Translations and Localisation For all Themes

One of the more popular feature requests is proper localisation in themes and I am pleased to say that we now have fully localised themes.

Localisation is the art of making something suitable for different regions. In terms of WordPress themes it is making sure that all of the text in the theme can be easily translated.

Localisation

WordPress has a system for localising themes which involves placing the text (strings) into a special command so that it can be translated when required. Our themes have used the localisation strings commands almost from the start, however we haven’t always supplied the files required to do the translations.

These files are now included in the theme directories. There is more information on how to translate our themes on the localisation support page.

Where possible I have automated the system for generating the translation templates. What this means is:

• Future themes will be localised as soon as they are released
• Changes to existing themes will be mirrored as soon as the themes are updated

In both cases this means the themes will always be ready for translations and you won’t have the wrong language on your site for too long.

RTL languages

Many languages are written RTL (Right to Left) and these need special changes to their themes. WordPress gets around this by including a file called RTL.css when a right to left language is being used. However, what many developers fail to understand, is that the RTL languages generally need more customisation than just aligning text to the right. The entire website changes sides. Sidebars move from right to left (and vise versa), navigation swaps to the other side, everything moves around, essentially creating a mirrored version of the website.

Our themes now come included with this RTL.css file. This is another system that has been automated which means that when new themes are designed, or when changes are made to existing themes, they will still look correct when you update your files.

The RTL.css functionality is still quite new so may not work in all situations. If you find any problems please show me your website and I will look into them for you.

Ready Now

These changes have been applied to all themes and they are ready to download from the accounts control panel now.

There has been lots of work put into making sure your content is suitable for your local audience. This is just one more thing that makes Pro Theme Designs themes that little bit more professional.