You can pick a language for Joomla when you install Joomla for the first time. However, it is possible to change the language later on as well.
Here are the steps for changing the admin panel language of Joomla:
- Login to the Joomla admin panel and click on ‘Extensions’.
- In the drop down menu, click on ‘Languages’.
- The next screen will display all the languages that are currently available for your Joomla website. In case you don’t see your preferred language listed there, click on the option – ‘Install Languages’.
- Search for the language that you want to install and click on the check box present next to it. It is possible to install more than one language at a time.
Note : A version number is displayed next to every tag. If this number is shown in a green box, the language file is compatible with your version of Joomla. In case if it’s in a yellow box, it means that there are some elements of the language file that are not present in your current Joomla installation.
- When you have selected the language, click on ‘Install.
- Once you have installed all your preferences, get back to Extensions and Language(s).
- In this screen, you can choose the primary language of your website. You can confirm the primary language of your website by clicking on the ‘Default’ star.
- Note that this will not change the language of the admin panel. It will only set the website language that your visitors can see.
- In order to change the language for the admin panel, click on the ‘Users’ option and click on ‘Manage’.
- Locate the admin account and click on it for modifying the settings.
Note : The admin account will not be listed with your login username, it will be the name of the individual for the admin account. This will be your name or the admin name that you saved at the time of installation.
- Click on the ‘Basic Settings’ option present at the top of the account information.
- Click on the drop down menu to select the ‘Backend Language’. This will display a list of installed languages you can select from.
- Select the language file that you wish to install by clicking on it.
- Click on the ‘Save’ option present at the top left and your admin screen will take on the new language.
You can change the frontend language with the similar process.
