User Language

The system provides support for multiple languages in a single environment. System users can use the system in their preferred language, as long as a translation into that language has been provided. A user sees the system in the language defined on their user record. If enabled, users can use the Switch Language zone to switch to another supported language real time.

Note: Normally, setting up the system for another language is an implementation issue, not an administrative setup issue. However, there are several online administrative features that are used to set up a new language, and these are described here.

The following steps are required to support a new language:

  1. Define a language code and indicate that it is enabled. For details on this procedure, see Defining Languages.

  2. Copy descriptions of all language-enabled tables from an existing translation (e.g., English). The copied values act merely as placeholders while the strings are translated into the new language. It is necessary to do this as a first step in order to create records using the new language code created in the previous step. Language-based descriptions can be copied using a supplied batch process, F1–LANG. The batch copies all English labels in the system.

  3. Apply the language pack. If the product supplies a language pack with translations for the system metadata descriptions, follow the instructions provided with the language pack to add the translated text.

  4. Translate additional content. Translatable descriptions and labels for implementation data may be updated / entered in the application. First the user record must be updated to reference the new language. This may be done in one of the following ways:

    1. Switch to the new language using the Switch Language zone.

    2. If that zone is not available, navigate to the user page, assign the new language code to your User ID, sign out, and sign back in again.

    Any online functions that you access will use your new language code. You can change the language code for all users who plan to use/modify the new language.