If you want to make a WordPress site in one, two o more languages, there is a very important distinction to be made. A fully localized and translated WordPress website requires translate contents and text strings:

Your content is stored in database tables. It´s not stored in files.  Translating content requires a solution that reads your posts from the database and stores your translations right there.

You can use free plugins such as qTranslate or Polylang, or premium plugins such as WPML (standalone WordPress environment) or Multilingual Press Pro (WordPress Multisite).

Translating text strings (PHP files) in themes and plugins #

Themes and plugins contain text strings that are in files. Whenever you see something like:

<php _e( ‘Text’, ‘a-text-domain’ ) ?>

Tools like Poedit (which you can use for free) or plugins such as Loco Translate or Codestyling Localization let you translate text strings in your WordPress files. Also premium translations tools like WPML let you translate text strings.

In this article I show you how to translate text strings: using Poedit, Loco Translate or Codestyling Localization Plugin. But first of all is important to know what are .POT, .PO and .MO files.