Multilingualism
Basically there are two different approaches in TYPO3 to implement multilingualism or different language variants.
You should think about which variant is the right one for you. A change is no longer possible if the website has already been created. Therefore it is mandatory that you decide for a language variant before creating the website.
The Singletree Approach
Here, all language variants are kept in one tree. This approach is suitable if the language variants do not differ significantly in structure. There is a close coupling between the different languages, which facilitates consistent editing maintenance of multilingual content. In this variant, the language switcher leads to the corresponding page in the other language.
To create and maintain multilingual content, DeepL is integrated into the editorial backend.
If there is no translation for a page or a content element, the behavior of the website depends on the selected fallback type. If you have decided to make your website multilingual using the single tree approach, the fallback type Free is set up as the default. However, you can also choose the Fallbacktype Fallback afterwards. If this is desired, one of the web admins of the website must request this by means of a ticket via the service desk .
If the website is to go online in the leading language only and the content in the second language is to be completed later, this is possible without any problems. For this purpose, the language switch is grayed out until the completion of the English-language website, for example.
The Multitree Approach
Two (or more) separate page trees exist.
This method is useful if the language versions differ significantly, e.g. have a different page structure and thus a different navigation. The language switch then leads to the start page of the other language version. The English branch is edited in exactly the same way as the German branch.
It is only to be noted that images must either be loaded twice on the server, since there is no possibility to translate the meta data, or that one must overwrite the meta data on the English pages on which these are used. Great care is needed here.