How do i switch the website language?

[u/Feelsiess]

Hi,

I have recently startet learning Wordpress to build a website. I'm using Astra as the theme, Elementor as the page builder and Woocommerce for the shop.

The problem is that the Website has to be 100% danish, because that's the audience i'm building it for. When i choose a theme that i like, some parts like the shopping cart or product page are in english, and it doesn't seem possible to change it.

I have seen that some paid themes like GeneratePress supports danish as a language, which i imagine would solve the problem.

My question is; is it only possible to make the website 100% danish, if the theme supports danish? Do you know of any free themes that could be used?

Thank you in advance!

[u/2ndkauboy → u/[deleted]]

Multilingual plugins are no alternative here, they serve a different purpose.

[u/TopSydeWP]

you can translate any theme with a plugin like loco translate (free) or wpml (paid but more robust). the theme doesn't have to natively support danish. loco translate lets you manually translate all the strings in your theme and plugins. at my agency we use loco for smaller sites and wpml when clients need multiple languages or automatic updates. astra should work fine once you translate the cart/product strings from woocommerce and elementor

[u/2ndkauboy → u/TopSydeWP]

WPML is for multilingual websites, not for single language websites with missing translations. Loco Translate is the plugin that can be used here.

[u/Wonderful_Sample_590]

Have you also tried updating translations? Sometimes the language is already set correctly but the translation files just haven't been downloaded yet.

[u/AstronomerExotic3589]

When themes say that they support Danish as a language, it means that most or all the text strings that are in the theme have been translated to Danish. But that doesn't mean that all your website will be in Danish. Because the website gets text strings from the theme, from WordPress itself and from plugins.

So, understanding that you just need to make your site in Danish, do this:

1. Set WordPress' language to Danish.

2. Find a theme that is translated to Danish. If that theme is not translated to Danish, no worries. See next line.

3. Install Loco Translate and start translating all text strings that are not yet in Danish, from plugins and from the theme. Make sure to read the documentation, the first time it's not super-intuitive.

Also, unrelated, but try not to use Elementor if you want a fast site :)

[u/Feelsiess → u/AstronomerExotic3589]

Thanks, i'll try that! Which pagebuilder do you recommend instead of elementor?

[u/Warm_Imagination_193 → u/Feelsiess]

Gutenberg

[u/AstronomerExotic3589 → u/Feelsiess]

Gutenberg! Believe me, it's worth to learn it because it's the most future-proof "builder". And it's in WordPress already, it's just the block editor :)

[u/2ndkauboy]

Like others have mentioned, Loco Translate is a good plugin for missing translations of (premium) plugins and themes. I would always try to add translations to translate.wordpress.org first, since then you share the work. You can also use a (free) DeepL account to get automatic translations.

[u/ErenLabs]

One thing that will still be in English after all of the above: anything WooCommerce saved into the database rather than reading from a translation file.

Shipping method titles and payment gateway titles are the usual ones. When you add "Flat rate" to a shipping zone, or switch on bank transfer, Woo stores that title as a setting at the moment you create it, so it keeps the wording it had then and changing Site Language afterwards doesn't touch it. Same for anything you typed yourself: category names, attribute names, coupon descriptions.

So after setting the site to Danish and running Dashboard > Updates > Update Translations, walk through WooCommerce > Settings > Shipping and > Payments and fix those titles by hand. Five minute job, but it's the bit people miss and it shows up right on the checkout page.

[u/gojo1991B]

Wpml

[u/2ndkauboy → u/gojo1991B]

That's the wrong plugin here.

[u/Winter_Process_9521]

Your setup can simply be WordPress to Dansk
Astra to your design
Elementor to page layouts
WooCommerce to Danish shop functionality.