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Translating ACF Field Labels and Choices with WPML

Kathy Banach
Updated
March 21, 2024

With ACF, you can create field labels on your site’s backend and display them on the front-end. For choice field types like Select, Checkbox, and Radio Button, you can also specify options as Choices. WPML’s integration with ACF enables you to translate both field labels and Choices.

Displaying custom field labels on your site’s front end can make the context of your content clearer for visitors. For example, in a recipe blog, labels such as “Ingredients” and “Cooking Time” help readers quickly understand each recipe.

Field labels on the post edit screen on the backend

Translated Field Labels Displayed For Visitors On The Front-End

ACF Choice field types, like Select, Checkbox, and Radio Button fields, let you show predefined options through Choices. For example, adding options like “Easy”, “Medium”, and “Hard” to your recipes clarifies the difficulty level for visitors.

Choice Field Types and Choices on the ACF Field Group Edit Screen

Translated Choices Displayed for Visitors on the Front-End

To make your site accessible across languages, you can use WPML to translate any field labels and field Choices.

How to Translate Field Labels and Choices

How you translate field labels and Choices for Choice field types depends on the ACF Multilingual (ACFML) translation option you select for your field group.

Same fields across languages 

In the Same fields across languages option, you just need to go to WPML → Translation Management and send your post or page with the custom fields for translation. You can use automatic translation, translate your post content and the assigned custom fields yourself, or assign it to a translator.

When you translate a post or page with custom fields in the Advanced Translation Editor for the first time, WPML lets you translate the post content and field values, and also all field labels and choices within the field group.

Translating field labels and field choices in the Advanced Translation Editor

After translating, you can view the translated content on the front-end. You’ll see the translated Choices. If you set up ACF to display both field values and labels, you will also see the field label translations.

After you translate a field group’s labels and Choices in the Advanced Translation Editor once, they won’t show up in the editor again. If you need to update the translations, you can easily do so from WPML → String Translation.

Different fields across languages 

If you’re creating custom content or designs across languages and choose the Different fields across languages option for your field group, you can translate your field labels and Choices in String Translation.

In String Translation, ACF field groups are labeled by their post ID. To get this number, edit your field group in ACF → Custom Fields and note the post ID from the URL.

Making a note of the field group’s post ID

Then, go to WPML → String Translation and use the In domain drop-down to find the acf-field-group domain with the corresponding post ID number. Click Search and you’ll see a filtered list with all the field labels and field choices in the field group.

Translating field labels in String Translation

You can then click the plus icon under the flag of the language you would like to translate the labels or Choices into.

After translating the field labels and Choices in String Translation, and manually translating your post, check the post translation on the front-end to ensure the translations for your field values and Choices appear correctly. You’ll only see the field labels if you set up ACF to display them on the front-end.

Excluding Field Labels from the Advanced Translation Editor

You can stop field labels and field titles from appearing in the Advanced Translation Editor by using a dedicated ACFML constant. Simply add the following to your wp-config.php file:

define( 'ACFML_EXCLUDE_FIELD_GROUP_STRINGS_IN_POST_JOBS', true );

If needed, you can translate the field labels later from String Translation.