WPML String Translation is a plugin designed for WordPress websites that allow users to translate texts that are not in posts, pages, and taxonomy. This includes the site’s tagline, general texts in admin screens, widget titles, and many other texts. The plugin is part of WPML’s Multilingual CMS Plugin.

To use WPML String Translation, you must first download and install WPML – The WordPress Multilingual Plugin. Once installed, you can activate the plugin by navigating to WPML → String Translation.

The WPML String Translation plugin includes a display filter at the top of the String Translation page to determine which strings to display. Many strings are already loaded into the String Translation table, ready for users to translate.

However, WPML does not automatically load every single string. If you can’t find a particular string you would like to translate, you can visit the WPML String Translation documentation‘s article about finding strings.

To translate a string, you must locate the string you would like to translate and click the + icon under the flag of the language you would like to translate it into.

You can save your translation by hitting the Enter or Tab keys on your keyboard or simply clicking out of the window. The Tab key allows you to switch between languages without having to click.

WPML String Translation also allows you to send strings to translators. you can click the checkboxes next to strings and select the languages from the list.

If you are the only translator on the website, you can click Translate selected content and finish translating from WPML → Translations. If you use other translators or a professional translation service, you can add the strings to the translation basket and assign the translation job to yourself or a local translator to translate the strings using the Advanced Translation Editor. You can also send the job to be translated by a translation service.

The plugin also includes a feature to delete strings. You can select the strings they want to remove and click Delete selected strings. To delete all the untranslated strings belonging to a certain domain, you can scroll down to Remove strings by domain and click Remove strings.

You can select the domains of strings you don’t need anymore and click Remove. The untranslated strings in these domains will no longer appear on the String Translation screen.

You can always add the strings again by going to WPML → Theme and Plugins Localization and choosing the plugin or theme and scanning it to make its strings available for translation again.

For themes and plugins coded in languages other than English, WPML may miscategorize the source language of strings. The plugin includes documentation on how to change the source language of individual strings and entire domains on the String Translation page.

You can also import translations from other sources and export your current translations using PO files. If you choose to export strings without your translations, the file extension will be .pot (Portable Object Template). If you choose to include translations, the extension would be .po. When you import translations, you must choose the language to import to.

Theme and plugin authors are encouraged to include a language configuration file in their code, which tells WPML which strings from the wp_options table to register for translation. This can save a lot of time for end users configuring multilingual sites.