Multi-language Knowledge Base

If your customers span multiple languages, the worst answer is “we have a help center, but only in English.” Atender’s Knowledge Base is built so you write articles once in your default language and translate them into every active language. Translations cover categories, subcategories, articles, sections, and the surrounding UI strings on the public site.

Secondary languages begin Disabled. That matters because translation uses AI inference and costs money: Atender does not translate into a language just because it exists. Activating a language is the explicit step that says, “Start translating Knowledge Base content for this language.”

After a secondary language is active, Atender’s automatic sync translates Knowledge Base content that is missing or out of date for that language. It runs every 15 minutes, so a new or edited article, category, subcategory, or section is usually translated within 15 minutes, without a manual run. The Translation Sync card shows when the last run finished and, for a run someone started, who started it.

What gets translated

• Article title — Yes — Per-language.
• Article summary — Yes — Per-language.
• Article body — Yes — Per-language. Markdown structure preserved.
• Category name and description — Yes — Per-language.
• Subcategory name — Yes — Per-language.
• Section names and descriptions — Yes — Per-language.
• Keywords — No — Keywords are not translated; translations use the default-language keyword list.
• UI strings on the public site — Yes — The labels around your articles (“Search articles…”, “Browse by Category”, “Related Articles”) translate too.
• Tags — No — Tag slugs stay in the default language. The display name can be translated manually if needed.
• Protected terms — No (by design) — Brand names, product names, and any term you mark as protected stay untranslated. Protected Terms are managed in Settings → Translation. Knowledge Base translation uses this glossary when the Knowledge Base module toggle is on, and admins can control other translation consumers separately. See Manage protected terms.

Languages, status, and the default

Each language has one of two statuses:

• Active — Live. Customers in this language see translated content. Automatic sync translates changed or missing Knowledge Base content for this language.
• Disabled — Off. Customers in this language see the default language instead. Useful when you want to prepare or pause a language without losing translations; automatic sync does not translate into it.

New secondary languages are created Disabled. Enable a language when you’re ready for Atender to translate and serve Knowledge Base content in it; translation only runs for active languages. There’s no “pending” middle state — the toggle is the readiness gate.

Exactly one language is the default. The default is the source of truth — translation jobs translate from it. Articles are authored in the default. You can change the default later, but it’s a heavier change because existing content is only translated into your other languages once it is written in the new default language.

How translations stay current

For active secondary languages, Atender’s automatic sync keeps translations current. Every 15 minutes it checks for content that is missing or out of date and translates only that, so after you publish a new article or edit one in the default language, the active-language translations catch up on their own.

Disabled languages do not receive automatic translation updates. They keep any existing translated content, but customers fall back to the default language until the language is activated again.

A super admin can force a full pass with Re-translate all on the Translation Sync card. It regenerates every translation in each active language, replacing existing ones, so it costs more and runs longer than the automatic sync.

The Translation Sync card shows Coverage per secondary language (articles, categories, subcategories, and sections translated) so you can spot drift at a glance. See Translation completeness for the exact metrics.

How customers see the right language

The public help center detects the customer’s language from:

1. The URL — if the link carries ?lang=de or ?lang=sv, that wins.
2. Their explicit choice — the language switcher in the public site header. The choice is remembered in the browser’s local storage.
3. The browser’s preferred languages — used only when the language selector is turned on for the public site.

If the customer’s preferred language has no published translation for the article they’re reading, they fall back to the default language version. The article still loads — it just renders in the default language.

Markets vs. languages

Markets are a separate concept. A market is a region — country or country group — and is independent of language. See Markets vs Languages for the full distinction. Most teams start with languages only; markets matter primarily for regional content variants and search filtering.

When automatic translation isn’t enough

Auto-translation is fast and consistent, but it’s not perfect. Reach for Protected Terms in Settings → Translation when:

• A specific phrase needs the local-language convention. (“My account” might be “Min konto” by translation but “Mitt konto” is what customers actually expect.) Use a protected term with a per-language override.
• A product feature has a different name in a market. Same fix — protected term with per-language override.
• The Knowledge Base should use your glossary, but another translated surface should not. Keep the Knowledge Base module toggle on, and control other consumers separately in Settings → Translation.
• An entire article needs a different framing for one language. Atender doesn’t keep hand edits to a single translation: whenever the default-language article changes, automatic sync retranslates it and replaces that language’s title, summary, and body. Use protected terms with per-language overrides for wording that must differ.

Where to go next

• Add a language: Enable a language
• See coverage in detail: Translation completeness reference
• Lock down brand terms: Manage protected terms
• Understand search across languages: KB search and AI retrieval