Contact Form 7 - Translation issue when adding a placeholder

Overview of the issue

When using Contact Form 7 adding a placeholder attribute to form fields can cause the translation engine to misinterpret the shortcode. This may lead to broken forms in the translated versions of your site.

Workaround

Edit the form translation in the Advanced Translation Editor (ATE) and ensure the shortcode remains untranslated. Only translate the placeholder text.

Follow these steps:

• Open the translation in ATE.
• Go to the top right corner of the ATE editor, click the gear icon and make sure that the „I prefer bigger segments“ option is enabled.
• The field with the placeholder will appear split into two lines, for example:

  [wpmlcf7-1-email* customer-email placeholder]
  Your E-mail (required)
  

• Do not translate the first line (the shortcode). It should be identical to the original language.
• Only translate the placeholder text on the second line („Your E-mail (required)“).