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How do I utilise AI translation?

The AI Translation feature allows your organisation to present the expansive interface in multiple languages. Translations are generated using AI and stored within the platform, allowing each user to select their preferred language from their account settings.

AI Translation covers:

  • Static content - navigation, menus, buttons, labels and standard screens
  • Semi-dynamic content - configuration data entered through Settings, such as Service Types, Categories and other configurable lookup values

Setting Your Language

Each user chooses their own language. To update your language preference:

  1. Navigate to My Account → Account Settings
  2. Select your preferred Language
  3. Save your changes

Your chosen language is remembered for future sessions. There is no need to select a language each time you log in.

Locale and Time Zone

Your account settings also include Locale and Time Zone. These are independent of the language setting.

  • Locale controls formatting such as date format, number format and regional display preferences.
  • Time Zone controls your preferred time zone. However, work orders and other site-based records always display using the site's local time zone. If your time zone differs from the site's, the system will display a notification explaining that site times are being shown.

What Gets Translated

AI Translation covers the following content:

Static Content

  • Navigation
  • Menus
  • Buttons
  • Labels
  • Standard screens

Semi-Dynamic Content

  • Service Types
  • Categories
  • Configuration values
  • Other configurable lookup data

What Does Not Get Translated

The following user-entered content is not translated automatically:

  • Work order summaries and descriptions
  • Public and internal comments
  • Quote descriptions
  • Planned Work Template summaries and descriptions
  • Any other free-text content entered by users

This content remains in the language it was entered in.

For user-entered content, you can use your browser's built-in translation feature. For example, highlight the text and select Translate Selection from your browser menu. This is a browser feature rather than an Expansive FM feature.

Generating AI Translations 

If you are an administrator responsible for managing translations:

  1. Navigate to Settings → Languages and ensure the required languages are marked as Selectable
  2. Navigate to Settings → Languages → Translations
  3. Select the language you wish to generate translations for
  4. Click Generate with AI
  5. The AI will detect the source language automatically and generate any missing translations

Existing translations are not overwritten. This means you can safely re-run the generation process after new configuration items have been added without losing any manual edits.

Reviewing and Editing Translations 

After AI generation:

  1. Review the translated values for accuracy
  2. Edit any wording that needs adjusting to suit your organisation's terminology
  3. Save your changes

AI provides the initial translation, but you can customise the wording to match your business language.

Importing and Exporting Translations

You can also manage translations via import and export:

  1. Navigate to Settings → Languages → Translations
  2. Use the import option to download existing translation records
  3. Update the file as needed
  4. Re-import the updated file to apply your changes

This is useful for making bulk updates or for sharing translations across environments.

Ongoing Maintenance

Whenever new configuration items are created - such as new Service Types or Categories - new translation entries are generated but will initially be empty.

Administrators should:

  • Review translation gaps regularly
  • Run Generate with AI to create translations for new items
  • Check the newly generated translations for accuracy
  • Amend wording where necessary

There is currently no automatic notification when new translations are required. We recommend checking for gaps after any configuration changes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why can I only change my locale settings and not my language?
Your administrator may not have enabled the translation feature yet. Ask them to check that the translation feature is switched on in your system's configuration.

Why are some areas translated but others are showing in English?
You may be seeing static translations but not semi-dynamic translations. Ask your administrator to check Settings → Languages → Translations, select your language, and verify whether any areas have empty or missing translations. Additionally, if new configuration items have been added since translations were last generated, those items will appear in English until translations are regenerated.

Why don't I see my language in the language dropdown?
Either the language has not been made selectable by your administrator, or it is not currently supported. To make a language selectable, an administrator can go to Settings → Languages, show disabled records, select the language and turn Selectable on. If the language is not listed at all, please contact Expansive support.

Will re-running AI translation overwrite my manual edits?
No. The AI only generates translations where none currently exist. Your manual edits are preserved.