Translations & internationalization

Torquex ships ready for multi-language and multi-currency stores. It bundles translated theme text for several languages, mirrors its entire layout automatically for right-to-left languages such as Arabic, and lets shoppers switch language and country/currency from either the header or the footer. This page explains what is built in, what you configure in Shopify admin, and the important distinction between translating theme strings and translating your product content.

Torquex is built on Online Store 2.0 using vanilla CSS and JavaScript, so none of the features below require a third-party app. Multi-currency and multi-language are powered by Shopify Markets and the Translate & Adapt app, both free and built into Shopify.

Theme strings vs. product content

Two different kinds of text appear on your storefront, and they are translated in two different places. Keeping them straight saves a lot of confusion.

Kind of text	Examples	Where it lives	How you translate it
Theme strings	Button labels like “Add to cart”, the “Easy install” badge, “Sold out”, tab names, the “Language” and “Country / region” selector labels	The theme’s locale files (locales/*.json)	Edit through the theme editor language picker or Translate & Adapt under Theme
Product content	Product titles, descriptions, collection names, page and blog copy, metafield values (fitment, material, warranty, etc.)	Your store’s catalog data	Translate through Translate & Adapt under the relevant resource (Products, Collections, Metafields…)

In short: Torquex controls the wording of its own interface; you control the wording of your catalog. A reviewer or merchant should never expect the theme to translate product titles — that is store data and is handled by Shopify, not the theme.

Bundled languages

Torquex includes complete translations for its interface text. Each language has two files: a storefront file (the text your customers read) and a schema file (the labels you see while editing in the theme editor).

Language	Storefront file	Theme-editor file
English (default)	en.default.json	en.default.schema.json
Arabic	ar.json	ar.schema.json
German	de.json	de.schema.json
Spanish	es.json	es.schema.json
French	fr.json	fr.schema.json
Italian	it.json	it.schema.json

English is the default locale. When a shopper views your store in any of the other bundled languages, Torquex automatically serves that language’s translated interface text — provided you have published the language in Shopify admin (see below).

Note

These files cover the theme’s own labels and messages only. They do not contain your products, collections, pages, or menu items — that content is translated separately in Translate & Adapt.

Add a language to your store

Adding a bundled language (or any other language) is done in Shopify admin, not in the theme. Adding and publishing a language happens entirely in Settings → Languages — you do not need any app for this step:

1. In Shopify admin, go to Settings → Languages.
2. Under Published languages, click Add language and choose the language you want.
3. Click Publish so the language becomes available to shoppers.

Once a language is published, shoppers can switch to it using the Language selector in the header and/or footer (see below) — the footer block shows it automatically, while the header selector must first be enabled (it is off by default). If you publish a language Torquex does not bundle (for example Portuguese), Shopify falls back to English for any theme strings.

To translate your catalog and theme strings into the language afterward, use Translate & Adapt (free, by Shopify); install it if it is not already installed. Adding the language is what makes it available to shoppers; Translate & Adapt is what fills in the translated content for it.

Edit theme text

You can change any of the theme’s built-in wording without touching code.

Using the theme-editor language picker

1. From Online Store → Themes, open Torquex with Customize to launch the theme editor.
2. Use the language picker in the editor toolbar to choose the language you want to edit.
3. Edit any theme string in place; your overrides are saved to that language for this theme.

Using Translate & Adapt

For a side-by-side translation workflow, open Translate & Adapt in Shopify admin and choose Theme. There you can review and override every theme string per language, including the install-difficulty labels (Easy install, Moderate install, Pro install) and all other interface copy.

Tip

If you only want to reword a phrase in your default language — say, change “Add to cart” to “Add to garage” — edit it in the default language. To translate the same phrase for shoppers in another language, switch to that language first.

Right-to-left (RTL) languages

Torquex fully supports right-to-left languages and mirrors its layout automatically — there is no RTL setting to toggle and nothing to configure.

The theme’s root <html> element sets dir="rtl" automatically for Arabic (ar), Hebrew (he), Persian (fa), and Urdu (ur), and dir="ltr" for every other language. The lang attribute is set from the active locale at the same time, so screen readers and search engines always see the correct language and reading direction.

