Multi-language feature

Frontify Guidelines can be set up in multiple languages.

Updated over a week ago


Frontify allows you to make your Guidelines available in multiple languages. Note that the Multi-language option is limited to the Enterprise plan.

Enable Multi-language

To enable the multi-language feature open the sidebar and click on the Settings where you will see the Content menu.

Here, you can define the base language of your Guideline and add as many languages as you want to translate your Guidelines into.

By default, the language variations will be in Draft mode. Once the translation is done on your end, publish it, and it will be visible for Viewers.

Go into the specific language Guideline and translate it from your base language, or edit it according to localized content needs.

Now, you can also easily switch the default language to another.

Note that the edit mode of the feature is enabled for Owners, Editors, and Translators by default.


How Multi-language works

One Guideline can enable multiple languages, meaning it would have different translations of the same content. When translating your Guideline, you create a version of your Guideline.

Note that you can only translate the content (existing content blocks), not change it or upload additional content blocks in the translated versions.


Translator role

If you have a specific person who should take care of translation, invite them to the Guideline with the Translator role.

Users with this role are limited to translating text and images and cannot modify your master Guideline.


Translation process

Once the multi-language feature is enabled, you will see a language switch in the upper right corner. The first language you see is considered the default language. Only in this language you can add, remove, or edit content blocks.

All the additional languages are going to be translations of it.

You can start translating the content within your guidelines by choosing one of the other languages. The translation process is similar to editing - in Edit mode, you replace the text in the Text Blocks, reupload images in the Image Blocks, and so on.

As mentioned above, you can't add or remove content blocks in the translated version.

Once you change to the Edit mode, you will notice a red indication bar on the left. It shows you the translation progress - when everything is translated on the page, the bar is green. 

Additionally, you can see a red or orange indicator next to the content blocks. This indicator helps you find blocks that

  • a) have not yet been translated (red)

  • b) need your attention since the block was recently changed in the master language (orange).

Once you have translated the block, the indication bar disappears. 


Activating translation for all Users

Once you're ready to set your version live, easily publish the chosen language from the settings.


Maintaining translations

To keep your translations updated over time, you can monitor the changes made in a Guideline by going to the Changelog in the Guideline settings. This might be particularly helpful for keeping track of recent changes and communicating with translators to adjust the translations accordingly.

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