Bilingual website

[ScottG4]

I was wondering if there is a way to add a bilingual flag button, so the user could switch between two languages. The thing is that I don't want a translating application since I will do the translation.

[PaulMathews · Accepted solution]

If you're doing the page translation manually, is it your intention to essentially have a version of your site in one language and another, independent version of the same site in the other language? For example, if you created a "Services" page in English, are you intending to create a copy of that page and then replace the text with the equivalent second language text? Navigating from the first language page to the second would then be done via the flag switch button?

[PaulMathews · Accepted solution]

If you're doing the page translation manually, is it your intention to essentially have a version of your site in one language and another, independent version of the same site in the other language? For example, if you created a "Services" page in English, are you intending to create a copy of that page and then replace the text with the equivalent second language text? Navigating from the first language page to the second would then be done via the flag switch button?

[ScottG4]

Ideally, I was thinking of one site that the user will be able to switch the text between languages. But since I am thinking of inserting text parts in graphics (mostly photos), I like your suggestion of a clone site translated. So I guess that I can solve this with a button that will redirect the user to the english edition of the pages which they will be hidden. Question is how can I program the button so that it doesn't need to appear at every page separately but be able to redirect to a whole translated site without creating a second site?

And one more question. Is there any way of altering the button style with a photo?

[PaulMathews · Accepted solution]

@ScottG4 An independent, second language site makes sense from a user-experience perspective since there would be no need to have a language switcher on every site page. Instead, each language site would have a relatively simple landing page with a two-language fork. That is, a button link for the first language and another button link for the second language (and perhaps a title above the buttons like "Select your preferred language"). The buttons themselves could be flag images with indicative language captions.

Example

Let's say that language #1 is (American) English and language #2 is French. You'd build an English language site and an independent second site that is a copy of the first site but reworked in the French language.

You'd choose one of the sites as your default language site and attach your custom domain to it (e.g., "mywebsite.com"). The second language site could use a subdomain (e.g., "french.mywebsite.com") or a completely separate domain (e.g., "mywebsite-fr.com" or a free Weebly subdomain like "mywebsite-fr.weebly.com").

Your English language site would have a simple landing page with an American flag image (with the caption "English") next to a French flag image (with the caption "French"). You'd use two Weebly image elements to house the flag images and place the images side by side. The image element can have links attached so, the American flag would link to the home page of the English language site (e.g., "mywebsite.com/home") while the French flag would link to the home page of the French language site (e.g., "mywebsite-fr.com/home"). On the French language site, the landing page would be the same as the English language site but your flag captions would reflect the French language (so the American flag caption would be "Anglais" and the French flag caption would be "Français"). The flag page links would be the same as in the English language site.

Here's what you need to know about the Weebly image element:

https://www.weebly.com/app/help/us/en/topics/adding-pictures-to-a-site

Regarding your notion of inserting parts of text using graphics rather than plain text, I'd strongly advise against that. Images are not the same as searchable text and don't behave like regular text across different screen sizes (important for mobile optimization). Do the text translation using regular text NOT images.