# Getting started

> From a WPML export to translated pages back in WordPress - the whole round trip, step by step, including what to check before you translate a hundred files.

> Canonical HTML: https://aixlifftranslate.com/docs/getting-started/
> Last updated: 2026-09-08

The whole loop is: export XLIFF from WPML, upload it here, review, download, import back. No
plugin, no database changes, nothing installed in your WordPress.

## Before you start

You need WPML with Translation Management, and content already marked for translation in the
languages you want. Everything else happens here.

## 1. Try it without an account

Paste a paragraph or drop a single XLIFF file into the demo on the home page. You get real
output from the real engine - same classification, same checks - within a small free
allowance. It is the fastest way to see whether the quality suits your site before you commit
anything.

## 2. Create a project

A **project is one website.** It owns that site's brand voice, its protected terms, and its
translation cache.

Get this right at the start. Splitting a single site across two projects means paying twice
for the same translations and maintaining two copies of your glossary. Putting two genuinely
different sites in one project means they share a voice they should not share.

## 3. Set up a brand voice

A voice profile is what stops your translations reading like a machine. You can write one
yourself or point us at your website and have a draft generated from your existing copy, which
you then edit. See [Brand voice](/docs/voice-profiles/).

You cannot start a batch without one. That is deliberate - it is the difference between
translation and transliteration.

## 4. Export from WPML

In WordPress: **WPML - Translation Management**, select the content, choose the target
languages, and export. WPML produces XLIFF files, one per target language, and you download
them as a ZIP.

Keep the ZIP as WPML gave it to you. Do not rename the files or flatten the folders: the
filenames carry information used on the way back in.

## 5. Upload

Drop the ZIP here. Before anything is translated you get a preview:

- how many files and translation units it contains
- how many of those are unique after duplicate detection
- an estimated cost, as an upper and a lower bound
- which project it will land in, and which voice profile will be used

Nothing has been spent at this point. Confirm to start, or cancel and change something.

**Start small.** Run five or ten files first, read the output properly, and only then upload
the other two hundred. This is the single most useful habit with any translation tool.

## 6. Watch it run

Progress is per unit, not per file, so a large file does not look stalled. You can leave the
page - the work continues - and come back later.

If a run stops short, for any reason, you can continue it. It picks up exactly where it left
off and does not re-bill anything already translated.

## 7. Review

Every unit is shown next to its source. Two things are worth your attention:

- **Anything flagged.** These are units that failed a check, or fell back to the source text.
  They are flagged precisely so you do not have to read everything.
- **Your most visible pages.** Home, top landing pages, anything with a call to action.

You can edit any translation inline, mark units as reviewed, or ask for a single unit to be
translated again. Edits are saved immediately and are included in the next download.

## 8. Download and import

Download the ZIP. Every file is rebuilt from the current stored translations, so it reflects
every edit you just made.

Back in WordPress: **WPML - Translation Management - Import**. Import in modest batches rather
than all at once; WPML is happier that way and a rejected file is easier to spot.

Your translations now live in your WordPress install, as ordinary WPML translations.

## A sensible first project

1. Export five representative pages - one with heavy formatting, one with structured data, one
   plain article.
2. Set up your voice profile and add your brand names as protected terms.
3. Translate those five, review them properly, import them, look at them on the site.
4. Adjust the voice or the glossary based on what you saw.
5. Then run the rest.

Step 4 is the one people skip, and it is the one that determines whether the other 200 files
come out right.