I just released a new WordPress plugin to leverage the TranslateThis Button, a Javascript translation widget that uses the Google Language API. This plugin provides an easy interface for customizing the options in the TranslateThis Button. The widget can be either be displayed anywhere in your theme with a template tag, or be included as part of the widgetized sidebar.
The plugin provides a variety of settings that can be accessed in the WordPress admin section:
- Control the languages in the dropdown and the text of the various UI elements.
- Enable Google Analytics tracking for translation events.
- Use new button imagery, or disable images altogether, opting for text-only links.
- Confine the translation to the post/comments, or translate the entire page.
- Disable the cookie, or allow the plugin to translate all the pages on your site automatically.
- And more…
Download the TranslateThis Button for WordPress
Using the TranslateThis Button for WordPress
First download the plugin, upload to your WordPress plugins folder and activate through the Plugin Management screen.
Next, if using the widgetized sidebar, head to Appearance > Widgets in your WordPress admin section. From here you can drag the TranslateThis Button anywhere into your sidebar. Set the title option if you want to display a text headline, or leave blank to use only the button.
Alternately, you can include the TranslateThis Button anywhere in your theme files with this template tag:
<?php translate_this_button(); ?>
Customizing the TranslateThis Button for WordPress
Regardless of whether you use the widgetized sidebar or the template tag, customizing the core options for the TranslateThis Button is easy. Simply head to the TranslateThis Button Settings page within the Settings dropdown in your WordPress admin section.
Here you can customize the settings for whatever you need.
The first set of options are general functionality settings. Use these to enable Google Analytics tracking for translation events, confine the scope of the translation to the content area only, or disable the cookie that automatically translates additional page on your site after a user selects a language.
The second set of options are language options for non-English blogs. Here you can change the text of various UI elements, and also set the default native language of your site. By default the plugin relies on the Google Language API to determine your from language, so set it here if you want a slight performance gain.
At the end of the second set of options is a setting to use the default languages in the dropdown. If you disable this, you will be able to select whichever of the 52 languages you want to use in the dropdown.
The third and final set of options contain various display options. Here you can use a different image for the main button, however be sure to set the button dimensions if they vary from the default button. Alternately you can disable the button image altogether and use a text-only link. Finally you can disable the flag icons and use text-only links for the various languages.
Do you like this plugin?
This plugin is actually two freebies in one: the TranslateThis Button Javascript translation widget, along with a WordPress plugin wrapper. If you like it, the best way to show your support is to vote it up on wordpress.org, and to get the word out by blogging, tweeting, or just telling your friends about it.
Or buy me a beer with the link below :).
Jon Raasch is a UX nerd and free-lance web designer / developer who loves jQuery, Javascript & CSS.
Is there a way to have it automatically cut back on all my Javascript after the translation is done? I’m losing my Google Maps and WYSIWYG editor which are as equally important as the ability to translate my site!
I’d also like to remove the Lightbox-like effect that happens when the website is being translated. I’m sorry for the heavy requests but this is amazing but I can’t use it on my site yet without these options.
The translation is wonderful and amazing. Thanks