Having the option to choose a language different from English for the Admin Dashboard is an awesome feature to have. Unlike most open-source applications which require specific plugins or custom language packs, TYPO3 has an official built-in translation server, that allows you to download localizations and set them for the Administrative Area on your CMS. In this tutorial, we are going to go over the process of installing the desired language locale and then activating it for the TYPO3 open-source web application. Let’s begin.
To install a language package and set it for your administrative area, you need to log into your admin dashboard first. To do that, please add “/typo3” to your domain name - for example, “mycms.com/typo3” where “mycms.com” is your actual domain.
Accessing the mentioned URL will show a login page, where you have to enter your login credentials to access the backend. We also highly recommend checking our TYPO3 Backend Overview tutorial, which will introduce the basics.
Once you have logged into your dashboard, please point your attention to the left, where you will see the Module Menu.
Right under the “Admin Tools” section, you will see the “Maintenance” option, and when you click on it, the page will be refreshed. You will see a couple of panels in the middle of the screen, which will allow you to perform specific actions.
From the provided panels under the “Maintenance” page, please click on the “Manage languages” button, located inside the “Manage Language Packs” panel.
Clicking on the “Manage languages” button will open a popup window, which will allow you to add additional language packs for your administrative area. At the top, you will see the “Active languages” table section. Let’s go through all the columns and what type of information they hold.
To install a new localization for your Typo3 CMS, please click on the “+ Add language” dropdown located under the “Active language” section.
Doing so will populate the table we talked about above with all the available packages you can install. However, they will be grayed out, which means they are not downloaded yet. On the far left side of the table, you will see a plus (+) button. Clicking on it will download and install the desired language locale.
One important thing you need to note is that there are language packs that provide a wider area of translation for the dashboard. For example, installing a de (German) or an es (Spanish) package will translate a larger portion of the dashboard as opposed to a language such as ar (Arabic) or ko (Korean).
When you click on the plus (+) button corresponding to the language you need, the page will refresh, and the initial table will go to its default state. However, this time, it will be populated with the selected locale.
To make sure that the packages are up to date, please click on the icon, resembling a pointed downwards arrow, below the “+ Add language” dropdown menu.
Clicking on the icon will show up a progress bar that displays the update process of language packages.
Once all the packages are updated, the page will be refreshed, and you will receive a notification at the top of the screen.
Now that the desired locale has been installed, it is time to activate it for your Admin Dashboard!
To do so, please close the popup window by clicking on the “X” on the top right side of the window.
First, please point your attention to the top right corner of the screen. You will see the current user’s name - in our case, this is “admin”. Clicking on it will expand a dropdown menu. From the available options, please click on the “User settings”.
The page will refresh, and you will see the “User Settings” area. On the bottom, you will notice the “Language” label and underneath - a dropdown menu. Clicking on it will show you all the available languages. Please select the newly installed locale.
After you have selected the new language, please press the “Save” button on the top left corner of the screen.
Doing so will once again refresh the page, and you will receive a message showing that the settings were updated.
Finally, please log out from the admin dashboard by pressing on the username on the top right corner and then selecting the red button on the bottom of the dropdown menu. As we installed a de locale, the button will contain the german equivalent to “Logout”.
Please log back in again using the method described at the beginning of this tutorial. This process is necessary to apply the language for the entirety of the website’s backend.
There you have it! The way to set a new language for the administrative area of your Typo3 CMS. As you can probably tell, it’s quite easy to do, and hopefully, this tutorial has answered some questions which you may have had.
Sebahat is a young and bright woman who has become an invaluable part of our team. She started as a Customer Care Representative, mastering that role and, along the way, growing into a tech-savvy individual who is well acquainted with every support layer of the company. Driven by her aim to improve our customers’ experience constantly, she is committed to enhancing the extraordinary support we deliver.