How to Translate Themes and Plugins Using Loco Translate

What Loco Translate does

Loco Translate helps you change the English text that appears on your travel website. You can translate buttons, menus, labels, trip details, and other fixed text without editing code.

A plugin is an add-on that gives WordPress a new feature. WP Travel Engine is a plugin that adds travel booking features to your website.

What you will need before you start

Step 1: Install and activate Loco Translate

Installing Loco Translate adds the translation tool to your WordPress website. You will find it in the left sidebar of your WordPress dashboard after you activate it.

The translation tool is now ready. Next, choose the part of your website you want to translate.

Step 2: Choose your theme

A theme controls how your website looks. It controls things such as your page layout, footer, menus, and button styles.

For example, if you run a trekking website and want the footer and buttons to appear in Italian instead of English, start by choosing your theme in Loco Translate.

Your theme language is now set up in Loco Translate. The next screen shows the text you can translate.

Step 3: Translate text from your theme

Loco Translate shows a list of text strings from your theme files. A text string is a short piece of text, such as a button label or copyright notice.

Use the Filter Translations field to search for a specific phrase. For example, search for © Copyright to find the copyright notice. If you want to translate Check Availability on your day tour pages into Italian, search for that phrase here.

Translate each additional string you need. Search for the phrase, enter the translation, and save it. When you have saved a few translations, check them on your website before continuing.

Step 4: Check your translation on the website

Changing the site language lets WordPress use the translation you created. The front end is the part of your website that visitors see. The WordPress dashboard is the part you use to manage the website.

Repeat the translation and checking process for every string you want to change. Your visitors will see the saved translations when WordPress uses that language.

Step 5: Translate WP Travel Engine

WP Travel Engine is the plugin that adds travel features to WordPress. The same translation process works for this plugin.

For example, if you run multi-day package tours, you can translate your booking form labels into Spanish. Latin American customers can then understand what information each field asks them to enter.

The WP Travel Engine text is now ready for translation. Use the search field to find the labels your travelers see.

Translate specific WP Travel Engine text

Follow the steps in Step 4 to change the site language and check the translation on the front end. Look at the booking form and confirm that the labels your customers need are translated.

Keep placeholder codes unchanged

Some text contains special codes such as %s, %d, or %1$s. The plugin replaces these codes with real information, such as a customer name, date, price, or booking number.

Leave each code exactly as it appears in the original text. Do not translate it, change its capital letters, or move it to a different format.

For example:

• Original: Hello, %s! Your booking number is %d.
• Correct translation: Hola, %s! Su número de reserva es %d.

If you change these codes, the plugin may not be able to insert the customer name or booking number. The text may display incorrectly, or part of your booking process may stop working. Keeping the codes unchanged lets your translations work with the real details from each booking.