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Using the Expert Translation Option on Sites Built with ACF and WPML

Kathy Banach
Updated
October 18, 2024

Expert mode lets you decide how to translate custom fields on your multilingual site, giving you more control over how your content appears in different languages.

For example, let’s say your multilingual store’s contact page has Email and Link fields. Rather than using the same email address and URLs in every language, you want to translate these fields so that each language version has its own localized content.

Contact page built with custom fields in the default language

Contact page in the secondary language with translated Email and Link custom fields

In unique cases like this, you can use ACFML’s Expert mode to your advantage. It lets you decide how to handle each custom field in your translations, including Emails and Links.

If you set up your site with ACF and WPML before ACFML 2.0 was released, you’ll notice that your existing field groups use Expert mode. This ensures you keep your current multilingual setup and translations as they are.

1. Decide How to Translate Each Custom Field in Your Field Group

With WPML, you can choose between four translation preferences for each custom field in your field group:

  • Translate
  • Copy 
  • Copy Once
  • Don’t translate 

You can set them either in the Custom Fields Translation section in WPML → Settings or the field group edit screen in ACF → Field Groups.

To learn more about these options, check out our guide to translation preferences for ACF custom fields.

2. Translate the Custom Fields

Once you set your translation preferences, WPML offers two ways to translate your custom fields.

How to Translate Custom Fields for Consistent Values and Layout Across Languages

Before you start translating, make sure each of the custom fields across your different field groups have a unique Field Name. If you assign the same Field Name to more than one custom field, you may not see all your field values available for translation in the Advanced Translation Editor.

To use the same fields, just translated into different languages:

  1. Go to WPML → Translation Management.
  2. Select the post or page that has the custom fields and send it for translation.

How to Translate Custom Fields for Different Values and Layout Across Languages

To use different custom field values, have a different number of fields, or have a different field order across languages:

  1. Edit the post or page with the custom fields assigned to it.
  2. In the Language box, select the WordPress Editor. Confirm that you want to use the editor to translate this post content and click the Update button.
Selecting to translate the page with the WordPress Editor
  1. Click the plus icon next to the secondary language you want to translate your page into. You’ll be taken to a new page with blank custom fields. Add the page title and click Publish.
  2. Refresh the page. Manually add the translations for your custom field values and then click the Update button.
Adding the secondary language field values in the WordPress editor

If you’re using Repeater or Flexible Content fields, and want to have a different field order in your secondary language:

  1. Edit the post in your default language. 
  2. In the ACFML Synchronise Translations section at the top of the page, uncheck the option to keep repeater and flexible sub-fields in the same order.
  3. Update the page.
Disabling the option to keep the field order in sync across languages