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Translating Your Template's Words

Translate your Knowledge Base template words per language under Settings > Languages > Help center text. Some languages are auto-filled; others need manual translation.

Rebecca Thompson
Updated by Rebecca Thompson
3 min read
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Translate your template's words so your customers have the full experience of getting support in their own language.

When you add a new language, we don't automatically save translated the template words your Knowledge Base shows (like See more results, Table of Contents, etc).
These are set per language under Settings > Languages > Help center text.

Filling in Translated Template Words

When you add a new secondary language we have a translation for, we'll fill these words in for you if we have them to make it easier for you.

A notice under Your languages tells you which languages were filled in. They save with the rest of your changes when you click Save changes, and you can edit them under Help center text afterwards.

Your languages with Deutsch added and a notice saying the help center text has been filled in for Deutsch, with an Edit text button
Language support for multilingual default template words

We have translations for Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian (Bokmål), Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. Any other language stays in English until you translate its words yourself, using the steps below.

We only fill in a language the first time you add it, and never over words you've already written. If you remove a language and add it back, it keeps your wording.

Translating the Words Yourself

  1. Pick the language you want to edit from the top left-hand menu
    Language dropdown menu in HelpDocs showing available languages with a search bar highlighted in pink.
  2. Head to Settings > Languages > Help center text
  3. Under Find text, you'll see which language you're editing, for example "This is for your DE version."
    Find text search field with a note indicating it is for the DE version
  4. Type your translation in the box beside the English phrase. Leave a box empty to keep the English wording for that phrase.
    Help center localization fields showing English phrases translated into German, with one box highlighted in pink
  5. Click Save changes.

Repeat for each language. Your default language works the same way, so you can change the English wording too. See Changing the Language in Common Phrases.

For a language we have a translation for, Reset to defaults puts our translation back in every box. Nothing changes until you click Save changes. Use it if you added a language before we started filling them in automatically.

Words in a Custom Template

If you use a custom HTML template, you can add words of your own under Your own text at the bottom of Help center text. Show them in your template with {{i18n "custom_1"}}, {{i18n "custom_2"}}, and so on, then translate each one per language the same way as above. Reset to defaults leaves these alone.

Why is some text still in English?
  • The language isn't one we have a translation for. Translate its words yourself under Help center text.
  • You're editing the wrong language. Check the language under Find text matches the one you're looking at, and switch it from the menu at the top left if not.
  • It's your brand name, navigation, or banner. Translate those under Brand text.
  • It's an article. Article content is translated separately. See Translating Your Docs.
  • You haven't saved. Changes on these pages only apply once you click Save changes.

For regional variants such as UK English or Canadian French, and for right-to-left languages such as Arabic, see Right-to-left and regional languages.

Multilingual content is optimized for search automatically. To learn how this works, or to report a search problem in another language, see Multilingual search.

For the language limits on each plan, see Plan Language Limits.

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Previous Support for Right-to-left and Regional Languages

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