The topic is a bit old but anyway...
If you really want to include two languages in only one copy of your pages use strings with content in two languages and switch between them from the url

For example:

...website/index.php?lang=english

$lang = $_POST['lang'];

if($lang = 'english' ) {
echo "This is the fragment of the content in english language";
} else {
echo "This is a text in non-english language that will be shown when entering website";
}

So, if there is no lang var in the link then the website will show its content in non-english language. You have to include "ifs" for every portion of text that will be shown and also for every link that takes you to another subpage.

Here how it works with one of websites I created:
www.damisrestaurant.com

Hope it helps.

Wow, that is great. Is the code for the change language button something I can find online? I'm trying my hand at web design, as my partner needs a webpage for her Translation business, so this dual language option would be perfect.

Thanks

your solution is smooth and elegant. I'll give it a try...

Cheers,

Eduardo

For example:

...website/index.php?lang=english

$lang = $_POST['lang'];

if($lang = 'english' ) {
echo "This is the fragment of the content in english language";
} else {
echo "This is a text in non-english language that will be shown when entering website";
}

So, if there is no lang var in the link then the website will show its content in non-english language. You have to include "ifs" for every portion of text that will be shown and also for every link that takes you to another subpage.

Here how it works with one of websites I created:
www.damisrestaurant.com

Hope it helps.

Edit - I hate how it tarneshes my post when I edit it with BIG edited text. I never spell my post correctly the first time.

First you would need either the index or a Splash page, here a splash page is OK.

The Splash page offers Spanish or English(?) and would be the default page for the CMS. Then you could create to categories or two separate "Sites" within the CMS.

Now the link sends you to the Spanish branch or the English branch. Exactly how to do this depends on the CMS you choose.

By hand, you would use a switch case with a logic that says, if the ID of the page is Spanish use this content, if English use that content.

The CMS version would be easier to maintain and quicker I would think if you are not really experienced with PHP.

The suggested solutions are very interesting, but, as I said before, I need to improve my PHP skills to handle all those scripts properly. For now, I think I'll duplicate every file in both languages as the site is very small (it would be mainly the navigation bar, and probably a 3 or 4 other pages)

Cheers,

Eduardo

The problem with multilingual website is that once you build it, you (or the website owner)  must do its regular (and preferably adequate) updates for each language and this is really become too much work  to manage. It is all possible of course but depends on how organized the content is, how often updates are needed and how much time/money are spent on updates.
For small website like mine, to support few languages, the script from this article serves ok but I suppose you can (and may be should consider to) adapt some CMS for both languages if you build bigger website.

As I'm not lazy, I'll translate both texts myself (or, better than that, I will ask the client to provide the English version of his texts). At least he is not a writer or something like that, with tons of text to translate.

I was just wondering about the necessity of having every single file in two versions. Maybe, in a future, when I improve my php skills, I'll have both texts located in a DB and I'll just use a little function to switch between Spanish and English (Gosh, why didn't that Esperanto language work..., that would be easier then...)

Thanks

Eduardo

The easiest way would be to just do what John/Wickham suggested. But, if you only have "one" section on each page that needs to be swaped, then this would be another way to go. Just put your spanish in the other div. Then you don't have to ever leave the page your on. If you have multiple areas on each page, then style switch would be the other way to go.

I was just wondering about the necessity of having every single file in two versions. Maybe, in a future, when I improve my php skills, I'll have both texts located in a DB and I'll just use a little function to switch between Spanish and English (Gosh, why didn't that Esperanto language work..., that would be easier then...)

Thanks

Eduardo

"Have a refreshing moment all the time." Sounds good to me and I'm working on it.

And in case you need prove - here is the above translated by computer into German and then back into English"

Which reminds me - I recently had an email exchange with some guy who contacted me through Killersites who I believe may be from Africa - his New Year wish for me is to:  "Have a refreshing moment all the time." Sounds good to me and I'm working on it

A client wants his new site to be bilingual, meaning that he wants a "magic" button at the top of the banner saying "English version" (the site is originally in Spanish") and viceversa which changes the content of the whole site automatically in just one click. What would be the best apporach to achieve this? Do I have to create everything twice, or create like a parallel site?

Thanks

Eduardo