SharePoint translation UI

If the list name created by Sharepoint is in Chinese, it will not be automatically translated when you switch to English.

 

In a previous post I showed the possibility to set another language for the UI and how to export the names of list, content types, etc to translate these to a target language.

If we want to translate not only the default UI elements (done with language packs) or content (done with variations) but also user-specified text such as field names, site name, etc. we can export these terms to a translation file.

 

In This screenshot we want to change the site title and some of the document library names.

Exporttranslations

By clicking export we get a XML file with the strings that need to be translated. A simple tool translators can use is the resx Editor (link ).

There are lots of empty fields, this is because these fields are actually empty, the description of a content type for example can be empty in Dutch while it is filled in English.

After we saved our changes you can import the resx file from the site settings:

 

Result:

 
 

Site title and navigation items

When we change the name of the document library "project named enten" to project documents we only change the title of the list. this won't change the navigation title in the quick launch or top navigation.

To change this or the site title we must simply have to set the current language to the target language and change the field we want to change, e.g. the site title or navigation. when we switch back to the source language we will see that the page is translated.

When we make an export after this translation in the UI we will see that SharePoint added the following row to the resx file:

It isn' t possible to add a string with the key pair before each packet has been written into your own _webtitle to a resx file and fill the translated site title as value without changing it in the UI first.

On request some sample XML:

<Data name = "your website has been wrongly formed into your website _ webtitle">
<Value> archive </value>
<Comment> single line of text </comment>
</Data>

More info about the resx XML Schema click here