Multilingual – Translating Articles and News

Met meertalige content bied je nieuws en kennisartikelen aan in meerdere talen. Je schrijft een artikel één keer en voegt per taal een vertaling toe. Elke lezer ziet automatisch de juiste taal. Ontbreekt een vertaling, dan valt het systeem terug op een andere beschikbare taal. Zo bereik je iedereen in hun eigen taal, binnen één en hetzelfde artikel.

In this article:

• Tutorial: Translating articles (automatically)
• Setting your language as a user
• How does multilingual content work?
• Setting up languages for your environment
• Translating content per language
• Which content types and fields support multiple languages?
• Language priority and fallback
• Publishing
• Summary

Tutorial: Translating articles (automatically)

Want to know how to offer articles (Knowledge) and news (Portals) in multiple languages — and how AI can help you translate automatically? Check out the tutorial below.

Setting your language as a user

Users can set their preferred language in their personal settings. If you choose English as your default platform language, for example, knowledge base articles available in English will always be shown first. If an article is not available in the user's language, Embrace will display a notification. Read more about your personal settings in the documentation.

How does multilingual content work?

Multilingual content lets you offer the same content in multiple languages. This works in two steps: first, you set up which languages are available for your entire environment, then you add translations per content item.

Languages are configured centrally for your entire environment — not per article or item. You can adjust them later, but it's best to set them up correctly when you first configure your environment. Translation is optional: you don't need to translate every item into every language. If a translation is missing, the system will automatically display another available language. Read how this works at language priority and fallback.

Language options (such as the language picker) are only visible in the CMS and only appear once more than one language has been configured. If you work with a single language, nothing changes in your screens.

This guide covers multilingual content. Multilingual portals and widgets are still in development and are not included here; a separate guide will be published later.

Setting up languages for your environment

You configure the available languages centrally, for the entire environment.

1. Go to Content in the Portals module.
2. In the left menu, under Configuration, click Content settings.
3. In the Supported languages field, add the languages you want to offer.
4. Drag the languages into the desired order. This order determines the fallback priority.
5. Click Save. You will see the message "Content settings updated".

The following languages are available: 

• Social: This covers all buttons, labels and functionality in the platform. 
  • Nederlands (Dutch) 🇳🇱
  • Engels (English) 🇬🇧
  • Duits (German) 🇩🇪
• Content (Knowledge/Portals): This covers things like news and articles that you can translate (automatically) into another language. 
  • Nederlands (Dutch) 🇳🇱
  • Engels (English) 🇬🇧
  • Duits (German) 🇩🇪
  • Deens (Danish) 🇩🇰
  • Fins (Finnish) 🇫🇮
  • Fries (Frisian) 🇳🇱
  • Spaans (Spanish) 🇪🇸
  • Servisch (Serbian) 🇷🇸
  • Is a language missing that's relevant to you? Let us know via Service & Support! 🌍
    Note: the available languages cannot be configured by yourself.

Note: The Supported languages list is sorted: the order from top to bottom determines the fallback priority. Put the language you maintain most completely at the top. You can adjust the list later, but it's best to do this once when setting up your environment. Only add languages you will actually maintain; as soon as you add a second language, the language picker will appear throughout the CMS.

Translating content per language

Once more than one language is configured, a language picker appears at the top of overviews and in the editor — only in the CMS. This button shows the language you're currently viewing or editing (for example en-GB). Click it to open the language list and switch to another language.

1. Open or create a content item, such as a news article or a knowledge base article.
2. Use the language picker at the top to select the language you want to work in.
3. Fill in the multilingual fields for that language.
4. Switch to another language using the language picker and enter the translation there.
5. Repeat for each language you want to offer.

If the language picker is set to a language for which an item has no title, the overview will display the title in another available language, with that language shown as a prefix in square brackets. For example: if the picker is set to en-GB but only a Dutch title exists, you'll see "[NL] Dutch example title". If the picker is set to nl-NL, you'll see just "Dutch example title".

Note: Translation is optional. Languages you leave empty will automatically fall back to another language. Read how this works at language priority and fallback. Make sure to at least fill in the top language in your list completely. That language is the most important fallback.

Which content types and fields support multiple languages?

The table below shows which fields are stored multilingually per content type. The content types available depend on your environment. The exact field name in your editor may vary slightly.

Media and attachments

Media (images and files) has a multilingual Title. You set this per language in the Media browser: open a file, go to the Title field and enter a suitable title for each language.

When you use media as an attachment in your content, you choose per language which attachments are shown. The title displayed comes from the multilingual media title.

Note: Tags and Pages are not multilingual. These are used in one language for all languages.

Language priority and fallback

The language a user sees depends on their profile language in the suite. If content is available in that language, the user sees it in that language. If not, the system uses the fallback order: the order you configured in Supported languages.

The fallback works per field: the system goes through the languages in the configured order (top to bottom) and displays the first language in which that field has a value. If no language has a value, the field remains empty.

What a user sees depends on the situation:

Tip: Because the system falls back from top to bottom, you can prevent empty or unexpected results by always filling in the top language in your list completely.

Publishing

Publishing works per content item, not per language. When you publish an item, all completed translations are published at the same time. There is no separate publication status per language.

Note: Before publishing, make sure at least the top language is filled in — and preferably all the languages you offer.

Summary

• Multilingual content is a paid add-on; contact your account manager to enable it.
• Languages are configured centrally via Content settings > Supported languages (not per article); set this up when you first configure your environment.
• The order of languages determines the fallback priority; put your most important language at the top.
• Translation is optional per item and per language; missing translations fall back to another language, field by field.
• The language picker (only in the CMS) shows the language you're viewing or editing, for example en-GB, and appears as soon as two languages are configured.
• Which fields are multilingual depends on the content type; media titles are also multilingual.
• The user's profile language determines which language is shown first; after that, the fallback order applies.
• Publishing is per item, not per language.
• Multilingual portals and widgets are not yet available; a separate guide will follow.