This is the technical support forum for WPML - the multilingual WordPress plugin.
Everyone can read, but only WPML clients can post here. WPML team is replying on the forum 6 days per week, 22 hours per day.
Elementor users - please update WPML to the latest version to maintain compatibility. More details here - https://wpml.org/changelog/2024/12/wpml-4-6-15-critical-update-for-elementor-sites/
Background of the issue:
I have a complete website where all of the texts are written in Danish. However, all of the different text elements from the template we used are written in English (search, shop, my cart, my account, etc). I am trying to use the WPML plugin to translate these elements.
Symptoms:
When I set the default language to English, it does not translate the Danish text into English, and vice versa. Additionally, switching to the non-default language causes the page to stop functioning, removing the footer and linking to different menus.
Questions:
What is the most ideal way to resolve the translation issue between Danish and English?
How do I fix the issue where switching languages causes the page to malfunction?
Thank you for contacting WPML support. While you are waiting for one of my colleagues to take this ticket and work on it, let me provide you with first debugging steps or if I can perhaps help with the issue quickly.
In regards to the issue of the text in the templates being English, are you using string translation to translate these, or are they in a page buidler template? If they are in String Translation and coming from a plugin such as WooCommerce, you can select the strings and then click "change language of selected strings" and set them to English, then add the Danish translations.
If you are using a page builder template, then you can edit the template in the original language and change the texts to Danish and then translate to English.
Lastly, as for using a different language than English as default, this should work. Just make sure all templates (header/footer/etc) and menus have been translated. As long as they exist in both languages, they should not disappear when you change default language. Be sure to resave permalinks after changing the default language as well.
if this does not resolve the issue, please let us know and we will be happy to look further into it for you.
Dear Lauren
So i need to translate the template using String translator where i set the default language as english, but need to maintain the default language on the site as danish?
Thank you for the updates. Normally we can translate the templates (for example from Elementor) with WPML Translation Editor. Please refer to the following documentation for more details.
