Choose the right language selector

Choose a selector by placement and interaction, not only appearance. Each surface has its own supported formats and ownership.

Navigation menu

Use the menu item when language choice belongs in the site's established navigation.

• Dropdown menu creates a parent and language children for the active theme's menu walker.
• All languages at the same level replaces the placeholder with sibling menu items.
• The individual menu item can include or omit the base language.
• Markup and format are controlled globally under Language switcher.

The theme owns the visual and keyboard behavior of a nested navigation submenu. Test the result with the actual desktop and mobile menu implementation.

Shortcode

Use [pom_translate_language_switcher] when the placement must be controlled by content, a widget, a builder, or a shortcode-aware template.

• Supports List, Links, and Dropdown.
• Can override format, markup, CSS classes, base-language inclusion, and current-language inclusion.
• The dropdown uses POM Translate's own frontend script.
• If the surrounding component does not execute shortcodes, the control will not render.

Floating output

Use Enable floating language switcher when the selector should be injected automatically through the footer hook.

• Dropup menu receives built-in fixed bottom-right placement and adaptive opening.
• All languages at the same level renders a footer list with floating-specific classes for site styling.
• It always follows the globally configured enabled languages, exclusions, and current-language policy.

The theme must call wp_footer() for this surface to appear.

Make the decision

Use one primary selector unless the design genuinely needs several. Multiple controls are supported, but they can add visual and keyboard repetition.

Before publishing, compare:

1. visibility without JavaScript;
2. behavior inside the theme's mobile navigation;
3. keyboard operation;
4. overlap with cookie notices or chat widgets;
5. behavior after a locale exclusion;
6. the generated destination on nested routes.