Mark a translation for review or updating in WPML

WPML is one of the few WordPress localization and translation plugins to feature a robust (if sometimes confusing) system to track and assign content that needs to be translated.

But what if something has already been translated and you want to send it out to translators to look at or review? Unfortunately, as of early 2022 WPML appears to not include this as a feature.

However, there is a workaround.

The problem: Complete translations can’t be assigned in the same way as new translations

If a translation is marked as “complete”, you can still add it to a job.

However, it can’t be “taken” or assigned to translators. It can still be edited, but that doesn’t help translation managers or translators to keep track of its progress or see when it’s done.

Translations with the green check mark don’t function the same way if they’re added to a job from the translation dashboard.

Forcing translations to be sent out again for review

The solution is to switch the status from “complete” to “needs update”.

If you make any change to the original language, that will mark it as needing an update. The change can be as small as you like – an extra space at the end of a paragraph will do it.

The simplest way to do this is to edit the content, add a space at the end of a paragraph, and click Update.

You will know the status has changed from “complete” to “needs update” when the icon in the Translation Management dashboard (in the column under the destination language’s flag) has changed from a green checkmark to a light blue circle icon .

Then you can send the content to the translation queue as a job that translators can take and work on.