Languages and translation

Digital workplaces support displaying content in multiple languages. When multiple languages are enabled, one acts as the workplace's default language and is marked with an asterisk (*) on the Userbar language selector. This default language is typically the primary language used by an organization.

Members can select from a digital workplace's available languages the one that they would prefer content displayed in. The digital workplace always tries to display content in a member's preferred language. However, displaying content in multiple languages relies on creators providing translated versions of their content.

Sections in this article:

Supported languages

The following languages can be enabled for a digital workplace:

  • Brazilian Portuguese (pb)
  • Catalan (ca)
  • Chinese: Simplified (zh)
  • Chinese: Traditional (zh-hant)
  • Croatian (hr)
  • Czech (cs)
  • Dutch (nl)
  • English (en)
  • Estonian (et)
  • Finnish (fi)
  • Parisian French (fr)
  • German (de)
  • Haitian Creole (ht)
  • Italian (it)
  • Japanese (ja)
  • Latvian (lv) 
  • Lithuanian (lt)
  • Norwegian (nb)
  • Polish (pl)
  • Russian (ru)
  • Slovenian (sl)
  • Spanish: Latin America (el)
  • Spanish (es)
  • Swedish (sv)

Contact your Customer Success Manager or email the Customer Success Team to add additional language support to your digital workplace.

Language selection

The language selector on the userbar.

The Userbar contains a language selector when multiple languages are available. Members can change their preferred language in the digital workplace. See Changing your preferred language. Only available languages will appear as options in the selection list, and the language marked with an asterisk (*) is the digital workplace's default language.

After selecting a language, all Igloo system text and content will display in the selected language. The following conditions could lead to content, but not Igloo system text, being displayed in a different language:

  • If the content is unavailable in the selected language, the digital workplace will attempt to display content using the default language.
  • If the content is unavailable in the default workplace language or the member's selected language, it will be displayed in the only language in which it was created.

These conditions also apply to the language of text used in email notifications.

Translation

Igloo system text displays in a member's preferred language. Content creators and administrators must provide the translation for other text to display using the selected language. This includes translations for:

Blogs, calendars, wikis, and forums allow for text conversion with Google Translate, quickly making content available in another language. However, consider having a translator review the translated text for accuracy. This translation method will add a Verify Translation checkbox next to translated fields to aid the review process. Once this box has been checked and the content saved, it will no longer appear in future edits of the content.

Text fields supporting translation will have a language selector next to them. Select a language from the list of options and then enter the translated text.

Things that don't support multiple languages

  • The URL of your digital workplace
  • URLs of pages, spaces, channels, and content
    • Content will always use its original title as its URL, typically the content's title in the digital workplace's default language. If no title is provided in the default language, the platform will use the title from another language. If the title has been added in multiple languages other than the default language, the platform selects the title based on the descending alphabetic order of the languages (e.g., if the title is in Parisian French and Italian, the Parisian French title is used).
  • Titles of folders and files
  • HTML widget content
  • Poll widget questions and answers
  • Embedded content

Language classes

Add these classes to Widgets to restrict when they are shown.

lang-ca /*will only show if Catalan is selected*/
lang-cs /*will only show if Czech is selected*/
lang-de /*will only show if German is selected*/
lang-el /*will only show if Spanish (Latin America) is selected*/
lang-en /*will only show if English is selected*/
lang-es /*will only show if Spanish (International) is selected*/
lang-et /*will only show if Estonian is selected*/
lang-fi /*will only show if Finnish is selected*/
lang-fr /*will only show if Parisian French is selected*/
lang-hr /*will only show if Croatian is selected*/
lang-ht /*will only show if Haitian Creole is selected*/
lang-it /*will only show if Italian is selected*/
lang-ja /*will only show if Japanese is selected*/
lang-lt /*will only show if Lithuanian is selected*/
lang-lv /*will only show if Latvian is selected*/
lang-nb /*will only show if Norwegian is selected*/
lang-nl /*will only show if Dutch is selected*/
lang-pb /*will only show if Portuguese (Brazilian) is selected*/
lang-pl /*will only show if Polish is selected*/
lang-ru /*will only show if Russian is selected*/
lang-si /*will only show if Slovenian is selected*/
lang-sv /*will only show if Swedish is selected*/
lang-zh /*will only show if Chinese (Simplified) is selected*/