How To Change The Text Of Links, Buttons, And Labels (Phrases)

  • 11 January 2018
  • 29 replies
  • 1587 views

Do the links, buttons and labels on your community not match your branding? Use our ‘Phrases’ tool to change certain text into something that resonates. 

A phrase is customizable text on your community platform. For example, if you wanted to change the “Log in” button to say “Lets go!” you would be changing the phrase. All phrases have a default setting, but almost all language on the platform can be changed. 

Usually, you can change text strings right on the community with our live edit too; however, some phrases need to be changed manually on the back end. For this, you can reference the articles below:

Hidden Phrases: (Insided Standard) Login/Registration Page

How to Customize your Error Pages

Hidden Phrases: Change text on the "set username" page (SSO registration)

 

How To Change The Text Of Links, Buttons, And Labels (Phrases)

  • Log into the Community Frontend (not control)
  • Switch on the ‘Phrasestoggle at the bottom-right hand corner of the screen.
  • All editable phrases will be indicated with an ‘edit’ label.
  • Click the element/text you want to change. An input field will appear at the top of your screen.
  • Add in your new text, and click Save - your change is now saved as a new ‘Phrase’.

Switch off the ‘Phrasestoggle and Double-check the phrase on the community. Does everything look good? 
 

 

Currently, only users with the ‘Admin’ role can use this tool.💎 You can view and search through all of your custom phrases by going to Control → Customization → Phrases.

🎯 Some of our craftier customers worked out how to use the phrase tool to create rich email notifications. Interested? Read (unofficial) How To Use The Phrase Tool To Create Rich Email Notifications. Sometimes, our customers generously dedicate their time to write these guides, enabling me to kick back and take some me-time! 🛀.

 


29 replies

How do you edit the phrases for things like error messages which disappear when you turn the phrases toggle on? I'm not able to find them by searching and I'm not sure which module they're a part of to be able to add them directly.
Userlevel 2
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Hi Claire,



very good question!



In general: When you cannot edit a phrase in the community frontend, then you would have to add it manually in the Control environment. But, in order to do that, you would need information from us, as you need to enter some keys so that your community knows which exact phrase you want to see changed.



As there are a ton of different possible error messages, we do not show a list or something like that at the moment (with which you could add it manually). But maybe it is worth for us to work on it so that you can change it yourself via our Phrases feature in the Control environment!?



Do you remember which error message you were looking at exactly? Then I can help you right-away and give you the information that you need.



Cheers,



Julian
Thanks @Julian! For me I think a list of phrases which aren't editable from the frontend would be really helpful, there have been a couple of other occasions in the past when I've wanted to change other phrases as well and I'd happily use a self-serve resource rather than have to bug you guys each time I find something small to change.



In this case it was the error that comes up when someone tries to submit a new topic but has left one of the required fields blank.
Userlevel 2
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Hi Claire,



thanks for your comment, I see what you mean.



Surprisingly I was able to edit the text for these specific error messages by activating phrases and then click on the "create" button. If you then click on the "edit" button error message, the phrase will appear:





The phrases for both messages are:



You haven't entered a title

Category Forum

Phrase You haven't entered a title



You have not entered a text yet

Category Common

Phrase validation.text.required



Of course these are only two examples of many situations where you still would have to contact us for help. We were aware of this already, however our tool to locate phrases is not ready to be accessed by everyone. First of all it is not very user-friendly, second of all you would be able to change the standard translations for all inSided platforms, and that is problematic. We would like to improve this in the future, but getting this done is quite a big task, so we will have to find the time for it.



For now, it probably will help if we provide you with a knowledge base which includes as many phrases as possible, so that you can easily find the right codes for the text which you would like to change.



I will work on such a documentation, so expect something in this direction here in the upcoming days/weeks.



Cheers,



Julian
Sounds great! Thanks for the help @Julian



I tried what you described and was able to successfully change those 2 error messages.



Actually the one I'm trying to change that some of our users have found confusing is the one when someone hasn't chosen which forum the post should go into (it says they haven't chosen a 'subject' which many people interpret as title). Sorry, I should have mentioned that one specifically in my earlier post!



When I turn on the phrases tool it wipes any text I had inputted and it looks like those 2 error messages get priority so I'm not able to get the error message I'm looking for.
Userlevel 2
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Hi Claire,



thanks, I did not think about this specific error message... 🙂 As said before, there are so many variations which makes it tricky sometimes.



I have found the correct phrase now and changed it for inSpired successfully. Here the codes you are looking for:



Module: Forum

Key: You haven't selected a subject.



I am actually already working on content on all "hidden" phrases, starting with the login pages (including error messages)!



Cheers,



Julian
Awesome, thank you!
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Hi @Julian. Lo and behold my colleague has already asked the question I came here to ask! But I have a different situation I'm hoping you can advise on. Some of our superusers who get an email notification with a link to a thread or a private message get the below error message when they click the link (because they are not logged in). They have asked whether we can change the language so it's less daunting. Could advise on how we might do this? Thank you.



Userlevel 2
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Hey!

Yes, it is a good idea to change this text to something more friendly. :)

I have found the phrases which you are looking for:
Text: You are not authorized to access this page.
Module: Common
Key: error.forbidden.title


Text: Sorry, this page is not available for you.
Module: Common
Key: error.forbidden.anonymous

You can add them via the "Add Phrase" button in your Control Environment ([General settings] - [Phrases]) by entering the Module and Key text, you can then add your prefered text into the bottom field.

