Joomla! Documentation™

Description

In the Language Manager you can set the default Language for both the Front-end and Back-end of your Joomla! web site.

How to Access

• Select System → Manage Panel → Languages from the Administrator menu.

Screenshot

Column Headers

Click on the column heading to sort the list by that column's value.

• Radio Buttons. Select a radio button to make the selected language the Default Site and/or Administrator language.
• Title. The name of the language in English.
• Native Title. The name of the language in that language.
• Language Tag. Language Tag of the Installed Language.
• Default. The default language of the site, marked with a yellow graphical asterisk in this column. Note: to every user a language can be assigned (see "User Management"), user from groups "Administrator" and "Super Administrator" can select their preferred language themself at login.
• Version. The version number of the installed language.
• Date. The creation date of the language.
• Author. The name of the language translator is displayed in this column.
• Author E-mail. The e-mail address of the translator.

• ID. This is a unique identification number for this item assigned automatically by Joomla. It is used to identify the item internally, and you cannot change this number. When creating a new item, this field displays "0" until you save the new entry, at which point a new ID is assigned to it.

List Filters

Filter by Site or Administrator

• Site. Shows the installed Languages for the front-end part. Here you can set the default language for the front-end of your Joomla web site.
• Administrator. Shows the installed Languages for the back-end part. Here you can set the default language for the back-end of your Joomla web site.

Search bar. Near the top of the page you will see the search bar shown in the Screenshot above.

• Search by Text. Enter part of the search term and click the Search icon. Hover to see a Tooltip indicating which fields will be searched.
  To 'Search by ID' enter "id:x", where "x" is the ID number (for example, "id:19").
• Filter Options. Click to display the additional filters.
• Clear. Click to clear the Filter field and restore the list to its unfiltered state.
• Ordering. Shows the current list ordering field. 2 ways to change the order:
  • Select from the dropdown list. Ordering may be in ascending or descending order.
  • Click a column heading. The column heading toggles between ascending and descending order.
• Number to Display. Shows the number of items in a list. Select from the dropdown list to change the number displayed.
  The default for a site is '20' but this may be changed in the Global Configuration.

Filter Options. This screen has no Filter Options

Page Controls: When the number of items is more than one page, you will see a page control bar as shown below. The current page number being viewed has a dark colour background.

• Start: Click to go to the first page.
• Prev: Click to go to the previous page.
• Page numbers: Click to go to the desired page.
• Next: Click to go to the next page.
• End: Click to go to the last page.

Toolbar

At the top of the page you will see the toolbar shown in the Screenshot above. The functions are:

• Default: Makes the selected item the default item. The default star symbol () will show in the Default column, indicating that this is now the default item.
• Switch Languages. In the Administrator screen only, select a language radio button and then this button. The Administrator language will change and there will be a message such as Message La langue de l'administration a été changée en "French (France)".

• Install Languages. Links to the Install Languages Screen.

• Close. Closes the current screen and returns to the previous screen without saving any modifications you may have made. This toolbar icon is not shown if you are creating a new item.

• Options. Opens the Options window where settings such as default parameters can be edited.

• Help. Opens this help screen.

Quick Tips

• Users can use any Language from the list of installed Languages, either by having it assigned in the User Manager or by filling out a Menu Item Manager - New/Edit - User Form Layout at the Front end. This will cause the Joomla! system prompts to be generated in this Language just for this User. For example, if a User chooses Spanish as their language, then the Search Module will show with prompts in Spanish.
• This User's choice is not affected by the Default Language set for the Front-end.

• Changing a User's Language or the Default Language does not affect the web site's Articles and other content.

• Important: Do not delete the default language files (for example, with FTP). This will create errors on both the Front-end and Back-end.
• Additional Languages can be added using the Install Languages Screen.
• If desired, you can show the Front-end site in one Language and show the Back-end administration pages in a different Language. Also, individual articles can be configured to use a different language in the Advanced Parameter pane when editing the Article.

Related Information

• To install more Languages: Install Languages Screen.
• To uninstall a Language: Extension Manager - Manage
• To change the Language for a User: User Manager - New/Edit
• To set the Language of an Article: Article Manager - New/Edit - Parameters - Advanced