About regional and language considerations

You can control the language and regional settings available for Web sites based on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services by using two methods:

• Language template packs    Language template packs allow you to use site templates designed for specific languages. When you create a site based on a site template in a language template pack, the navigation and pages for that site are displayed in that language.
• Regional settings    You can customize every Web site, including top-level Web sites and subsites based on Windows SharePoint Services, to use specific regional settings that apply to the users of your site. You can specify the following regional settings:
  • Locale    Controls how numbers and dates are displayed in the site.
  • Sort order    Controls the sort orders used for lists and libraries.
  • Time zone    Controls the time zone for the Web site.
  • Time format    Specifies whether to display times in 12-hour or 24-hour format.

  To specify the locale ID for a site, you can use either SharePoint Central Administration or the command line. To change the sort order, time zone, or time format for a site, you must use SharePoint Central Administration.

About languages and locales

Windows SharePoint Services uses the following terms to describe the language and regional settings that are used for a Web site:

• Language ID    The language ID specified when a Web site is created controls the language used in the Web site itself. For example, if the site was created in French (language ID 1036), then all of the toolbars, navigation bars, _layouts pages, and so on, appear in French. If the site was created in Arabic (1025), then the text is in Arabic, and the default left-to-right orientation of the site is change to right-to-left to properly display Arabic text.

  By default, Windows SharePoint Services has language packs that contain site templates for 25 language IDs. You can install one or more of these language packs to a Web server to support users creating sites in as many languages as you need. For example, if you have a server running the Japanese version (language ID 1041) of Windows SharePoint Services, you can install a US English (1033) language pack with templates that allow users to create sites configured for US English.

• Locale ID    The locale ID is specified on the Regional Settings page, and affects how numbers, calendars, sorting, and time are displayed in the site. For example, if you have a US English language site (language ID 1033), and you change the locale ID to French (Canada) (locale ID 3084), then the Events list and Calendar views reflect the French notations for dates, numbers, time, and so on. The locale ID does not affect the orientation of the site. Choosing Arabic (Egypt) (locale ID 3073) does not change the site to right-to-left orientation, but does allow you to display the Events list with dates in Arabic notation. Each language template has a default locale ID. For example, in the US English (1033) template, the default locale ID is also 1033.

  Windows SharePoint Services supports all of the locale IDs supported by Windows Server 2003.

Related Topics

Configure regional settings

Install a language pack