Hi. I'm setting up the Media Translation plugin as advised in https://wpml.org/forums/topic/uploaded-media-is-being-translated-copied-even-thought-set-not-to/. The documentation for that plugin indicates I should "Select all the images for which you want to use different images in other languages and send the content for translation." My question is about the best way to actually do that: I'm using automatic translation site-wide and have the option to translate the selected posts automatically or to do it myself. Given the site is already translating content automatically and that all I want to do is to display different images on a translated page from what's on the original English language page, which of these do I select?
To follow up: if content is already translated by WPML and I want to just change the media being used on a different language, can I skip sending the content for translation and just go directly to WPML > Media Translation to tell WPML which media to use instead of the original?
And what if I want to use different versions of an original image on different posts? Can WPML only be told to use a single alternate image everywhere on the site, instead of the original? Or could I post the same English language image to several posts but have the Spanish versions of those posts display different Spanish language images instead of a single alternate?
Languages: English (English )Spanish (Español )German (Deutsch )
Timezone: America/Lima (GMT-05:00)
Hello,
If you want to replace images in a second language then you will need to upload them for each image at WPML > Media Translation.
Usually, this should do the job to display the alternative image in a second language but in some cases, you might need to use the Advanced Translation Editor to adjust the source URL of the image in a second language.
Thank you Andreas. I'm still not clear on the process. Can you walk me through it? The documentation doesn't answer my question. If my content is being translated automatically do I need to go to WPML → Translation Management to send my content for translation? Or can I let it be translated automatically and then just specify the image to use? If it should not be allowed to be translated automatically, what is the process to change that for one page, given the whole site is being translated automatically?
Languages: English (English )Spanish (Español )German (Deutsch )
Timezone: America/Lima (GMT-05:00)
Hello,
By default, when translating content with the WPML Translation Editor, then the images are copied, which means the translations will show the same images as the original content and you will only translate the title, alt, caption, and description of the images.
Now, in order to display an alternative image in a second language we actually need to upload a physical new image to the WordPress Media Library in a second language.
In order to achieve this, you should always use WPML > Media Translation.
After that, usually, the alternative images should show up on the already translated content.
Now, there might be some exceptions where we might need to translate the content again manually and adjust image source links on the translation.
In case this does not work as expected, I can offer to have a look at the site.
If so, please name me a content as an example and I will enable the private reply form so that you can provide me access to the site.
Thanks Andreas, that's very helpful. A couple of final questions.
1. In the other support thread I started on this topic I asked about the purpose of the checkboxes on posts/pages to duplicate/restrict uploaded files and the featured image to other languages, given that they seem to have no effect. This is under the Media Attachments section on posts and pages, but the support person who replied seems to have thought I meant the WPML Media Translation settings, because he referred me to https://wpml.org/documentation/getting-started-guide/media-translation/#id5. My question here is what are those checkboxes intended to do on individual posts/pages (screenshot attached)? While trying to figure this out before asking for support I unchecked those, assuming that the media wouldn't be duplicated, but it still was.
2. Now that I'm seeing the more global settings at https://wpml.org/documentation/getting-started-guide/media-translation/#id5, can you tell me the correct settings there to use? The goal is to have media automatically duplicated from English to Spanish except when we manually intervene to use a custom Spanish-language image on Spanish pages.
If you do not mark those checkboxes, when translating a post the featured image or image galleries on products will not be copied to the translated post, which means the images will not show up in second languages.
This option does not copy a physical image on the server-side, instead, it simply creates the language entries inside the database, so that the original image is linked between language contents through the WordPress Media Library.
It would have the same effect if you use WPML > Settings > Media Translation > Start.
This option will create all those connections needed on the DB, for such images that are still missing this information.
Once the media is "duplicated" or better said connected in this way, there is no away to undo it, unless you go to the media library, switch the admin language and delete the entries from the WordPress Media Library.
to 2)
I would generally suggest that you always duplicate the featured image and the attached images of your posts - as otherwise they should not appear on the translated post and also would not be available on the Media Library when switching the admin language on the top admin bar.
Also, take note that there is a new setting called "Transalte media library entries with posts".
This only needs to be active if you always want to translate the image meta information (alt, caption, description) for each media item that is part of the current post.
If this option is not enabled, then you will only translate such meta information on your posts, that relates to media that is in fact attached to the post.
In order to know which media is attached to which post you need to go to the WordPress Media Library, switch to list view, and check the column "Uploaded to".
Take note, that you can also detach media inside the media library, which will not remove the media from the content itself.
Best regards
Andreas
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