If you want to create a multi-language website and use the Language Switcher dropdown, please see the Create a multilingual website article.

In this section, you will learn how to translate your site into your native language. The theme is ready for localization via .po/.mo files.

Translate the theme using Loco Translate

Loco Translate is a free WordPress plugin offering in-browser editing of WordPress translation files. This is especially useful for translating your WordPress theme or plugins into a language other than the one it originally comes in (which is typically English).

Follow the steps below to install and configure the plugin:

1. Install and activate Loco Translate

Navigate to Plugins > Add New and search for the plugin Loco Translate. From there, select Install Now, and then click on Activate to get the plugin ready for use on your website.

2. Set the site default language

Navigate to Settings > General in your WordPress dashboard. Then, scroll down where the Site Language dropdown menu is.  The language you see at the top of the dropdown menu is the language your site is currently set at. Select your preferred language from the dropdown menu and click on Save Changes.

3. Translate the theme

Navigate to Loco Translate > Themes and click on the active Sway theme.

Notice that the theme is ready to be translated into language defined earlier in Settings > General. Simply click the language link and check with the language editor page.

To start translating, click on the word or phrase you would like to translate.

Beginner’s guide for Loco Translate. This guide will walk you through adding your own translations to a theme.

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Manually translating the theme:

1. Download POEdit: https://poedit.net/download
2. Find the folder languages of the theme (wp-content/themes/sway/languages/).
3. Duplicate the sway.pot file.
4. Rename your copy of sway.pot example: fr_FR.po for French, it_IT.po for Italian or de_DE.po for Deutch.
5. Open your file with POEdit software.
6. Translate your file.
7. In File click on Preferences and tick “Automatically generate mo”.
8. Save your file.
9. Upload both .po/.mo files to the theme languages folder (wp-content/themes/sway/languages/) using a FTP client.
10. Navigate to Dashboard > Settings > General and set the Site Language.
11. Check results.