# Setting up multilingualism

Before translating, the installation has to work multilingual. The dashboard shows the state; the setup does what is missing — with a free preview, repeatable, and without creating anything twice.

## The dashboard: readiness checks

*Components → TranslatePilot* checks on every call:

- Content languages: at least two published?
- Plugin "System - Language Filter" enabled, item associations switched on?
- Site default language: does it match the source language? If not, the target language would sit at the root of the addresses and the source language behind a language prefix — the dashboard warns before the first run creates facts.
- Articles per language and articles set to language "All" (those would be skipped)
- Mapping table and access to the AI provider

## The setup step

The setup is **step 3 of the wizard** (*Components → TranslatePilot → Wizard*); it translates nothing and therefore needs no approval. "Preview (free)" shows what would happen; "Run" does it. In detail:

- Create and publish **content languages** for source and target languages.
- Enable the **language filter and language code** plugins; in the language filter switch on item associations (they link translation and source on save) and drop the source language's URL prefix (existing addresses stay unchanged — important for links and search engines).
- Ensure **one home page per language** — without it the language switcher shows nothing.
- Create or publish **the language switcher**. On YOOtheme sites it is placed in the `navbar` position automatically, because YOOtheme does not render the classic `header` position.
- On request (checkbox): move **articles and categories of language "All"** to the source language. Content set to "All" appears in every language but never gets translated — on a truly multilingual site it belongs to the source language.

<div class="callout info" id="bkmrk-every-step-first-loo">Every step first looks at how things stand and skips what already fits. Running the setup repeatedly is explicitly harmless.

</div>## Order for the first time

1. Install language packs (*System → Install Languages*).
2. In the options set provider, key, model, source and target languages.
3. Open the wizard and follow its steps: setup (preview, then run), translation profile, scope, sample and approval — see the next pages.
4. **Step 7 runs it**: it translates the articles and then creates the menu and module twins on its own, so the target language gets its own navigation. Step 8 shows the result and what, if anything, is still missing.

[Deutsche Fassung](https://docs.graup-it.de/link/270)