Automatic translation

Automatic translation is available for users when viewing a page that has the Translate Card on it. With the Translate Card present on a page, users can quickly get a version of a page in any of the available languages. ThoughtFarmer uses Microsoft Translator to provide automatic translation. Due to the limitations of machine translation, users should know that while the auto-translate feature gives a sense of what the page is about, it should not be relied upon for detailed and accurate translation.



Automatic translation is also available in edit mode to help create multilingual pages. (This page explains how admins can enable automatic translation. To learn more about using the feature, see Create multilingual page.)

Configure the Translate Card

Administrators can choose whether users must manually request an auto-translation when they visit a page that is not in their default language, or whether the Translate Card will translate the page automatically.



To select the type of auto-translation:

1. Go to the Admin panel: User interface section > Translation Card page.
2. Select the radio button for the desired Translate Card behavior:
   1. Manual (Recommended): Users must click Translate in the Translate Card to trigger auto-translation.
   2. Automatic: Auto-translation happens automatically when a user visits a page that is not in their preferred language and that has a Translate Card on it.
3. Click Save.

Select available translation languages

Microsoft Translator provides auto-translation into many languages. Users can choose to see auto-translations into languages other than their default language in ThoughtFarmer. (To learn more, see the heading "Translate to a language that is not your preferred language" on Auto-translate a page.)

Administrators can choose which languages are available to select from for auto-translation. (This does not apply to auto-translation in edit mode. To configure those languages, see Configure Languages.)

To select available auto-translate languages.

1. Go to the Admin panel: User interface section > Translation card page.
2. Under Translation language list, select checkboxes for languages that you want to be available for auto-translation. Deselect checkboxes for languages that you do not want to be available.
   
   
    
3. Click Save.

Enable automatic translation in edit mode

This configuration setting controls the automatic translation capability found in edit mode. Auto-translation in edit mode allows users to create multilingual pages using automated translation. In edit mode, content can only be translated into the languages that have been configured on the Admin Languages page. See Configure languages.


 

1. Go to the Admin panel: Advanced section > Configuration settings page.
2. Type "translation" in the Search config settings box to refine the results, and then find the config setting automatic.translation.enabled.
3. Click on the Value column beside the config setting, select the true button, and click Save.

Once enabled, pages in edit mode will have a globe icon beside the word Translate in the top right. When you click on Translate a menu pops up with options to auto-translate to only the enabled languages. See Configure languages to learn how to enable languages.