How to change your site language in Joomla 3.0

When we installed Joomla 3.0, we chose English as the default language. Joomla 3.0 is able to support different languages. In this tutorial we'll show you how to change you site language in Joomla 3.0.

Installing a new language in Joomla 3.0 is much easier than changing languages in Joomla 2.5. This is because of the new Install Accredited Language Translations tool, which allows you to install new languages without manually needing to find and download them from other sites on the web.

To install and change languages in Joomla 3.0

1. Log into your Joomla 3.0 admin dashboard
2. In the top menu, click Extensions and then click Language Manager
3. Find and click the Install Language button towards the top of the page
4. From either browsing the list of languages or using the search feature, find the language pack that you would like to install. Place a check in the box next to the language you would like to install, and then click the Install button.
5. Once again, in the top menu click Extensions and then click Language Manager
6. The new language you just installed should now show in the list. To make this language the default language for your site, find the icon of a star (under the Default column) and click on it. The star will turn from hollow to yellow, and you will see the following confirmation:
   
   

   Message
   Default Language Saved. This does not affect users that have chosen a specific language on their profile or on the login page.
   Warning! When using the multilanguage functionality (i.e. when the plugin System - Languagefilter is enabled) the Site Default Language has to also be a published Content language.

   If you have been following along with our screenshots, you can see that in our testing we installed the Spanish language pack. As you can see below, our site is now showing Spanish instead of English.