Polylang & Divi: how to get a fully multilingual website (even if you use the Theme Builder)?

Polylang is THE free and easy solution for translate your WordPress site (and Divi). WPML did his time, and Weglot is pretty expensive... So, if we know a little about language, and we have a little time ahead of us, we can easily translate his site... In this article, I show you quickly how to install, set and translate your site's content with Polylang. Then we will go beyond the "content" and I will give you tips for translate the entire site that uses the Divi Builder Theme. Because YES, it's not that easy...

1 – Install and set Polylang

If you wish to offer your site in several languages, know that WordPress does not yet allow it natively. This feature is planned, but it's not for now. I advise you to opt for Polylang, the free version could be enough to start...

Then go to the tab Extensions > Add, to search for the "Polylang" extension, install and activate.

Upon activation, a accompanying screen appears to help you set up the plugin. The good news is that it's very simple and in a few minutes you can start translating your site...

1. Languages: add the languages you need: start with the original language, then add the languages you plan to translate. Click Continue.
2. Media: The media option allows you to translate images as well. This can be a good solution if you want your site to be fully translated. But it also means that you will have to add as many images as you have of languages.
3. Content: the third step allows you to define the language of the content already existing in your site. In all logic, this is your "default language", here the FR.
4. Finish by clicking on Continue.

There, the extension configuration is over! Nothing very complicated, right?

Did you know that? You can test Divi for free by visiting on this page and by clicking on "TRY IT FOR FREE"

2 - Translate Divi pages with Polylang

Now that the extension is installed and configured, you're going to have to work for it! And yes, you have to translate your content... This is not automatic, contrary to what allows Weglot extension…

But it's an evil for a good, because you won't have any expense... Let's see how to do it with Divi...

1. Home Page: Polylang has created a home page in the language you have added (here EN_GB). Click on the small translation flag to start translating this page.
2. Start by translating the title of this page into the appropriate language. For example: Home = Home (or Homepage).
3. Activate the Divi Builder if you wish.

4. When the manufacturer activates, options are offered, choose Clone existing page to duplicate an existing layout.
5. Find your page in the tab Your existing page. If you do not find it, then you can save (upstream) the layout of your home page in the Divi library, and then retrieve it in the tab Your saved layouts.
6. Then select your layout and import it.

7. Then, when you edit the page with Divi, Translate all texts and change the images if necessary. Save your changes.
8. Renew the work for each publication. To add a translation, click on the "+" next to the flag of your default language. This creates a new publication with the translation language flag.
9. Don't forget to translate all your content, even articles! Finally, you do not have to, you may decide not to translate certain publications if you wish.

3 – Translate site menus

Once your content is translated, you can translate the menus of your site. There too, nothing very complicated!

1. Go to tab Appearance > Menus, then click on Create a new menu.
2. Name your menu in the translated language, to find it easily.
3. Assign this menu to its ideal location. For example Main Menu English.
4. Validate by clicking Create menu.
5. Then place all the translated pages you want to show in this menu. Then save your changes.

6. Do the same for your other menus. For example, create a menu for the English footer if you have one in French.
7. Also place translated pages.
8. Set the right menu.

9. Always in the menu screen, open the screen options (top right).
10. Select the Language List option to make it appear.
11. A little down, you will see a new tab that allows you to add languages to your menu.
12. Place this in your menu and activate the options of your choice. Don't forget to save before leaving.

There you go! When you visit your site, you can easily page to page and language to language !

4 - Translate Divi Theme Builder Models with Polylang

You could see that it was quite simple to translate pages or articles from your site as well as menus... It's easy because Polylang allows you to translate the "content" of your publications... But if your site uses the Theme Builder, the story might get a little complicated...

4.1 – Error not to be made

You cannot create 2 templates for the same publication. It makes quite sense. This means that you cannot assign one Home Page template for the FR and another for the EN. In this case, it will be better to create a template that will be assigned for both the FR page and the EN page. Then choose "Specific pages" and assign all its language variants.

This works if the template uses the content (body) of each page only. But how to do it when each language sharing common elements as Header or Footer ?

This is where things get complicated!

When you create a footer (footer), you add elements that are necessarily attributed to a particular language. For example, if you add the footer menu, choose between the FR menu or the EN menu. So there will be a dissonance on one or the other of your translations...

4.2 - Translate common model elements into different languages

Unfortunately, the developers of Divi did not think of this hypothesis. There is no solution for translating parts common to all languages within a theme model of the Theme Builder.

We could play with categories, labels or other taxonomies to try to filter certain contents according to the language, but the concern is that this will generate the duplicate contentThis is not ideal for your Natural SEO.

I'm offering you a Ninja tip! Let's say it's a trick that allows to bypass the problem as strictly as possible with the options that are at our disposal, at the time I write this article.

The idea is to filter the display conditions according to the authors (and the language).

I'll give you a date at the tab. Accounts > Add. Just add a new account with another of your email addresses. Who has only one e-mail address nowadays?

By security measure, you can assign the authorship to this new account, rather than the Director role.

Next, go to Divi > Theme Builder to edit the model you want, for example: the Footer Global (it acts on the entire site).

Create the perfect footer within a section, then duplicate it and translate it according to your active languages. In the above screenshot, the pink footer displays the FR version and the blue footer displays the EN version.

Then take the following actions:

1. Edit first section settings (here the FR)
2. Go to tab Advanced > Conditions (I already told you about the conditions in my tuto to create an Advent calendar with Divi). Click on the "+" icon.
3. Choose the condition Author.

4. Choose the condition "display only if the author isHere you set the author of your default language (here Lycia = FR).
5. Then edit the settings of your other language sections and assign the appropriate authors (here, Fanny = EN). Renew the action with as many sections and authors as you have languages.

6. I assume you have already anticipated the continuation: return to the list of your publications and assign each author to his language. You can do this quickly, without entering each publication, by making a "quick change".
7. As you can see from my screenshot, each FR publication was attributed to author Lycia (in pink) and each EN publication was attributed to author Fanny (in blue). This will filter the display condition into the correct language.

And here's the result:

As you can see above, when visiting the page About in FR, the footer is in FR – when visiting EN, the footer has been translated.

4.3 – Translation of the dynamic elements within the models of the Theme Builder

There is one last question you can ask yourself: what happens if you create models composed of dynamic modules such as the module Title of post or the module Publish Content ?

Don't worry about it!

As you can notice in the screenshot above, all the dynamic elements that make up your Theme Builder models are correctly translated without action on your part.

For example, if you create a custom body within the template assigned to category archive pages, simply use the "Post Title" module to display the category name in its appropriate language. Same for the "Blog" module or all the dynamic modules offered by the builder.

Don't delay! Discover the theme Divi here !

5 - A Divi site fully translated with Polylang?

You saw in this article that it was possible to translate the entire site created with Divi using Polylang.

Admittedly, the story of the assignment via the author may seem a little drawn by the hair, but believe me, it is the easiest and cleanest way to translate all parts of your site. Let's say if the developers of Divi had thought of adding a language-specific condition, we wouldn't have had to create a new author to filter this...

Perhaps this will be taken into account in the version of 5 of DiviHopefully! But in the meantime, you have a solution to continue to exploit multilingual via Polylang and Divi.

PS: I am very curious to know if you use multilingual on your site, if so, with which plugin? Have you encountered any problems?... Anyway, say it in comment!

PPS: I am very confused, because when I read my tutorial, I see – and understand a little too late – that the first name Fanny is not appropriate for the English version of this article. You're sorry! It's better to laugh than to cry 🤣

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