One of the ways in which you can translate various elements from the Thrive Themes products is by using the “Loco Translate” plugin.
Install and Activate the Plugin
Just like in the case of any plugin, the first thing you need to do in order to use it is to install and activate it.
Here is how you can do that. In your WordPress Admin Dashboard, go to the left sidebar and scroll down to “Plugins”. Click on it:
This will take you to the “Plugins” page, where you can see all the plugins that you have previously installed. You will notice an “Add New” button on the top side of the page. Click on it:
Another way to add a new plugin is to go to the left sidebar in your WordPress Dashboard, scroll down to the “Plugins” option, and hover over it:
A small sub-menu will open with some of the plugin options. Click on “Add new”:
Both these methods will take you to the same “Add Plugins” page. To add the “Loco Translate” plugin, go to the search bar from the right side and type in “Loco Translate”:
Once you find it, click on the “Install Now” button:
After the installation process is complete, instead of the “Install Now” button, you’ll see the “Activate” button. Click on it in order to activate the plugin:
Now, your plugin should be active and ready for you to use. You will be taken back to the “Plugins” page, where you will be able to see all of your plugins.
Use the Plugin
After the plugin has been successfully installed and activated, you can start translating various elements using it. In your WordPress Admin Dashboard, scroll down on the menu from the left side, until you see the “Loco Translate” option:
If you hover over it, a small sub-menu will open, with some options. If you know what option you want to use, you can choose one straight from there:
If not, simply click on the “Loco Translate” option from the menu on the left side and you will be taken to the plugin’s home page:
This page contains information about your plugins. Here is where you can also see the active themes. To continue, click on the plugin that you want to translate. For example, I will use the “Thrive Architect” plugin. Therefore, I will click on it from the list of plugins:
This will take you to a new page. If you have not used the plugin before, there will be no translations found. This page is where you will see all the translations made using the plugin. To add a new translation, click on the “New language” option:
You will see a message that lets you know that you have no template created. In order to continue with the translation, you have to create one. To do that, click on the “Create template” option:
Then, another message will appear, informing you about the product file sizes and the location of the strings. Click on “Create template”:
Now that you have created a template, on the page you were taken back to, click on “New language”:
The “New Language” page will open, where you have to go through two steps:
1. Choose a language
Firstly, you have to choose a language. To do that, click on the “No language selected” field if you are using the “WordPress language” option:
This will open a drop-down menu with the languages, where you can click on the one you want to translate from:
If you are using the “Custom Language” option, simply check that option and write the custom language in the field below it:
2. Choose a location
After choosing the language, make sure to also choose a location, by selecting one from the list:
You can then click on the blue “Start Translating” button:
This will take you to the translation page. Then, click on the list of strings to translate them one by one:
After you select the string that you want to translate, the next field is the “Description of the plugin”. You do not have to write anything inside that field, you can leave it how it is. The actual translation has to be written in the next field (“<language> translation”). Here is an example of the translation:
Notice that once you start typing in a translation, a “Save” button will appear on the top part of the page:
Make sure to save the translations after writing them by using that button. Once you do that, the strings should be translated. You can check your website to see the changes.
If you go back to the product page, in my case Thrive Architect, you will be able to see all the translated strings and some information for them:
There are some actions you can take, as well. For example, you can add a new translation, or edit/delete already existing ones. If you want to perform any of those actions, hover over the field that appeared after creating a translation. You will see that some options appear when you hover over it:
Here is how you can use them:
Edit
The first option is the “Edit” one:
If you click on it, you will be taken back to the page with the translations. You can either translate a new string or modify the ones already created.
If you want to create a new translation, simply click on a string that does not have any translation and repeat the steps as described above.
If you want to edit an already existing translation, all you have to do is to click on the respective string and modify the text from the translation field.
Don’t forget to click on the blue “Save” button when finished.
View
The next action you can take after editing or translating a string is to “View” it:
This option will take you to the “Source” page of the translation:
Info
The third option is the “Info” one:
Click on in if you need to find out additional information about the file, for example, the file size, or the last modification date, etc.:
Copy
The next option is the “Copy” option:
Click on it in order to copy the translation. You will be taken to a page similar to the one that appears when you add a new translation, only it has one more option, the “Template Options” one:
Make sure to change the language or the location, if you want to be able to do the translation. Also, click on “Start translating” when you’re done:
Delete
The last option that can be found when hovering over the translation is the “Delete” one:
Click on it if you want to delete your translation. If you do, you will receive a confirmation message, where you have to click on “Delete Permanently” if you’re sure about it:
This is how you can use the “Loco Translate” plugin in order to translate various elements of your website. Make sure to also check out this article about how to translate Thrive Apprentice sections, and this article that explains how to use the “Say What?” plugin, also used for translating different strings.
If you want to find out more information about the Thrive Themes elements and products, make sure to also check out our Knowledge Base.