in the next few days. Will we be able to update from version 4.4.12 to version 4.5 later without any problems, or should we wait a few more days? 🙂

    Thanks and have a nice day. 🙂

    • Hi Sebastian – You can update your WPML plugins when version 4.5 is released. The update will be made available automatically on your registered sites as it’s gradually rolled out.

      If you plan to use the new “Translate Everything” mode when it’s available, please keep in mind that it doesn’t overwrite existing translations. If you want to use Translate Everything to translate certain pages or posts, I would recommend not translating them until WPML 4.5 is released.