Localization and Translation

Abstract

Localization is the replacement of strings in the user interface with translated strings appropriate for the user’s locale. Drupal is developed and used by an international community. Therefore, it supports localization by default, as well as offering theming support for right-to-left languages such as Arabic and Hebrew. In this chapter, you’ll see how to enable localization and how to use interface translation to selectively replace Drupal’s built-in strings with strings of your own. Then, we’ll look at full-fledged translations and learn how to create, import, and export them. Finally, we’ll examine Drupal’s ability to present the same content in multiple languages (such as a Canadian web site that presents content in English and French) and learn how Drupal selects the appropriate language to display.