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A translation is a second version of your store’s own wording in another language, kept alongside the original rather than replacing it. Four kinds of record can be translated: products, categories, collections and option types. Products, categories and collections each keep their own name, description and web address in every language your store sells in, and an option type keeps its label. A shopper reading the store in German therefore sees a German product name, a German category in the menu and a German web address. Translating matters wherever you sell across a language border, because a shopper reads faster, trusts more and buys sooner in their own language. The translated web address matters for a separate reason: search engines index it, and shoppers read it before they click. The Translations screen does two jobs. It reports the proportion of each record kind that has already been translated into each language, and it is where the gaps get filled. A record can also be translated from its own page, such as the product form, which is the quicker route when you are already editing it. To manage translations, navigate to Products → Translations in the admin dashboard.
A language only reaches shoppers when a market offers it. Check your Markets before translating, so the work goes to the countries that will see it.

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Reviewing Translations

The Translations screen, with coverage per language above the list of records The top of the screen is a coverage table with one row per language, each named in its own language with its code beside it. Below it, Records lists one row per record with a column per language. A dash means nothing has been translated, a count such as 2/5 means two of that record’s five fields are filled, and a green checkmark means every field is done. The dropdown above the list chooses which kind of record you are working on. Changing it changes the coverage table too, so the figures always answer how much of that one kind is translated rather than how much of the store.
Coverage counts only records translated in full. A product with its name translated but its description still in the original language adds nothing to Translated, even though the work has started. The Records list is where part-finished work shows up.

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What Can Be Translated

Four kinds of record carry translations, and the fields differ by kind. Slug and Permalink are the record’s web address in that language. Description is rich text, with its own toolbar for bold, lists and links.
An option type and its values carry separate labels, and coverage counts only the option type’s own. Translating the label of an option type called Size can therefore show it as fully translated while Small, Medium and Large are still in the original language. Check the values in the editor before treating an option type as finished.
Translating a record never changes what the dashboard shows. The admin always displays the original wording, whatever languages a record has been translated into, and the translated wording appears only on the storefront, to shoppers in a market that offers that language. Size stays Size for your team while a German shopper reads Größe.
A category’s Full name is its name with its parents in front of it, so a Kitchen category sitting under Home reads Home → Kitchen. The store maintains it, so it is not a field to compose by hand.

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How to Translate a Record

A record can be translated from its own page or from the Translations screen. Both routes open the same editor, which shows the original wording in one column and the language you are filling in beside it, and both save one language at a time.

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From the Record’s Own Page

The Translations card on a product, showing how many locales are translated Products, categories, collections and option types each carry a Translations card or a Manage translations button on their own page. This is the quicker route if you are already working on a record and have the translations at hand.
  1. Open the record and click Manage translations.
  2. Pick the language at the top of the editor.
  3. Fill in the fields beside the original wording.
  4. Click Save translations.
The translation editor, with the original wording beside the language being filled in The editor stays open after saving, so several languages can be done in one sitting.
The Translations card appears only once a record exists. A product, category or collection has to be saved before it can be translated.

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From the Translations Screen

Working from the Translations screen suits translating a batch of records in one sitting, because the coverage figures show how much is left as you go.
  1. Choose the kind of record from the dropdown above Records.
  2. Find the record, using the search box, and click its name.
  3. Fill in the fields and click Save translations.
Back on the list, the record’s cell for that language shows how many of its fields are now filled, or a green checkmark once they all are.
Translating a product’s name fills its slug in for you, so the translated address follows the translated name without being typed. Changing the name later does not rewrite a slug already in use.
A record’s own Translations card counts languages it has been started in, while the Translations screen counts fields. The same product can therefore read as one language translated on its page and 2/5 on the translations screen, and both are correct: one language has been started, and two of its five fields are filled.

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How to Import and Export Product Translations

Import and Export at the top of the Translations screen move translations as a CSV file. Exporting gives you a file to send to a translator, and importing loads their finished work back into the store.
Import and export cover products only. Categories, collections and option types are translated in the editor, whichever route you take to it.
Export offers Current filter or All records, and prepares the file in the background. The file carries one row per product per language, with these columns:
  • slug - Which product the row is for. It is the identifier rather than a field to translate, so a translated slug cannot travel in the file.
  • locale - Which language the row holds, such as de.
  • name, description, meta_title and meta_description - The translated wording.
Import takes the file back:
  1. Click Import, drop the file in or browse for it, and set the Column separator your file uses. Download CSV template gives an empty file in the right shape.
  2. Click Continue and match each column to the field it holds. Slug and Locale are required.
  3. Start the import.
The export only writes a row where a product already has at least one translated field in that language, so it is not a blank worksheet of everything still to do. A product with nothing translated yet has to be added to the file by hand, as a row carrying its original slug and the locale being translated into, before a translator has anything to fill in.

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What Shoppers See

A translation reaches the storefront as soon as it is saved. A shopper browsing in German sees the translated category name in the menu, the translated product name on the card and the page heading, and the translated slug in the address. The original address still opens the same page, shown in the shopper’s own language. A field left untranslated falls back to the original language rather than appearing blank, which is why a half-translated product reads as a mix of the two.
A product whose Meta title is untranslated keeps its original browser tab title and search listing even when its name is translated. Fill in the meta fields on anything you want found in that language.

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Further Reading