Set up language translations for your site – OpenCities

This task can be undertaken by users with the following roles: OC Site Manager and OC System Administrator.

Many cities and councils have large multi-lingual communities, so you may find it essential to deliver your website in more than one language. There are three ways to do this:

Install a language pack so you can create content in multiple languages. Please note that you will need to manually create a page for each language.
Set up Google Translate for automatic translations. This is the quicker and easier option, but remember that we can't control the accuracy of Google's translations.
Use both options; install a language pack and manually translate important or popular pages (such as commonly used services) and set up Google Translate for the pages you haven't translated manually.

Remember that manually translating an entire site will take time and money, so, when making your decision, think about how you can best provide translations to your community.

Install a language pack

To get a language pack you will need to submit a ticket so we can install it for you. After that, you'll need to turn it on for each site you want to use it on. We offer language packs for the following languages:

English (Australia)
English (United States)
Vietnamese
Korean
German
Spanish (Latin America)
Russian
French
Tagalog
Chinese (Simplified)
Khmer
Malay
Māori
Tigrinya

Our language packs add support for characters used by a given language and add search and spellcheck functionalities for those languages (with the exception of simplified Chinese, which doesn't support spellcheck).

Some language packs include additional features:

Search stem support (to extend searches for a word to its derivatives so that, for example, searching "cook" will also find results for "cooking") – English, Spanish, German, and Russian
Synonym search support – English
Professional translation of labels and buttons – English and Spanish

To install and turn on a language pack:

Submit a support ticket telling us which language you want to install, so we can install it on your site. After we've installed the language pack, you'll need to turn it on for each site on which you want to use it.
From the main menu, go to More > Site Management > your site > Settings.
Select Language.
Under Content entry, check your newly installed language in the Available languages list.
Choose the rest of your language settings.
When you're finished, select Save Settings and Save.

Language settings

Use the following information to choose your Language settings:

Content entry
Available languages	Select the language you want to turn on from this list of installed language packs. Please note you can only uncheck a language from this list if it hasn't been used on any pages.
Default language	Set the default language for creating content by selecting it from the dropdown list. You can only change the default language if there are no pages using the default language.
Site language picker
Show picker	Toggle this to Yes to add a language picker to your site, so that site visitors can change the language of the site as they're using it.
Use Google Translate	Choose when you want to use Google Translate: Never: site visitors will not be able to use Google Translate through the language picker Always: site visitors will always be able to use Google Translate through the language picker Only when we don't have our translation for the page: if there is a manual translation that will be used, but the rest of the page (including headers, footers, and menus) won't be translated. This will result in a mix of languages. Only when the page contains languages other than what the visitor has chosen: your manual translation will be used and the rest of the page will be translated by Google Translate into the target language. We recommend using this option if you have manual translations so you don't end up with pages with multiple languages. Note: the languages available depend on what you have chosen in the Languages to include in picker setting. Additionally, please remember that we cannot control the accuracy of Google translations. We recommend checking the translated content to ensure it is accurate and hasn't caused any unexpected changes to the appearance of the page. You may want to include a disclaimer on your site, on an accessibility or policies page for example, if you choose to use Google Translate.
Languages to include in picker	This is a list of languages that will be included in your language picker. To add a language, select it from the Available languages dropdown menu then select Add. The available languages will appear under separate headings for Google Translate and site languages. Once you've added a language, you can use the four arrows icon to reorder them in the list, change the Display text that shows in the language picker, and change the language that the Display text is written in.
Redirect users to chosen language	When a visitor visits a page in another language and that page has a translation in the user's chosen language, you can redirect them to that translation. These are your options: Never: if a user clicks on a link to a page that's not in their chosen language, they will not be redirected to any available translations. Always: if a user clicks on a link to a page that's not in their chosen language, they will be redirected to any available translations. Only when the page they're on is using the default language: if a user clicks on a link to a page not in their chosen language, they will only be redirected if that link goes to a page in the site's default language.
Show languages in picker	Choose how the languages in your picker will appear. From the dropdown menu, select either In a dropdown list or As links.

Using Google Translate

To set up Google Translate for your site:

From the main menu, go to More > Site Management > your site > Settings.
Select Langauge.
Select when you want to use Google Translate from the Use Google Translate dropdown menu.
Choose the rest of your language settings, including which Languages to include in picker.
When you're finished, select Save Settings and Save.

Remember that we cannot control how Google will translate your content, or how pages will appear in different languages. We recommend testing popular pages in various languages to check for accuracy and appearance.

What else?

Now that you've set up different languages, you can start creating content: