Managing languages

In Sitefinity you can localize pages and content items by creating as many language versions as required. You can create different languages for the frontend of your website as well as for the backend. Frontend and backend languages can be created independently.

To open the language settings, in the main menu, click Administration » Settings.
The Basic Settings page appears where you click Languages.

Adding frontend languages

Under Languages you can see all frontend languages that you have installed.

1. To add a new language, click Add languages… button.
   The Select languages window appears, displaying a list of all available languages. If you want to add different language cultures, click Show cultures.
2. Select one or more languages or cultures and click Done.
   The selected languages are added under Languages section.

   You must have one default language. This is the language that your website opens in. For each additional language, the system displays the Set as default link and Delete link. You cannot delete a default language.

   When you have added more than one language, the Multilingual URLs section appears.

3. Select how the URLs of the pages will appear in each of the added languages.
   Choose between the following:
   • Directories
     You use one domain, where different language versions are represented with different directories that are automatically created.
   • Different domains
     You use different domain names for each language. The system displays an input field for each language that you have added.
   • In each field, enter the respective domain name.
4. When you are finished, click Save changes.

After you have added a language, you can translate pages and content items in this language.

Adding backend languages

You can see the default language for the backend under Default language for the backend system.

1. To add more backend languages, click Manage backend languages » Add languages…
   The Select languages window appears, displaying a list of all available languages. If you want to add different language cultures, click Show cultures.
2. Select one or more languages or cultures and click Done.
   The selected languages are added under Languages for the backend section.

   You must have one default language. This is the language that your website backend opens in. For each additional language, the system displays the Set as default link and Delete link. You cannot delete a default language.

3. Click Close languages for the backend system link.
4. Click Save changes.

After you have added a backend language, you must install an existing language pack or translate the interface labels and messages. For more information, see  Backend languages or  Backend labels respectively.