My default language is English. I have a post in Chinese(Simplified). I use Advanced Translation Editor to translate it to Chinese(Traditional) and English with auto-translation and some manual corrections.
So before batch auto-translation, I already have 3 versions, i.e., Chinese(Simplified), Chinese(Traditional) and English.
However, the auto-translate option is disabled and there is an warning saying that I must perform auto-translation from the default language. For my case, the default language is English, not Chinese(Simplified).
So, I switch to English in the top bar of the admin area, then restart the batch auto-translation. This time it asks me that some of the posts already contain translation, what should I do with them(I choose to NOT change them).
Then the batch auto-translation seems to be started. Since the Chinese(Simplified) version is already there, I think it will be kept unchanged.
However, when I click the Chinese(Simplified Vesion), I see an warning "the post is a translation of xxx, do you still want to edit it", I choose to edit it.
And then in the Chinese(Simplified) post, I see its status becomes "Translated from English". I don't know why its status is marked as such since I have choose not to change the existing contents. Anyway, I change the status from "None".
Now it seems the Chinese(Simplified) post is disconnected from the English version.
Now what I need:
1. I check the Chinese(Simplified) version, and it seems it has disconnected from other translations. All translations are empty now. How to fix this?
2. I check the English version, and it seems the Chinese(Traditional) version is available for editing, but has it been overwritten by the auto-translation(which is not desired)?
3. All the other translations seem not accessible, for example, from English -> French, I see a gear icon in the translation, but it is not clickable, see attached image.
Let me try to explain and clear some things up for you.
1) There is the default language of the website set from WPML > Settings and the default language in which the page is created. This can be different.
You should translate from the default (the language in which the page is created) to other languages.
It is recommended that the language in which the page is created by default and WPML > Settings > Default language is the same.
To summarize, this should be the same to avoid issues/confusion and translate them from 1st language to 2nd.
2) You can not mix translation methods. If you are going to use automatic translation / WPML editor then you can not use the manual method. The manual method is when you manually edit non-default pages and edit content or if the page was in the first place created manually and not translated via WPML editor.
3) In your case not following what I explained above and disconecting pages has caused some confusion and issues.
What I suggest to clear things up is:
- decide which method you will use to translate pages, manually or WPML editor (automatic)
- depending on the case, translation done by other methods will probably be overwritten
- if you are going to use WPML editors (automatic) best would be to cancel all ongoing jobs from WPML > Translation Management > Jobs
- Make sure content exists only in the current default language and delete any other language pages by going to Pages > All > Choosing language and deleting it and empty trash
- Then re-translate them again via WPML editor / automatic translation from the default language to 2nd language
Please note for any sentence already translated before you won't be charged again for credits and it will be used from our memory.
Let me know if any questions, or doubts or if I have misunderstood something.
1. Completely edit the translation manually with WP editor instead of WPML translation editor.
2. Edit the translation with WPML translation editor.
3. Batch translation posts with auto-translation.
I use method 2 to create English & Chinese(Traditional) translation for my Chinese(Simplified) post. As it is not convenient to do that one by one, so I initiate the batch translation.
Do you mean I cannot use method 2 and then method 3?
that is okay, as long you are using WPML editor to translate, automatic batch is using same just doing it in the background and in batch. You should not then edit the pages manually.
Also, since your default language is English and post-default is Chinese(Simplified), I would advise changing the WPML default language to Chinese(Simplified) also, to not cause further confusion for you and issues that may arise with mixed of post/taxonomy and settings coming from different default languages.
Let me know if any further questions or doubts you may have or need our assistance.
when you edit the post there is a language option on the right side, and you can change it there. This can be done if there is no translation connected, otherwise, you will need to set translation to None, as you did before, and then re-connect pages.
