---
title: Editing the content of multilingual websites
related:
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/multilingual-websites/translating-content-using-external-services.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/multilingual-websites/configuring-translation-services.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/multilingual-websites/configuring-translation-services/configuring-content-for-translation.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/multilingual-websites/editing-the-content-of-multilingual-websites/language-status-overview.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/multilingual-websites/developing-custom-translation-services/translating-content-via-rest.md
---

> Agent instructions:
> **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown.
>
> - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version.
> - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt).

After a site administrator has [specified cultures for a website](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/multilingual-websites/setting-up-multilingual-websites.md#setting-up-multiple-cultures-for-websites), content editors can begin to translate content (web pages) or [assign translation tasks to translation services](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/multilingual-websites/translating-content-using-external-services.md).

When you open the **Pages** application on a multilingual website, you can see the language selector below the content tree. Use the selector to switch between language versions of the currently selected page.

![Pages Culture Selector](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k12sp/editing-the-content-of-multilingual-websites/Pages_Culture_Selector.png)

On Portal Engine sites, you can also click **Compare** to [edit language versions side-by-side](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/multilingual-websites/editing-the-content-of-multilingual-websites/comparing-language-versions.md).

## Creating multiple language versions of pages

The following example shows how to manually translate a page into the French language:

1. Open the **Pages** application.
2. Select the root page in the content tree and switch to the **French** culture. Since the French version of the page does not exist yet, you can create it through one of the following ways:

   - **Create empty page** – creates a new page of the same type, but without any content.
   - **Copy content from another language** – creates a copy of the page with content loaded from the selected language version. If _Save the new page before editing_ is checked, the system adds the new page version and immediately saves the copied content.
   - **Translate using translation service** – with this option, the content of the page's new language version will be provided by an external translation service. See the [Translating content using external services](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/multilingual-websites/translating-content-using-external-services.md) chapter to learn more.
3. Choose to **Copy content from another language**.
4. Select **English - United States**.

   ![Creating a new language version of a page](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k12sp/editing-the-content-of-multilingual-websites/New_Document_Language_Version.png "Creating a new language version of a page")
5. Click **Create page**.

The French version of the root page has now been created. You can now translate other pages on the website:

1. Choose the **Home** page in the content tree.
2. Select **Copy content from another language**, but this time disable the **Save the new page before editing** option.
3. Click **Create page**.
4. The editing form of the new page version opens. Change the **Page name** to _French Home_.
5. Click **Save**.
6. On the **Page** tab, change the text of the heading in the second editable region to: _Welcome to the French version of the sample Corporate Site_
7. Click **Save**.

You can modify the content of a page's editable regions to be different for each specific language version. It is also possible to translate the content entered on a page's **Form** or **Content** tab, and even assign culture specific values for many of the page's **Properties**.

If you view the page on the live site, you can see the French version.

![Viewing the French home page on the live site](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k12sp/editing-the-content-of-multilingual-websites/Multiple_Cultures_Live.png "Viewing the French home page on the live site")

You can switch between languages using the language selection links at the top right of the website header.

> **Note:** **Creating content for another language**
>
> When adding a new language to the website, always create a language version for at least the **root** page and the default **home page**. Otherwise, the system cannot display the site correctly.
>
> In the **Pages** application, the content tree displays the **Not translated page** (![Not available in current culture](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k12sp/editing-the-content-of-multilingual-websites/not_available_in_current_culture.png)) status icon next to pages that do not exist in the selected culture.

## Using the default language version for untranslated pages

You can configure websites to display content from the default language for pages that are not available in the selected language.

> **Note:** **Note**: To use the default language version for untranslated pages in MVC projects, you need to use the **CombineWithDefaultCulture** method of the [DocumentQuery API](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/custom-development/working-with-pages-in-the-api/reference-documentquery-methods.md) when [retrieving the pages](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/developing-websites/retrieving-content-in-mvc-applications/displaying-page-content.md) from the database.

1. In the Kentico administration interface, open the **Settings** application.
2. Select the **Content** category.
3. Choose your **Site** from the drop-down list and enable the **Combine with default culture** setting.
4. Click **Save**.

Now you can sign out and view the French version of the live website again. Pages that are not available in French are displayed in the default culture (English).