Dictionary Items

Creating Dictionary Items in Umbraco

There might be text on your site — like labels or static text — that isn't part of your content but still needs translation. Using Dictionary Items, you can store a value for each language. Dictionary Items have a unique key, which is the Name you give them. This key is used to reference the item elsewhere.

Dictionary Items are managed from the Translation section.

Adding a Dictionary Item

To add a Dictionary Item:

1. Go to the Translation section.
2. Click on Dictionary in the Translation tree and select Create.
3. Enter the Name for the dictionary item. Let's say Welcome.
4. Enter the values for the different language versions.

   
5. Click Save.

Grouping Dictionary Items

To group dictionary items:

1. Go to the Translation section.
2. Click on Dictionary in the Translation tree and select Create.
3. Enter the Name for the dictionary item. Let's say Contact.
4. Click Create.
5. Click on Contact and select Create.
6. Enter the Name of the item to be created under the Contact group.
7. Click Create.
8. Enter the values for the different language versions.

   
9. Click Save.

Editing Dictionary Items

To edit a dictionary item, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Translation section.
2. Use the Dictionary tree to locate the item you need to update/edit.

   • Alternatively, you can use the search field in the top-right corner.
3. Make the edits you need to make.
4. Click Save to save the changes.

It will only be possible to edit the language(s) that the given user has access to. The value of the remaining languages will be read-only.

Which language a user has access to is determined by the "Language permissions" set on the User Group. Learn more about this feature in the Users article.

Importing and exporting Dictionary Items

In some cases, you might want to use the same Dictionary Items on multiple Umbraco websites. For this, you can use the export and import functionality to quickly copy the items from one website to another.

Exporting Dictionary Items

1. Go to the Translation section in the Umbraco backoffice.
2. Locate the Dictionary Item (or group) you want to copy in the section tree.
3. Click ... next to the Dictionary item (or group).
4. Select Export....
5. Decide whether you want to also include descendants.
6. Click Export.

This will download a .udt file which you can use to import the Dictionary items on another Umbraco website.

Options menu with the Export feature

Importing Dictionary Items

1. Go to the Translation section in the Umbraco backoffice.
2. Click ... next to the Dictionary tree.
3. Select Import....
4. Click on Import.
5. Find and select the .udt file containing the Dictionary Items.
6. Click Open in the file browser.
7. Review the Dictionary Items for import.
8. Choose where to import the items.
9. Click on Import.

The Dictionary Items have now been added to your website.

Review the Dictionary Items for import before confirming

Using Dictionary Items in Templates

A developer can reference a Dictionary Item from a template using its key. For example, the following renders the value of a Dictionary Item named Welcome:

@Umbraco.GetDictionaryValue("Welcome")

Adding Dictionary Items to templates is a development task. For the full set of options, including how to specify a fallback value, see Fetching Dictionary Values.

Using Dictionary Item in a Multilingual website

To use Dictionary Items in a multilingual website, see the Creating a Multilingual Site article.

Related Links

• Creating a Multilingual Site