Introducing languages and translation

Changing the language of your platform

You can change the default language of your platform by going to Admin > Settings > Edit organisation and choosing a language from the drop-down menu. 

This will change what language your users see by default. 

Changing the language for an individual user

There are several ways of changing the language for an individual user in the platform. It can be done by the admin or by the user themselves.

As an admin

Go to Users > User Select a language from the drop-down menu. Click Submit.

 

As an admin uploading users

When uploading a CSV of users, use the language code column to specify the language. 

Language	Code	Language	Code
Arabic	ar	Italian, IT	it
Bulgarian	bg	Japanese	jp
Cambodian (Khmer)	km	Korean	ko
Chinese, Simplified	zh	Latvian	lv
Chinese, Traditional	zh_TW	Lithuanian	lt
Croatian	hr	Malaysian	ms
Czech	cz	Norwegian	no
Danish	da	Polish	pl
Dutch	nl	Portuguese, Brazilian	pt_BR
English	en	Portuguese, European	pt
English, British	en_GB	Romanian	ro
Estonian	et	Russian	ru
Finnish	fi	Slovakian	sk
French, Canadian	fr_CA	Spanish, European	es
French, European	fr	Spanish, Latin American	es_LA
German	de	Swedish	sv
Greek	el	Thai	th
Hebrew	he	Turkish	tr
Hindi	hi	Ukrainian	uk
Hungarian	hu	Vietnamese	vi
Indonesian	id	Welsh	cy

As a user

1. Click on your profile picture and select View your profile. 2. Click the pencil icon to edit your profile. 3. Select a language from the drop-down menu and click Save.

How to adjust translations

Each piece of text displayed in the platform has a translation string which dictates what text is displayed. You can change what this text is, adjusting how text is translated and to customise your platform. Here’s how:

Go to Admin Area > Settings > Services > Translations, tick the checkbox and click Save.

Select the language that you would like to adjust.

Use the search bar below to find the text you want to change.

Enter your replacement text in the Custom Translation box and click Submit.

Using MLang to translate learning experience and playlist titles

MLang (short for multi-language) allows the platform administrators to include various languages within learning experience and playlist metadata (e.g. titles, descriptions, instructions), as well as org-specific settings such as terms and conditions.

Note: MLang must be enabled on your platform before you can do this. If it isn't available for you, contact the support team to get it switched on.

MLang can be used with various platform elements:

• Organisation name
• Learning experience title, description, completed message
• Level group name
• Level name, description
• Object - Name, description, discussion point
• Gate question and text
• Badge name and description
• Playlist name and description
• Custom field set name and description
• Custom field - name and description
• CPD requirements name and description
• Email template name, subject, and content

The platform looks for MLang strings when converting the text to the user’s language. The strings look like this:

{mlang LANG_CODE}CONTENT{mlang}

{mlang	tells the platform that this is the start of a string.
LANG_CODE	is the short code that relates to the language e.g. fr for French.
CONTENT	is your content for this language e.g. a French translation of the title of the learning experience.
{mlang}	tells the platform that this is the end of the string. All four elements are required for each MLang string.

For example:

{mlang en}This title is in English{mlang}

The platform's AI translation tool makes MLang easy to implement. Check it out here.

Multiple MLang strings in one field

You can join strings together for multiple language content in the same field like this:

{mlang LANG_CODE_A}CONTENT for LANG_CODE_A{mlang}{mlang LANG_CODE_B}CONTENT for LANG_CODE_B{mlang} 

For example:

{mlang en}This title is in English{mlang}{mlang de}Dieser Titel ist in deutscher Sprache{mlang}

An English language user would see ‘This title is in English’, whilst a German language user would see ‘Dieser Titel ist in deutscher Sprache’.

Comma separated LANG_CODEs

You can use multiple comma-separated LANG_CODEs in a single string, like this:

{mlang LANG_CODE_A, LANG_CODE_B}CONTENT{mlang} 

This will surface the same content for both of the languages.

Using ‘other’ LANG_CODE

The 'other' LANG_CODE is used for everything not featured in the other strings. So, if a user’s language was set to Japanese, the following would surface the 'other' CONTENT:

{mlang en, de}English and German content{mlang}{mlang other}All other languages{mlang}

If you don’t use 'other' and the user’s language is not included in the MLang strings, the platform will surface the organisation's default language if this is available as an MLang string.

In this example, if the organisation language is English, and the user’s language is set to French, then the English MLang string will be used:

{mlang en}This title is in English{mlang}{mlang de}Dieser Titel ist in deutscher Sprache{mlang}

If the organisation language is not present in the MLang strings, and 'other' is not used, the platform will surface the first {mlang} string.

In this example, if the organisation language is English, and the user’s language is set to French, then the German MLang string will be used because it is first:

{mlang de}Dieser Titel ist in deutscher Sprache{mlang}{mlang nl}Deze titel is in het Nederlands geschreven{mlang}

We recommend that you always include the organisation language as the first MLang string unless your content is used explicitly by language users.

Testing

Here is a good test you can use as a learning experience title to familiarise yourself with the process:

{mlang en}MLang test - English{mlang}{mlang zh}MLang Test - Simplified Chinese{mlang}{mlang fr_ca}MLang Test - French Canadian{mlang}{mlang other}MLang Test - other{mlang}

Note: Even in the admin section, the full MLang strings will only display when you are editing them. For example, if you’re in the learning experiences menu in the admin section, the titles of learning experiences listed will only display in the language you’re currently using. If you want to see the full MLang string and edit it, you will need to open the learning experience’s settings and look at the title field.