Translating Genesis and StudioPress Themes

You can use any third-party plugin you’d like to translate your site. Here are a few we recommend.

• Loco Translate: https://wordpress.org/plugins/loco-translate/
  This free plugin allows you to translate text strings in themes and plugins.
• Polylang: https://wordpress.org/plugins/polylang/
  This free plugin (which also includes paid add-ons) allows you to create a multilingual site with translations for posts, pages, media, categories, post tags, menus, widgets, custom post types, etc.. RTL languages are supported and a language switcher is available.
• WPML: https://wpml.org/
  This paid plugin allows you to create a multilingual site with translations for posts, pages, media, categories, post tags, menus, widgets, custom post types, etc. RTL languages are supported and a language switcher is available.

  See the following tutorial for instructions on how to translate Genesis using WPML: https://wpml.org/documentation/theme-compatibility/translate-genesis-framework-different-languages-using-wpml/

Poedit is a free, easy to use app that allows you translate text strings in your child theme.  

Before you begin, download Poedit from https://poedit.net/download and install it on your computer. Then download the child theme from your My StudioPress or WP Engine account and unzip it on your computer.

Step 1: Use Poedit to Translate the Theme’s .pot File

Open the Poedit app and select the Create New Translation option, as shown below.

 Next, open the theme’s unzipped folder and then open the languages folder located inside. Select the .pot file (example: genesis-sample.pot).

 Choose the language you’d like to use.

 Highlight and translate each text string as needed.

 Step 2: Save Your Changes

After you’ve translated the text strings, save the file. Poedit will automatically create and name new files with the correct locale name which is based on the language you chose.

 Now you will see 2 new files in the child theme’s languages folder – a .mo file and a .po file.

Step 3: Upload the .po and .mo files to your server

Access your site via FTP or your host’s file manager and navigate to /wp-content/themes/your-theme/languages. Then upload the .mo and .po files to the languages folder.

For example, if you’re using the Cyberduck FTP client (as shown in the image below), you’ll click the Action button and select the Upload option.

 See our FTP Guide to learn how to connect to your site via FTP.

Step 4: Set the Default Language for your WordPress® Site ¹

Finally, log into your WP-Admin dashboard and go to Settings > General and select the language you’d like to use on your site.

• You can also add various Genesis code snippets to your child theme’s functions.php file to translate specific strings of text.
• See the WordPress Codex for more details and options for translating WordPress and themes.