Background of the issue:
I am trying to use WPML for translating product pages in WooCommerce. My original language is Swedish, and I have English and German versions. I am experiencing issues with WPML's editor and translation consistency.
Symptoms:
WPML messed up the formatting on product pages and translations on the front page. An incorrect translation 'Premiär för Valfrids' to 'Freedom for elections' reappeared after being manually fixed.
Questions:
Why did the incorrect translation reappear after being manually fixed?
Can I manually translate product pages directly from the WooCommerce product page instead of using WPML's editor? (I don't like your editor, we call it Advanced Confusion Editor).
What happens then if the original language and English Woocom product page differ in structure, format, and language?
What happens if I alter the original language product page - will it automatically mess upp translated pages again?
1.- I'm sorry to hear you are having a bad experience with the Translation Editor. Could you describe what you mean by "after being manually fixed"?
After translating a product with ATE, did you manually edit the product in the secondary language, change a text, save the changes, and then update the translation with ATE again? If that is the case, then this is the expected behavior, because the three translation modes (manual, CTE, and ATE) overwrite each other.
In any case, I will be waiting for your feedback 🙂
2.- Please increase the WP memory Limit. Minimum requirements are 128Mb: https://wpml.org/home/minimum-requirements/
You can add this to wp-config.php to increase WP memory:`
Thanks for your reply.
Now my message contains many questions!
First, by "manually fixed" I mean ATE (what we call Advanced Confusion Editor, or ACE). Then my fixed text was gone and back was the weird autotranslated version.
About WP Memory Limit. have an experienced IT-guy helping me. He said it won't matter. You say it still matters?
I experience weird things. Like, this morning the Translation list in WPML admin is full of texts that says "In process", although we haven't touched them for weeks and not sent them for translation. I got an error message yesterday, when trying to send a page for translation, I attach a screendump. Weird things happen. Like, the ATE refused to load yesterday, it worked about 1/3 of the time. See another screendump.
Now, to the question of the translation methods and how they relate.
I am the one doing the text editing, so I need to understand the relationship between the translation modes. You say "because the three translation modes (manual, CTE, and ATE) overwrite each other". First, CTE, does it even exist in the newest version? I don't think I have seen it.
Second, what do you mean by manual, you mean manually editing in ATE?
If the translation methods "overwrite each other", one should be master?
It would be nice if Woocom product page was master. This is important to know, for sometimes I want to alter the structure of a product page between say Swedish (original language) and German, so the layout is not exactly the same between them. Or is this even possible?
Yesterday I did editing of the English pages, like new formats (Bold text, line feed e t c, that was removed by WPML) directly in Woocommerce product pages. Is this a non recommended method? I can use ATE to fix weird translations, but it is much easier to do it in Woocom. And formating was messed up anyway, I needed to fix that. Unsure though if WPML will again mess upp the formating, because as you say "they overwrite each other". I just can't wrap my head around how this all works!
So we still have the problem with messed up formating. I don't know how to solve it. I spend hours yesterday manually editing all Germany autotranslated products in Woocom, fixing the formating, like adding line feeds and bold text e t c. Not sure if this was the right method.
For the first translation of the whole site, WPML removed all formating on some product pages (result was one lump of text). Not all, but 95% of them. I complained and you gave me some new points to "retranslate everything", because your support said that it had been a known bug in WPML which was now fixed. This caused us lots of headache. It seems it still does not work, I tried retranslating with overwrite today on a deformated product but the effect was none.
I am on the verge on giving up on WPML and switching to another plugin. I am very frustrated.
Hello Carlos,
Thank you again for todays fantastic meeting! It was amazingly helpful.
I am already working with WPML and have been able to do several edits and translations, on two sites, which was very satisfying!
I found two things just now that I do not understand. Would you mind if I ask you?
I remember well your excellent tutorial of the WPML translation admin.
Now my menu is in Swedish, I am looking at the top choice. See attached screenshot, that with the Send object for translation list.
Question 1)
In the list, on the item Så fungerar Nailforce, there is the cogwheel. I mark it and try to send it for translation. I then get the error message in the other screenshot, it is in Swedish but it says "Some of the selected content is already translated. This cancels any ongoing translations.". It sounds dangerous, but it probably is nothing, maybe.. What does this mean?
Question 2)
In the list you see not only cogwheels and green translation marks, but in some places another mark which is lightblue. You see it for example on the item "Nailforce Professional - KOMMER SNART.
If I stand above it it says "Needs updating". I have not touched these pages. What does this mean? What shall I do?
Good morning Jens,
Thanks to you for being so understanding and trusting in us!
1.- This warning message means that if you send that content for translation via WPML -> Translation Management (like in the screenshot) if there is any other translation going on (by ATE, your user, another user, etc), will be overwritten by the automatic translation. If this content was already translated automatically, or no one else is translating it, then it is safe to send it for automatic translation.
2.- This icon is the equivalent to the circular arrows and it means that the content was already translated but it needs to be updated. Most of the time, this icon appears when a small change has been made to the original content, but there are cases where changes in the site affect/refresh the entry in the database for particular post/pages, and once that update is made, then WPML will trigger the warning that you should review the translation (and update it)
So, in both cases, you could manually update the translations by editing the post/pages and using the translation icons, or you can send them for automatic translation.
