Add Global Translation Terms

1. Go to Tools > Translation Manager.
   

2. Add a language, for example Spanish.
   

3. Add terms and phrases to be translated.
   The translation database shares terms across all projects.
   You can use codes for the Key field of your Terms like '#stop' or '#welcome_screen_info' (the # is just for convention, it is not a special character), to help manage longer instruction sets.

Add Component Translation Terms

Alternatively, you can right-click on the Root Container of a window and select Translations. The Translatable Terms panel will provide all the terms on the window. This can provide a central place to manage all the translations associated with the window.

The difference between the Global and the Component translations is that the Component translations are stored on the component instead of in the translation manager's database.

Selecting a Language in the Client

One way to switch between languages you've set up is to add a Language Selector Component to your project and open a client. Now your users can move easily between languages. See Switching the Current Language for more options.

There is no binding involved because the languages are compared directly against the Translation Manager database. All matching terms are automatically translated.

To export all the terms from a window

1. Right-click on an existing window's Root Container and select Translations.
   The Translatable Terms panel is displayed on top of the Property Editor.

2. Select all the available Component Terms and mark the terms for translation by clicking the Earth icon with the green plus sign. Note: the list of available terms are based on the components in the Root Container. If you have no available terms, try adding a label or button to the window.
   

3. Select Tools > Translation Manager.

4. Export the terms by selecting the Export Terms icon on the right of the Translation Manager.

   

5. Select the Folder location, Base file name, and the appropriate Languages.

6. In the Format drop-down select either PROPERTIES or XML, they both behave the same. The only difference is that the XML format supports UTF-8 encoding directly.
   A person can now translate the XML file directly and the XML file can be imported back into Ignition's Translation Manager.

To import terms into Ignition's Translation Manager

1. Go to Tools > Translation Manager, and select the Import Terms icon from the right of the Translation Manager.

2. Choose the file from the Open window, and Click Open.

3. In the Translation Manager, choose the correct Language and choose to import all or the selected terms.
   The terms are imported into the Translation Manager.

Global and Component Translation Scopes

The translation database and term lookup rely on two different scopes for term lookup: component scope and global scope. The difference being that component translations are stored on windows, and global translations are stored in the global translation database.