Diplo Dictionary Translator
Free, open-source translation for Umbraco Dictionary items. Where my translation tools began, and how Translator Omni takes them further.
Diplo Dictionary Translator is free and open-source. It adds a Translate action to the Umbraco Dictionary, helping you fill in missing translations of the labels, navigation text and shared phrases used across a multilingual website.
Need to translate pages and blocks too? Meet Diplo Translator Omni — my commercial translation package for supported page content, blocks, content sections and Dictionary items, with tools to review translations and keep up with source changes. The Dictionary Translator and Omni comparison helps you choose the right tool for your site.
A lot of little translations
The original idea came from a site with 27 languages and around 150 Dictionary keys. That meant more than 4,000 translations to provide and enter individually. It’s a long-winded, tedious task, and easy to get wrong.
I’d already been experimenting with Microsoft’s AI services, including Microsoft Translator. So I wondered: what if a package could automatically translate all the empty Dictionary items from a language you’d already populated?
I built a proof of concept, then turned it into a package. The original July 2022 release targeted Umbraco 10 on .NET 6 and used Microsoft Translator on Azure.
Translate the shared words
After installing and configuring the package, you choose the source language and select Translate. The package works through Dictionary items with missing translations and uses the configured translation service to populate them.
It’s useful for all those small pieces of text that sit outside your page content: button labels, form messages, navigation and other reusable phrases. Review the results in context, just as you would any translation.
Free to use, with the source included
The Dictionary Translator package is free. You can install it from NuGet, find it on Umbraco Marketplace, or browse and contribute to the source on GitHub.
dotnet add package Diplo.TranslatorCheck the package documentation and version requirements for your Umbraco site. The original release used an Azure translation service, which has its own account requirements, usage limits and pricing; the free package doesn’t remove any provider charges.
From Dictionary items to the whole page
Dictionary translation was the starting point. Translating a website also means working with headings, rich text, blocks and nested content — and keeping that structure intact.
Diplo Translator Omni brings that wider workflow into the Umbraco backoffice. It translates supported content as drafts for editorial review, uses configured Umbraco.AI profiles, and includes coverage and source-change tools to help maintain translations as the site evolves.
If your task starts with Dictionary labels, the free package may be all you need. When you’re ready to translate the content around them, explore Omni’s features and evaluation and licensing options.