Translating TYPO3 websites

A practitioner's overview of website localization in TYPO3

If you are looking to get your TYPO3 based website translated into multiple languages you have come to the right place! At Orange Translations we have years of experience in doing exactly that.

Language capabilities of TYPO3

As a web content management system, TYPO3 has the capability of handling multiple language versions of a site. Overall it works very well. Over the years we have never experienced any major difficulties, even with non-Western languages such as Chinese or Japanese.

You can add and manage foreign language content using either the one-tree or two-tree concept. Most projects we've been involved with use a one-tree approach, where there is a single page tree on which each page can be created in each language. It provides a clear, parallel structure, which is an advantage for future website updates. At the same time, TYPO3 offers the flexibility of hiding any pages that do not exist in a certain language (also see Basic setup of localized website on typo3.org).

Until recently, localizing TYPO3 websites has been a rather labor-intensive process, as the translations for each content element had to be manually entered into the TYPO3 backend. Although we have become quite efficient over the years in doing this work we are happy that more advanced solutions are now available.

TYPO3 Localization Manager

The TYPO3 Repository contains several extensions that facilitate the translation process. The most recent is the TYPO3 Localization Manager (l10nmgr) Version 3.4.0, which was introduced in July 2012.

Localization Manager offers a module for online translation as well as various interfaces for exporting & importing translatable content. This means that translators can work in their regular environment, using computer assisted translation (CAT) tools that they are already familiar with, for example SDL Trados, Wordfast or Across. After the translations are complete, the content can be re-imported right back into the TYPO3 environment (also see Press Release "Localization Manager" 27-July-2009)

From development to implementation

Orange Translations is one of the sponsors supporting the team of 5 developers that have worked on the Localization Manager since 2007. Also, we were one of the first translation companies to start using the tool in real-life website localization projects.

Questions?

Are you planning to localize a TYPO3 website? Then we'd be delighted to hear from you. For a free consultation please contact: