User Documentation Joomla's core includes the framework for running a multilingual site: install a language pack for each language you want to support, and Joomla will translate its own built-in labels, prompts, and messages automatically. That only covers text that comes from Joomla itself, though – the menus, articles, and other content you write still need to be translated by hand for each language, and any third-party extensions on the site will need their own language files before they're fully translated too.
This section covers the full lifecycle of that work: installing and configuring additional languages, linking translated content together, replacing individual pieces of text without editing core language files, and tracking down translation problems when something isn't showing up correctly.
- Setup a Multilingual Site – Installing and publishing additional languages, choosing sample data, and building out the language-specific menus, categories, and articles a multilingual site needs.
- Multilingual Associations – Linking an article, category, contact, menu item, or news feed to its translated counterparts so visitors can switch between language versions of the same content.
- Language Overrides – Replacing individual text strings from Joomla's core or an extension with a custom translation, without editing the original language files.
- Debugging a Translation – Using the Debug Language option and the System – Debug plugin to spot missing or incorrect translations and trace them back to their source.
- Language Fallbacks – New in Joomla 6.2. Falling back to a specific language, not only the standard en-GB (useful for regional language variants).