Late last fall, we launched a new website for McGill-Queen’s University Press (MQUP). As a leading scholarly press with the highest editorial, design, and production standards, MQUP needed its website to have the design and performance to match. As a press based in Montreal that publishes in both English and French, the website also needed to be entirely bilingual.
Today, we are shining a light on that dual-language display for MQUP’s distinctive site.
Many websites wish to make their content available in multiple languages, which can be accomplished in several ways. You are probably familiar with Google translate widgets that allow a site to auto-translate into the language of a user’s choosing. Others require much more control over the use of language on their site. MQUP wanted to be able to fine-tune the French language components of the site with as much ease as the English.
We built a custom translation feature within MQUP’s ReaderBound install that allows the press to manage translations for every element of the site. This means:
- Page and blog content (and other elements such as banners) are managed on the same page in the content management system (CMS), but allow separate space for both English and French text.
- All elements of the user interface, including content from the ONIX feed and used in our custom ecommerce solution, were professionally translated into French and can be managed within the CMS.
- URLs are consistent between languages and differentiated by English and French language indicators.
- The site automatically detects the user’s language preference, based on browser settings. Users can also manually toggle between languages using the EN/FR controls in the website header on every page.
We provided training and support to MQUP translators, who were able to access the CMS and work independently. This process received excellent feedback from translator Christine Villeneuve:
“Thanks for the detailed instructions and the video, this is very helpful—and professional! In 20 years as a translator, I’ve never had the chance to work in such a collaborative way with web developers on a website. I truly appreciate it.”
Please take a few moments to explore the English and French versions of MQUP. If you’re interested in finding out more about this feature, please email us at hi@readerbound.com.