Translate your message into recipients' languages

Translating school and district messaging ensures inclusivity, accessibility, engagement, equity, and better communication for all families. 

This article will show you how it works!

Before sending your message, consider the option to Auto-translate on Send which is turned OFF by default. Wish to turn it on by default for any or all of your organizations? You can adjust this in Delivery Options. 

There are three options for translation of your messaging, depending on your workflow. Depending on your organization’s settings and recipient language mix, you may see different translation options. The blue Translate All Languages button only appears when your message includes recipients with non-English preferences.

Option #1: Manually select 2–3 languages

Use this when you want to send translations in just a few selected languages.

• Add your Subject, Recipients, and Content.
• Skip the blue Translate all __ (#) languages button. Instead, open the languages drop-down, click Select Languages, and check the boxes for the languages you want (e.g., Spanish, French).
  

• Preview translations by selecting each language from the drop-down.
• Click Send.

Recipients who match the selected languages receive the translated version. All others receive the default English version.

Option #2: Translate into all languages with preview and edit

Use this when you want full coverage and control over each translation, including the ability to preview and edit. For this option, the Auto-translate on Send option is disabled so that you can manually select the options in the Languages & Translation section and fix the issues manually. 

Here's how it works!

• Add your Subject, Recipients, and Content.
• Ensure that the Auto-translate on Send toggle is disabled and not toggled on. 

• Click the blue Translate all __ (#) languages button in the blue box.

  

• If there are any issues with translation, you will be prompted to Fix languages, also telling you which languages have details that need attention. 
  
• Select the language(s) that need fixed in the dropdown. Then make any edits in the channel that displays a warning symbol. 
  
• Once the fix has been successful, the warning symbol will no longer display next to the language with the issue.
  
• Now you can either click Send message or Schedule your message for a time in the future.  

Option #3: Auto-translate enabled with quick send

Use this to auto-translate into all included recipients' languages.

• Enable the Auto-translate on Send option. 
  • You can change the default setting by going to Organization Config > Delivery options in the Translations area. 
• Add your Subject, Recipients, and Content.
• If the system detects an issue (like exceeding an SMS character limit in a specific language), a red warning will appear in the message bubble, and a pop-up window will display the message: Something needs fixing before sending.
  
• Any language with issues (e.g., character limits in Arabic) will be flagged in red for review.
• The pop-up offers two immediate options: Back to editing or Apply & send.

Select Back to editing

This selection will take you back to an editing screen where you can address the languages that might have channels exceeding character limits. 

For this example, you can see in the screenshot that there are three languages that need to be fixed: Romanian, Thai, and Russian. 

We select Russian language in the dropdown, and then select the channel with the warning symbol. This will then populate the Russian translation into the text window below. To get the warning symbol on the channel label to disappear, shorten the text. 

• Make edits or shorten your text as needed to any languages you may want to send in, then click Send.

Select Apply & send

You also have the option, if you're in a hurry, to select Apply & send. 

This selection will disregard those languages that need edits and send in English instead.