On the left, a story on the English-language site. On the right, the story's translation on the Malagasy-language site. All of the terms in red boxes are categories and other site text that needs to be specially localized.
A Global Voices (GV) website contains much more than just stories. It contains categories which help readers understand how stories are organized. It contains calls-to-action like “learn more” and “subscribe” and other phrases like “written by” and “translated by” which help readers understand what is on the screen in front of them. And it contains web pages which offer readers information about our organization and how to get involved.
When we launch a new language site, all of these things must be translated from English into the language in question. And when new pages, categories and terms are added or when existing ones are changed in English, the language site must be updated to match.
This guide explains how to localize these elements of a Global Voices language site.
Translating the site’s theme
A WordPress theme defines the appearance of a website, including all of the text elements that are incorporated into its design.
All of these text elements, called “strings,” can be found and translated in the backend of the site. (You must be logged in to access it.) Locate “Appearance” in the black WordPress sidebar and click the option “Theme Translator” which is nested inside it.
The Theme Translator. The term highlighted in red has yet to be translated.
The Theme Translator offers a list of strings in English, a description of how they are used in context, and an empty field where you can input the translation. Strings that haven't been translated are shown in red, making it easy to find any that you missed or have been recently added.
It’s important that a Global Voices site is easy to navigate and makes sense to readers, so keep this in mind when you translate the strings. If later on, reader experience shows that the translation of a certain string could be improved, please go ahead and replace it.
Translating category names
Categories allow us to organize the stories that we publish on GV. They indicate that a story is about a particular country or region of the world or about a particular topic. They also signal that a story follows a certain format or belongs to a particular section at Global Voices.
The names of the categories can be found and translated in the backend of the site. (You must be logged in to access it.) Locate “Posts” in the black WordPress sidebar and click the option “Categories” which is nested inside it. If this is a new language site, you’ll need to translate the category names one by one: Click on a category, input the translation in the “Name” field, then click the “Update” button at the bottom of the screen.
Important: Never translate the “Slug” of each category, which is used in the URL of the category page. It must match across different language sites to work properly.
A category on the Indonesian language site. Notice how the “Name” of the category has been translated but the “Slug” remains in the original English.
New categories are added by the Tech Lead at Global Voices. When this happens, you can find a list of them by clicking on the option “GV New Terms” nested under “Posts,” located in the black WordPress sidebar in the backend of the site. Scan the list of categories presented there, and if any require translation, click the “Edit” button to do so.
Important: Never add a new category yourself. If you think a new one is needed, contact the Tech Lead.
Translating About pages
The Global Voices website in English has several pages which offer details about our organization and how to get involved. While some of this information is simply nice to know, other bits are critical to understanding our work properly. Global Voices websites should have the following pages translated and published:
| Source Page Title | Source Page URL (to Be Input Into the “GV Lingua Translation” Field and Fetched) | Important Notes About Translating This Page |
|---|---|---|
| What Is Global Voices? | https://globalvoices.org/about/ | N/A |
| Global Voices Manifesto | https://globalvoices.org/about/gv-manifesto/ | N/A |
| Editorial Code | https://globalvoices.org/about/editorial-code/ | N/A |
| All Topics | N/A | This page is not fetched, but created from scratch; it visualizes all of the categories, which are translated in a different place (see above). The only thing that needs to be translated here is the title “All Topics” |
| Contributors | N/A | This page is not fetched, but created from scratch; it visualizes all of the contributors on the language site. The only thing that needs to be translated here is the title “All Contributors” |
| About the Lingua Translation Project | https://lingua.globalvoices.org/about/ | In order for the translated text to make sense outside of its original context, some small changes to the source material are necessary. See here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y8x22UpKjiFOG0-Z67Ze-6PlCvc6DkXmkeQwFc9U7os/edit?tab=t.6msodtmt1nvc |
| Volunteer as a Translator | https://lingua.globalvoices.org/volunteer-as-a-translator/ | In order for the translated text to make sense outside of its original context, some small changes to the source material are necessary. See here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y8x22UpKjiFOG0-Z67Ze-6PlCvc6DkXmkeQwFc9U7os/edit?tab=t.65f65usdi4li |
Any other pages, such as the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Lingua, are optional but encouraged. And of course, you are welcome to translate any guides on the Community Blog that you think would be beneficial in your language. If you have any questions or need support, please get in touch with the Lingua Director.
Translating pages works similarly to the translation of stories. Please consult the Beginner’s Guide to Translating Global Voices Stories for more.
A new page is added by selecting the “Add New” option nested under “Pages,” located in the black WordPress sidebar in the backend of the site. Once created, scroll down the page until you see a section called “GV Lingua Translation.” In the field labeled “Source Post URL,” paste the URL of the story that you want to translate and click “Fetch Post Data.” This will bring all of the content from the original page into your new post automatically. You can then proceed to translate the text and other elements that are present on the page.
If you are updating the contents of an existing page, simply make the changes and save. If the “Source Post URL” has changed, you can simply replace the old one with the new one, click the “Re-Fetch Post Data” button, translate the new content that has been pulled in, and save the page.
The “GV Lingua Translation” field, filled out with the source URL.
Important: When the source page is updated, the person who made the updates should fill out the Edit Request Form describing what changed. Those same changes will need to be reflected across all language versions. If you are a Translation Manager, the Lingua Director will get in contact with you if and when a page needs to be updated.
