For those looking for a plugin solution WPML is a new player and they seem to have a translation service backing development which is probably good for long-term stability. Their plugin has a ton of features including handling gettext/i18n support for plugins, themes and core. I still don't like how they manage the database and I think it makes a huge mess of your content. In most ways though its the only kind of solution that could work for keeping all content in one blog database.

Anyone wanting to read about the state of translation in WP should read the Multilingual WordPress Codex article, it summarizes the major plugins as well as the fundamental approaches currently in use.

IMHO the best solution for WP if it want's to support multilingual content in core is a distributed model where each language is its own individual blog/site. With the advent of "Multi-Site" in core this would be easier than ever for people to do with just one WP install.

Each language would be its own blog on the site (MU-style) and the translation system (whether its a core plugin or part of core) manages the relationships between posts across installations, noting the source of a translation and allowing links to be shown back and forth between matched content. You'd also have global navigation between the linked translation sites to use in the header etc.

If you had a multilingual theme (gettext/i18n support) then you could use one theme to power all of your language sites by having multiple translations of the theme. The same would obviously go for plugins, core transltions etc. The difference could be integrated with the existing backend language infrastructure.

Because it would all be one MU/MS instance users wouldn't have to log into the translation sites again either, though they'd have to be given access to each language site to have permissions on it, just like in any MU/MS situation.

It would be great if this where to have a "main" tab to the post-new.php almost like tabbed browsing. except with this you would open a new language tab, specify the language, and input what you like...translated title, tags, categories.

Sorry i know that sounds confusing...

Thanks

But if this was in the core! That would be amazing!

So people will that main language file on english, easily translate to their lanugages...

Hope that something simmilar will be in this 2.5 version

http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic.php?id=375&replies=16#post-4706

Maybe not as a core feature, but it could be an official plugin at the hands of Nikolay Bachiyski, the Automattic-er that "makes sure the eskimo teens can blog in their native language".

http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic.php?id=1007&replies=3
sort of requests the same thing.

And http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic.php?id=375&replies=14 is even better... "Gengo is good, but it would be nice to have this as a feature - or at least as a default plugin."

Amen.

Please close/delete this thread.

The idea would be to have more language files available to translate the Wordpress part of the site. So, switching language (by pressing a flag or so) would translate the site itself.

But, and that's the real thing... Post and pages would have to be entered in multiple languages and linked so Wordpress is aware these are the same posts, only in a different language. A double (triple? quadruple?) entry field for multiple entries in one post could also be possible - located near the excerpt field or something?

I realize this may proof to be a major pain but since a lot of Wordpress blogs are used to publish in the native language AND English I think it actually might be used a lot.