In this tutorial, we will show you how to import WPML translations from Google Sheets. You’ll be able to connect your WordPress site to your Google Sheets account, and then import WPML translations in specific languages.
Related tutorial: WPML – How to Export Post Translations to Google Sheets
We will use the WP Sheet Editor plugin. It allows you to view and manage posts, pages, WooCommerce products, and custom post types using a spreadsheet.
You can download the plugin here:
Download Posts, Pages, and Custom Post Types Spreadsheet Plugin - or - Check the features
Besides, we’ll use the Google Sheets Sync service. It allows you to connect your WordPress site to your Google account to export and import content with Google Sheets.
You can sign up to the service here:
Sign up to the Google Sheets Sync Service - or - Check the features
This service works with all WP Sheet Editor spreadsheets that run in the backend, so you can export and import pages, posts, products, and any other post type. It works with multilingual plugins like WPML, and with custom fields added by other plugins.
Once you have installed and activated both plugins, you need to follow these steps in order to import WPML post translations from Google Sheets.
1- Prepare the Google Sheet you want to import
You need to prepare the Google Sheets file you want to import, but there are some things you need to take into account:
- To protect your privacy, our Google Sheets Sync service doesn’t read files that have not been created with the service itself.
- In other words, the service doesn’t recognize files that were not first exported from WordPress to Google Sheets using the service.
- This means that we don’t have any access to other files on your Google account; not even to other Google Sheets files.
- To import a Google Sheets file, you’ll need to first export the info.
- Once you’ve exported it, you can edit existing data or create new data in Google Sheets.
Here’s a tutorial on how to export WPML translations in specific languages to Google Sheets.
2- Open the spreadsheet in the language you want to import
WP Sheet Editor will show posts according to the language you select in the admin bar.
For example, if you select English, only the English posts will be displayed in the spreadsheet.
But if you select Spanish, only the Spanish translations will be displayed.
3- Import WPML translations from Google Sheets
Now we are going to show you how to import WPML translations in specific languages from Google Sheets.
Remember that the content of the spreadsheet will depend on the WPML language you select in the administration bar.
In this case, we are going to start importing English translations, so we must select that language in the administration bar.
After selecting the language, we can proceed to import the translations from Google Sheets.
We must start by clicking on “Import”.
Now we need to select Google Sheets as the source from which we will get the data.
Next, we need to select the Google Sheet file we want to import. Remember that only files that have been previously exported will be accepted for import.
If you do not find the file you want to import, you can refresh the list.
Click on Next.
Now you need to select the columns you want to import.
In this example, we are going to import all columns.
We need to select how we want to import the data. In this case, we are going to update all existing rows (existing translations) and ignore new rows.
We need to select a field as an identifier to match the data in Google Sheets with the data in WordPress.
In this case, we are going to match the data using the ID field.
Finally, you will see a preview of the information in the spreadsheet. If everything is correct, you can proceed to import the data.
We can now change the translation language in the spreadsheet if we want to import translations in another language.
For example, let’s select Spanish to import Spanish translations from Google Sheets to WordPress.
We need to open the “Import” tool.
Then, we need to repeat the process to import the translations of posts in the specific language we have selected.
Export and import WPML with Google Sheets
With WP Sheet Editor and Google Sheets Sync, you can connect your multilingual WordPress site to export and import content in different languages.
It works with WPML, so you can use Google Sheets to manage your multilingual content.