Layout mirroring works because Torquex is built almost entirely with logical CSS properties (such as padding-inline, margin-inline, and inset-inline-start) instead of hard-coded left/right. When the document direction flips to RTL, spacing, alignment, and positioning flip with it. Directional icons (for example chevrons and arrows marked icon--directional) are additionally flipped horizontally in RTL so they point the correct way.

Arabic interface text is bundled (ar.json / ar.schema.json), so an Arabic storefront is translated and correctly mirrored out of the box once you publish Arabic in Settings → Languages.

Note

Right-to-left support meets the theme’s overall WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility commitment: the page direction and language are exposed to assistive technology, not just styled visually.

Language and country/currency selectors

Torquex lets shoppers change their language and their country/currency from two places: the header and the footer. You can enable either, both, or neither.

In the header, both selectors live inside a single globe-icon popover. To turn them on: in the theme editor open the Header section and enable Show language selector and/or Show country / currency selector. Both are off by default. When at least one is enabled and there is more than one option to switch between, a globe icon appears in the header; clicking it opens a small panel with the available selector(s). (On mobile, the same selectors appear inside the navigation drawer.)

In the footer, each selector is a block you add to a footer column. To add them: in the theme editor open the Footer section, select a footer column block, and add the Language selector and/or Country / region selector block to it.

Wherever they appear, the selectors offer the same choices and follow the same auto-hide rule:

Selector	What it does	When it shows
Language selector	Drop-down of every published language, each shown in its own name (for example “Français”, “العربية”). Selecting one switches the storefront language.	Only when more than one language is published in Settings → Languages. With a single language it hides itself.
Country / region selector	Drop-down of every published country, each shown as the country name followed by its currency code — for example “United States (USD)”. Selecting one switches the country and currency.	Only when more than one country is published in Settings → Markets. With a single country it hides itself.

The footer selectors work even without JavaScript: if a shopper has scripts disabled, an Update button submits their choice. The selector labels themselves (“Language”, “Country / region”, “Update”) are theme strings and are translated along with the rest of the interface.

Caution

If you enable a header selector or add a footer block but do not see it on your live store, confirm you have published more than one language (for the language selector) or more than one country/market (for the country selector). Each selector hides automatically when there is only one option, because there would be nothing to switch between.

Currency code display

When you sell in more than one currency, identical-looking symbols (for example the dollar sign used by USD, CAD, and AUD) can be ambiguous. Torquex includes a setting to append the currency code to every price.

Setting	What it does	Default
Show currency codes	Appends the currency code (for example USD) to prices throughout the storefront. Recommended for multi-currency stores.	Off

Find it in the theme editor under Theme settings → Currency. When enabled, Torquex renders prices using Shopify’s “money with currency” format (for example $24.00 USD) everywhere it shows a price; when disabled, prices use the plain money format (for example $24.00). This is purely a display choice and does not change which currencies you sell in — that is controlled by your markets in Shopify admin.

Tip

Turn Show currency codes on if you sell internationally and let shoppers switch currency with the country selector. For a single-currency store you can safely leave it off for cleaner prices.

Quick reference

• Bundled interface languages: English (default), Arabic, German, Spanish, French, Italian.
• Add a language: Shopify admin → Settings → Languages → add and publish (no app needed); translate its content afterward with Translate & Adapt.
• Edit theme wording: theme-editor language picker, or Translate & Adapt → Theme.
• Translate products/collections/pages/metafields: Translate & Adapt under the matching resource — not the theme.
• RTL: automatic for Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Urdu; nothing to configure.
• Selectors: enable Show language selector / Show country / currency selector in the Header section (off by default), and/or add the Language selector and Country / region selector blocks to a footer column; they appear only when there is more than one option.
• Currency codes: Theme settings → Currency → Show currency codes.

Related pages

• Getting started — recommended setup order, including markets and languages.
• Theme settings — the full global settings reference.
• Torquex support — we reply within 12 hours.

If a translation looks wrong or a selector is not behaving as expected, contact us and we will help.

Related: Supported languages · Performance & accessibility · Torquex support replies within 12 hours.