How to translate custom texts

If you have multiple languages enabled in your help center and you want to translate the default English texts of a theme, you can use Dynamic Content functionality of Zendesk.

This is the feature that allows you to put text translations into different languages in named placeholders. Using named placeholders allows Zendesk to display the right language text to the visitor.

Short version

So how do you translate texts such as "How can we help?" above the search field, titles of custom blocks, etc?

For text values in the settings panel of a theme, just specify the name of a dynamic content placeholder without {{dc. and }}. For example, if you already have a placeholder {{dc.hc_how_can_we_help}}, just enter hc_how_can_we_help.

Long version

In the example below, we will replace the default text "How can we help?" with a multilingual version and add a translation for the French version.

1. First, you need to create a dynamic content placeholder for a corresponding text. Go to the Admin -> Dynamic content -> Add item.
2. Fill the information for the placeholder.
   • Enter "hc_how_can_we_help" (without quotes) in Dynamic content item title field. It's also useful but not necessary to add "hc_" prefix for the placeholders that are used in the help center.
   • Select "English" as the default language.
   • Enter "How can we help?" in the content field.
   • Click on the "Create" button.
     
     
3. Add a translation by clicking on the "add variant" link.
   
   
4. Select the necessary language and fill the content and click on the "Create" button.
   
   
5. Now go to the Theming center and click on a theme that you would like to edit.
6. In the settings panel, click on the "Translations" title and enable the "Use dynamic content translations" option.
7. In the "Hero unit title" field, enter the name of our placeholder: hc_how_can_we_help. Note that you need to enter it without curly braces and "dc.".
   
   
   
   
8. Save the changes.