I recently wrote an article explaining how to add arbitrary translations to your Magento site using an empty plugin to allow you to attach a translations csv file.

You can read the original here: [Custom translations file in Magento][1]

Anyway, this is all well and good if you are adding text to your plugin or suite of Magento plugins that need to be translated. Of course, if this is the case then you already have a plugin to put the translations in but hopefully my post explains how that is done.

If however, you are adding arbitrary text to your theme – which I often find myself doing for labels, column headers etc. there is a much quicker, simpler and more appropriate place to put your translations. Along with your theme!

I first noticed this being done on the modern theme that comes packaged as part of the base Magento install and am amazed I hadn’t seen it until now. Anyway, you will be able to see it in action in that theme but you simply have a locale folder in your theme and that can include subfolders for different languages e.g. an en_US or en_GB. Inside that folder you can place a translate.csv file with the translated versions. Exactly the same as the files that you find in the main /app/locale folder.

Good luck and happy translating!

[1]: /2011/02/custom-translations-file-magento/