Important Information
Our translation feature plugs into a third-party translation tool on the back-end and we do not make guarantees as to the accuracy or tone of the translation. We recommend that you have a human review the translation before you make the alternate language version of the site visible if you're concerned about accuracy.
The translation feature never automatically syncs from the English side to the alternate language side since we don't want to accidentally overwrite any changes you've made. However, our re-translation tools (read more below) make it easy to sync manually as needed.
By default we keep the site hidden when you initially translate it. You can adjust the visibility settings of the languages on the translations page by clicking the eye icon next to each language and on the Site Settings page > Domain tab for that individual language variant.
Additionally, the translated navigation tabs are often longer than the English versions and may push the navigation bar off the right side of the page. You'll want to check for that, and edit your page names, and possibly nest pages on the alternate language sites to avoid this.
Overview
On the Site Settings page of your site, you can access Run's translation feature. Translations can only be run from the default language version of your site (in most cases, that's English).
Run's tool will make a complete copy of your site in whatever languages you select. While most areas of the site will be translated, certain details, like social media feeds, paid for disclaimers, and event dates will not.
Re-translation
Once you've run your initial translation, you can use our re-translation tools to continue translating and syncing content from your default language version to your alternate language versions. Re-translation, in addition to re-translating blocks, can also sync site structure, page structure, and other elements of your site that have changed.
Our re-translation tools will not allow re-running translations in situations where the content on both the default language and alternate language side have not been updated since the previous translation.
Re-translation, like translation, only runs in one direction: from your default language version to your alternate language versions. For example, if you tweak some language on the alternate language side, then run a re-translation on that content, it will be wiped out by a new translation coming from the default language side.
Re-translated blocks will entirely replace the block content (text, images, and settings) on the side being translated to - it will NOT automatically detect updates within specific blocks and only update those specific edits.
Full Site Re-translate: At your default language version > Site Settings > Translations, on the bottom right, click the Full Site Re-translate button. This popup will show you which content has been updated since your last translation (the updates could be either on the English or alternate language side). If you just want to re-translate and resync everything, click the Select All button on the top of the popup. Otherwise, you can select only the things you want to sync. Whenever you're ready, choose Save at the bottom and the re-translation will run.
Page or Block re-translate: For a simpler and more limited experience, we also have a tool to translate new or edited Pages and Blocks individually. This can be found on the bottom left of your screen when you select the Page Content tab on any give page for pages, and when you're looking at the Block settings sidebar, for blocks. As with other translation features, this is only available on the default language version of your site.
Translation credits
Paid sites receive 2500 credits per month (they do not roll over). For context, a full translation of a small to medium-sized site to a single language should cost around 50 - 350 credits, so you're unlikely to overrun the limit in the absence of aggressive use of the tool. If you overrun your limit and would like to purchase more credits, please reach out to us at [email protected].
Unpaid sites receive 500 credits total which should be just enough to give the tool a test run.
Which content and settings are shared between languages?
For the most part, translation variants are separate, so any editing you do to one language variant will not affect the others. That includes text, images, and structure. It also includes news articles, events, and any other content on the site.
However, certain setting are shared between language variants including:
Color palette (on the Design Settings sidebar)
Site-wide Custom Code (on the Site Settings page)
Social Media links (on the Site Settings page)
Linking to your alternate language sites
By default, our system will put a small language selection menu at the top right of your site once you have any alternate languages visible. However, you can also manually create links to your alternate language site, by selecting the Page option on our link creation popup.
Some of our users like to create a new Page on the Pages sidebar with the name of an alternate language like Español, and directly link that page to the alternate language version. This will be more visible than our relatively unobtrusive language menu if you want it to stand out more.
Alternatives to our translation tool
If you prefer to just put alternate language content within the context of your website rather than creating a copy in another language, here are some options. We do not currently allow AI translation to be used for this, so you'll need to do your own translations here. However, you can use our page and block duplication features to match the structure of your primary language pages.
Add an alternate language page and include it in your menu. Then just fill that page with your alternate language content.
Add multiple alternate language pages under a single parent page
Add alternate language pages under their English equivalent page
For more information on adding and nesting pages, click here.