Administrators can define a default language to be applied to all spaces in your Confluence site. Note that individual users can select a language preference for their session. |
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Setting the Default Language
To change the default language for the Confluence site:
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Go to the Confluence 'Administration Console':
- Choose Browse > Confluence Admin. The 'Administrator Access' login screen will be displayed.
- Enter your password and click Confirm. You will be temporarily logged into a secure session to access the 'Administration Console'.
- Select 'Languages' in the 'Configuration' section of the left-hand panel.
- The 'Language Configuration' screen will appear. Select the language that you want to use as the default language for your Confluence site.
Other Settings that Affect the Language
Individual users can choose the language that Confluence will use to display screen text and messages. Note that the list of supported languages depends on the language packs installed on your Confluence site.
The language used for your session will depend on the settings below, in the following order of priority from highest to lowest:
- The language preference defined in your user profile. Note that you need to be logged in for this setting to take effect.
- The language that you choose by clicking an option at the bottom of the Confluence login screen. Confluence stores this value in a cookie. When the cookie expires, the setting will expire too.
- The language set in your browser.
- Note that your Confluence administrator can disable this option by setting a system property.
- The browser sends a header with a prioritised list of languages. Confluence will use the first supported language in that list.
- The default language for your site, as defined by your Confluence site administrator.
Showing User Interface Key Names for Translation
For those customers working on creating translations of the Confluence user interface, from 4.1 onwards there is a feature that will help. After opening the Confluence dashboard, you can simply add this text to the end of your Confluence URL, like so:
Then press Enter.
This will then cause each element of the user interface to display its special key name while Confluence is still in an interactive mode. This makes it easier to find the essential context for each key, which can then be searched on http://translations.atlassian.com where you can enter an appropriate translation for your custom language pack.
The key names are displayed with a "lightning bolt" graphic between elements of the names. For example, the buttons will show up with elements shown like so:
For example, for the Browse button, the associated key system.space.menu can be found on http://translations.atlassian.com, allowing you to write a better translation for the term Browse, being able to see the full context of where the UI element belongs and what it means to the user.
To turn off the translation view, add this code to the end of the Confluence URL:
RELATED TOPICS
Editing User Settings
Recognised System Properties
Configuring Indexing Language
Installing a Language Pack