This article explains how to add a language to your site, choose the main language, set a language’s formats and remove a language. Each language has its own URLs and formats.
Before you start
- Languages are set in the Translations > Locales menu, reserved for the site’s administrators.
- Your languages are set on the Staging and go live with the publication of the site.
- The number of languages is not limited, whatever your plan.
- A content language is a language in which you write your pages. The language of the admin screens, on the other hand, follows each member’s account.
Choose the site’s language
On a new site, the Translations > Locales menu opens on the Set up your site language screen. It becomes the site’s main language.
- In the Site language list, choose your language, for example French.
- Click Set main language. The Customize language settings screen shows the formats detected for this language.
- Keep or change the formats.
- Click Save and continue.
The pages, templates and compositions created before this choice are filed under this language.
Add a language
- In the admin menu, open Translations > Locales. The table lists your languages.
- Click Add content language. A panel opens on the side.
- In the list, type the beginning of the language’s name, for example
engl. - Choose the language.
- Click Add content language. The message Changes saved. appears and the language shows up in the table, with 0 contents.
The date, time and number formats of the added language are detected when it is added. The section Set a language’s formats explains how to change them.
Choose the language code
| Code | Example | When to choose it |
|---|---|---|
| Language only | fr, en | For all readers of the language, whatever their country. The right choice for most sites. |
| Language and region | fr_FR, fr_BE | To offer separate versions of the same language to several countries, with distinct formats or contents. |
When in doubt, choose the language only. A site in fr can later welcome fr_BE without changing its URLs.
Read the table of languages
| Column | Content |
|---|---|
| Language | The name of the language. |
| Code | The language code, with its region if there is one. |
| URL slug | The start of the URLs of the pages in this language, for example en for yoursite.com/en/contact/. |
| Main language | Yes for the main language. For the others, the Set as main button. |
| Contents | The number of contents filed under the language: pages, entries, templates and compositions. |
The URL segment is calculated from the code and cannot be edited. A language without a region takes the short form, fr. A language with a region keeps the full form, fr-be. Changing this segment would break all the published and shared URLs.
Choose the main language
The main language is the one your site uses at its root. A site has only one. The first language added becomes it.
- In the table, on the row of the language you want, click Set as main. The Main language column shows Yes on its row.
- To serve the main language without a segment, check Hide the main language slug in URLs.
- Click Save.
| Checkbox | Page in French, main language | Page in English |
|---|---|---|
| Checked | yoursite.com/contact/ | yoursite.com/en/contact/ |
| Unchecked | yoursite.com/fr/contact/ | yoursite.com/en/contact/ |
The checkbox is checked by default. A page reached at an address other than its own, for example without its segment, is redirected to the right one.
Set a language’s formats
- In the table, on the language’s row, click Edit. The Edit content language screen opens.
- Choose each format.
- Click Save.
| Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
| Date format | Four formats shown applied to today’s date or your own with Custom:. |
| Time format | Three formats or your own with Custom:. |
| Week starts on | The first day of your calendars. |
| Decimal separator | Period or Comma, shown applied to a number. |
| Thousands separator | Comma, Period, Non-breaking space, Narrow non-breaking space or Apostrophe, shown applied to a number. |
The separators are chosen from a list. The two no-break spaces used in French look like an ordinary space. The list tells them apart by naming them.
A page shows its dates, its numbers and the names of the months and days in the formats of its language. The admin language plays no role in this. The main language’s formats are used in the admin and in exports.
Delete a language
- In the table, on the language’s row, click Delete. You can also click Delete under Delete this language, at the bottom of the Edit content language screen.
- In the confirmation, read the number of the language’s contents that will be deleted.
- Confirm. The message Language deleted. appears.
The main language cannot be deleted: its row has no Delete button. To remove it, first set another main language.