WordPress Translation Plugins Review
I recently worked on a website project where I tested out some of the WordPress Translation plugins. Here are my thoughts on the plugins:
Ajax Translator Revolution
This is by far my favorite automatic translator tool. It is fast and has an awesome design integration. The flags to determine the language site at the very top of your page. If you click a flag, it immediately translates the page without making a big fuss. Some of the other translation tools take longer and don’t have as seamless as a process.
The only problem I had with this plugin, and this happens with them all, is that I wasn’t able to use Cufon for the fonts. The only way this translation tool will work is to use Google Webfonts. This is quite easy with a Google Fonts plugin.
The other difference between this one and the others I list below is that Ajax Translator Revolution costs $15. But for interface and speed, it is worth the money.
Website that utilizes Ajax Translator Revolution – www.avantiministries.com
qTranslate
With qTranslate, you do the translations yourself. What’s great about this plugin is that all translations are editable on one WordPress admin page. You just choose between different tabs per language. This makes things so convenient when adding page/post content in the different languages. This one also allows you to place the flags on the page or to use a widget. The widget shows flags, country names, or has a drop-down option.
Again, this is not an automatic translator, but is a great one to use if you have the translations professionally done and ready to go.
Website using qTranslate – www.tonyanthony.co.uk
Global Translator
Global Translator is another automatic translation tool that has you place some code on the page where you would like the particular language’s flag shown. The user then clicks that flag for an automatic translation. You get some nice URL’s that just list a two-letter code at the end of the URL signifying the language. This one is pretty seamless and it is free.
My beef with this plugin is that there is no sidebar widget that has a drop-down menu choice of languages. I don’t want a huge widget listing every flag or country name. I want a simple drop-down menu that doesn’t take up a lot of space. Didn’t get that with this plugin.
Website that utilizes Global Translator – www.glennecooper.com
Transposh
Transposh is a great combination of an automatic translation tool and one in which you make translations. It allows you to set up access so that anyone can go in and make updates to translations from the front end of the website. Once someone has made an update, the translation tool will use that word from that point forward.
I ended up not using this one because the option to fix translations was not working on everything on my site. I know some of that had to do with my use of Cufon fonts, but it seemed a bit cumbersome. But the idea is great and it made it easy to have non-computer literate people make updates to the translations from the front-end of the website. Also, I believe that a drop-down option was not available in the widget, which made my widget bigger than what I was hoping for the design of that particular website.
If you have used any other translation tools, please note those in the comments form below and describe your experience using that tool.
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