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Alefba Alefba - Website Design & Graphic Design in Arabic, Persian, Dari
Localize WordPress themes and Plugins

How to Translate WordPress Localized Themes and Plugins with Codestyling Localization

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PoEdit or Codestyling Localization?

Normally when you ask this question on WordPress-related forums or search for it on the net all you get is suggestions about using PoEdit. Sometimes you get some vague instructions about using it as well, but still it is not what you are looking for. PoEdit is not user-friendly, it has a clunky interface, and it is buggy.

What I suggest is Codestyling Localization a plugin that provides you with all you need to localize a WordPress theme or plugin, right from inside the WordPress admin.

How to use Codestyling Localization Plugin:

Here is what you need to do:

1. Download “CodeStyling Localization” plugin, Install it on your WordPress website, and activate it.

2. Go to Localization under Tools. Click on Themes to see the themes list.

3. If you do not see your language there click on “Add New Language”.

4. Choose your language and click on “create po-file”.

If you get an access-error message click on ok. Then connect to your server with an FTP-client software and change the permissions for the “language” folder (located inside your theme’s folder) set to 777. This should take care of the error message. Choose your language and click on “create po-file” again to create a pair of language files.

5. The plugin creates the files for you. Click on “Rescan” to scan all the translatable terms and words inside the theme. It opens a window for you. Click on “scan now”.

6. After the scan is finished click on “Edit” to translate the words.

7. Translate the words.

8. When you are done with translation click the button “generate mo-file”. This step is very important because it is the “mo” file that is read by WordPress.

You are done. Your theme is localized!

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  • MohamadReza

    Hi
    Thanks a lot for this post.
    i installed this plugin but my active theme is not in the theme list!!!!
    what should i do to be recognized my theme by the plugin?
    thanks

  • MohamadReza

    i forgot to say that there isnt language folder in my theme folder.
    Thanks.

  • http://alefba.us/ Alefba

    Your theme is not localized. You either need to change the theme or make some changes to the theme to localize it.
    I will write a post about that later.

  • Ali

    Hi, awsome post thanks. Can you please make a post on how to make a plugin/theme suited to Right to left.

  • http://alefba.us/ Alefba

    Absolutely. It is on my list.

  • NMG

    Can you also tell how I can embed Farsi fonts in wordpress? I have the fonts but do not know how to use it. Thanks.

  • Anonymous

    You cannot use your own fonts. You need to use Arabic and Persian webfonts.

  • Dearmariana

    Hi, thanks for this article, very helpful.
    Quick question – what if I’ve already got WP in my second target language, and I just want to add a new theme in that language? Just rescan after I activate the theme?

  • Anonymous

    You can translate the theme before or after activating it. I suggest translating it first and then activating it.

  • Jimmytortuga

    Great plugin! Have a problem, though. Followed all these steps and I now have the .po and .mo files in the languages files of my theme; and yet they are not selected; ie, they are not translating my theme and are not in bold in the overview panel, as they are in other plugins. Am I missing a step?

  • Alefba

    It seems your theme is translated but WordPress on your site is not set to your target language. You have to modify “wp-config.php” . Have you done that?

  • Alefba

    It seems your theme is translated but WordPress on your site is not set to your target language. You have to modify “wp-config.php” . Have you done that? 

  • Alefba

    Actually you can. But it needs some processing to make it available for different browsers. Please contact me for further info:
    http://alefba.us/contact/

  • Anonymous

    Thank you!! i were searching this for a long time!  

  • spidermanit

    Thank you, great plugin, but it doesn’t works to me. I got this Compatibility error: ”
    Textdomain Naming Issue: Author uses a variable to define the textdomain constant. It will be assumed to be equal to theme name now. ”
    How can i fix this?

    Thanks

  • http://twitter.com/fabiocabrera Fabio Cabrera

    Muito bom esse plugin. Recomendo!!!

    Usei ele para traduzir me Tema todo.
    Veja como ficou: http://www.rhpontocom.comFabio Cabrera

  • http://www.facebook.com/levvon Levon Yemenjyan

    This looks way better than PoEdit, but I have a problem “It says 0 languages found” next to the them I need to translate and when I click “Add new language” nothing happenes :/ do you know what to do?

  • Alefba

    Make a backup of the “.pot” file. Then change the extension “.pot” to “.po” if you want to use it as a “.po” file.

  • Juliano Dalbosco

    Instalei tudo OK! Porem  não entendi onde tem a parte “8″ do post 
     ”gerar mo-file”.
    Essa opção com este botão não idenfiquei na área do plugin!! Onde localize ele ? vlw

  • Juliano Dalbosco

    I installed everything OK! However I did not understand where is the ”8″ post
      ”generate mo-file”.
    This option does not idenfiquei with this button in the plugin! Where to find it? vlw

  • http://alefba.us/ Alefba

    It should be right on the top of the translations, as shown in the screenshot.

  • Maha Khalaf

    Hi.. thanks for this great article.

    I followed all the steps mentioned for 2 of my plugins (forum server and clean contact), but still they won’t get translated!

    Have I missed something?

  • http://twitter.com/maktig MAK @ MAKTIG.vc

    My suggestion is to use Quick Localization plugin.

    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/quick-localization/

  • http://alefba.us/ Alefba

    Thanks. But I did not find it user-friendly. How does it work?

  • Chinmay973

    Hi, 

    I have followed your tutorial but the theme translation doesn’t appear

    The wp-config.php file was already setted with the target language

    I have read that for some theme you have to call the translation from the function.php

    Please advice

    Thank you

  • Gerard

    Great plugin!
    Yesterday I received a new Theme, but it has no language folder and also no .pot or .po/.mo file. What to do, because it is not even showing up if I use the Localization plugin :(

  • http://alefba.us/ Alefba

    The theme needs a little bit of work to be localized. Contact us:

    http://alefba.us/contact/ 

  • Ditta

    Hi, I just installed it for norwegian translation, but there are a few words that is missing, so then they won’t translate… How can I add words to the translation?

  • W500

    I do EXACTLY like you explain here but with zero results. The two green boxes with .po and .mo is there, the files are translated after scanning etc etc. Ive gone back several times to check and I do exactly what you explain here. Doesnt it always work??

  • http://alefba.us/ Alefba

    It seems there is a problem with your theme. The theme should be properly prepared for localization as well.

  • http://alefba.us/ Alefba

    It is possible that those words are not localized in the theme. Please contact the theme developer or check the files yourself to see if the words you refer to are localized.

  • http://twitter.com/maktig MAK @ MAKTIG.vc

    It is quite simple, plug and play.

  • Vasa84

    Are there any way to use Codestyling Localization to create two langauges, and then let the users switch language trouh a dropdown bar?

  • http://alefba.us/ Alefba

    Codestyling Localization creates language files for your theme or plugin but it has nothing to do with your website’s content. To be able to create the content in two or more languages you need a plugin like WPML or qTranslate.