User's Help Guide:

Translation Utility (Updated: 13 December 2011)

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Instructions: This Translation Utility page of the Control Panel allows the Administrator to translate the core language files into other languages. When the Administrator use the Translation Utility it will create a copy of any file that has been translated and put it into the following folder: system/translations/

In order to be able to create Translation files, the Administrator needs to set the file permissions to 666 or 777 for the following folder: system/translations/. The main Translation Utility screen shows a list of all the language files currently installed.

Translation Utility Main Screen
Translation Utility main screen

When the Administrator choose a file name a page showing a list of English words or phrases will be presented. Below each line of text the Administrator will see an input box where the translated version of the text will be entered.

Translation Utility File View Screen
Translation Utility File View screen

Once the Administrator has translated all the text for a particular file the Administrator will click the Save Changes button and ExpressionEngine will create the new translated file inside the translations folder. The Administrator can also Save Changes at any point and does not have to complete the translation before saving.

Updating Translations
Sometimes the Administrator may wish to update an older version of a language pack to be compatible with a new version of ExpressionEngine.

  • To update a language pack:
    1. Choose "English" as your language under My Account > Localization Settings.
    2. Place a copy of the old language pack inside of the system/translations/ folder. Ensure that the files are set to permissions of 666 so that ExpressionEngine can modify them.
    3. As you go through each files using the Translation Utility any new untranslated text will appear in English.
    4. Save the translated version of each file and you will have an updated language pack.