One of the biggest advantages of the Hybrid theme over more than 90% of other WordPress themes is that it has been fully localized. What this means is that you can translate the theme into your language and never have to dig into the theme files to change the text.
I’m no expert on the translation process, but it should be fairly easy to do once you get the proper tools. You also need a basic understanding of how the theme works to translate it because not all text strings will be clear.
Tools you’ll need for translating
The only tool you need for translating a WordPress theme is Poedit. Follow the instructions on its website to install the tool.
It’s very simple. Once you have Poedit, you’ll be ready to translate.
How to translate the theme
To translate the theme, you need to find the file named en_EN.po located in the hybrid theme folder. Open it.
From this point, you must go through every line of text and translate it to your language.
You must first click the text string you want to translate. Then, you type it in your language at the bottom of the screen.
How to save your translation
Once you’ve translated the theme, you’ll want to save it two times. Once as a .po file and once as as .mo file. You must save this according to your language code. A list of language codes can be found at WordPress in your language.
For example, English is en_EN, so I would save the translation as en_EN.po first. Then, I would save it as en_EN.mo
How to use theme translations
To use a translation, you first need to add the .mo and .po files to your hybrid theme folder.
Then, you’ll need to make sure your wp-config.php file matches your language files.
For example, if using a French translation, you’ll need to add the fr_FR.po and fr_FR.mo files to your theme folder. Then, you’ll want to set your language in wp-config.php, like this:
define ('WPLANG', 'fr_FR');Save that file.
Now you can use the theme in your language!
You’ll also want to go to your WordPress dashboard and save any Hybrid Settings because those might have changed.
Other Resources
- WordPress in your language (has a list of language codes)
- Translating WordPress
- Installing WordPress in your language
- Localizing plugins with Poedit (good for themes too)