Please let me know if you have issues or more questions!

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Thanks for the very fast response, @Julian. I managed to change the first one, but the second one remains the same, even after about 30 minutes have passed. Any suggestions?







Userlevel 2
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Hey!
Seems I have picked the wrong error message. 😞 I searched for the exact text but this was the only one I was able to find.
There are several different error pages for different situations (e.g. when attempting to access a part of the forum where the user has no permissions for), so that's why it was a bit of a challenge to find the right one. I am now working on an FAQ that contains all error messages & their phrases…

I have asked a colleague and he was able to give me the actual message for this scenario:
Module: Forum
Key: error.403

This one will work, it worked for me. :)
As the phrases also allow HTML, I actually was able to add an image to that error message, to make it look more "friendly":

78b35895-1172-472d-899f-bce839fc2295.pngLet me know in case you need help with setting up images / HTML in here!
Cheers,
Julian

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Thank you so much for looking into this and replying so quickly – very much appreciated! I'll let you know if I have additional questions.
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Hi @Julian. The "Login" link is no longer appearing under the messaging – could you share the HTML that's needed to include it (the way it appeared in the original screenshot above). Thank you!



Userlevel 2
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Hi!



I could not locate the code that was in that message before, I think this has to do with the SSO login which you are using.



I have now added the link manually to your message, so that users can click on that button directly.



Should you have more questions, just let me know!
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Thank you, @Julian!
Userlevel 1
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Hi @Julian do you have a list of the hidden phrases?

We're looking to translate the missing ones on FR and DE, and are running into some challenges as we can't guess our way to some of them



A full list of all available phrases would be awesome. Or even better: Add them all to the phrases tool as default :)



Best,

Ditte
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Hi @Julian do you have a list of the hidden phrases?

We're looking to translate the missing ones on FR and DE, and are running into some challenges as we can't guess our way to some of them



A full list of all available phrases would be awesome. Or even better: Add them all to the phrases tool as default :)



Best,

Ditte




Any hope that we (at least me and @Ditte) would get a list of all available phrases @Julian? I would like to be able to translate error messages to Finnish 🙂
Userlevel 2
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Hi,



Thanks @Suvi Lehtovaara for bringing this to my attention!



It is not possible to just publish a list of all hidden phrases - this list would be extremely long and it would not be much clearer for you which phrases belong where.



@Ditte yes, in the long run we will have to do something like this, unfortunately it is not that easy... but we also want you to have a better experience in improving translations!



Already before the comment from Ditte I was working on some topics around hidden phrases for certain areas, specifically the login/registration as well as the "set username"-page (only relevant for SSO login). Unfortunately it turned out to be quite an amount of work, so I have not been able to finish this properly and apparently never got back to this... :(



These topics are not complete yet (some errors are still missing), however maybe they can already help you figuring out some of them. And if you are searching for a specific one, just drop me a comment or a screenshot and I will add it to the list. 🙂 And should you be on the hunt for other phrases, then I will be happy to create a dedicated topic for (login-unrelated) hidden phrases.



Here the topics (again they are a work-in-progress):

Hidden phrases for the inSided standard login / registration page

Hidden phrases for the SSO "set username" page


Module: ForumKey: error.403



This one will work, it worked for me. :)




Hi @Julian is this key still valid? I tried adding these phrases but nothing came from the error.403



Userlevel 2
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Hey @JessEs,



yes, this key is still valid. However I saw two things when checking on the phrase which you used:


  1. In your screenshot "error.403" is capitalized: this can cause issues as the key is not recognized correctly. Always make sure to copy the keys 1-1.
  2. The text string which is shown in error messages can differ, depending on the context. If you want to display this text when a user tries to access a restricted area while being logged out (so, as a "guest" on the community), then you would need to use the following key:
Module: Forum

Key: error.403.guest



I have added this to your community and it seems to work fine (when attempting to access an area in logged-out state):





If you would like to show this in other situations as well, please describe in detail the context in which this error should be shown - then I can retrieve the exact key you might be missing.
@Julian Thanks - that's even better if they can be further customized.



What about the screen when a user is trying to access an area for Custom Roles (Customer) and is logged in and not marked for that role?



Also, what is the key to edit the large heading?
Userlevel 2
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Great to here that you appreciate the option to change this!



What about the screen when a user is trying to access an area for Custom Roles (Customer) and is logged in and not marked for that role?


The phrase to add for this specific situation is this one:

Forum: Forum

Key: error.403



Also, what is the key to edit the large heading?


The phrase to use for the title is this one:

Forum: Forum

Key: error.403.title



Please note: The phrase for the title is the same for all error 403 pages (so for logged out users as well as for logged in users). Only the bottom text is specific.
@Julian got it - thanks!!
Users cannot unsubscribe from newsletters - error 400



Translated phrase:

"receive email about new topics in the categories you are subscribed to."





How can I settings it?
Userlevel 2
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Hi,



thanks for reporting this here!



This seems as a bug to me. But maybe it was just temporary? When I try to change this setting on your community (also on this community) it works!?





I assume you receive this error when trying to save your settings?



Usually there should be no error 400 message, maybe this is why it is not translated for you.



I will check this with my colleagues to hear what they think about it and get back to you.

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