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Need to change the text that appears on your website on certain Joomla pages, like contact form, login, etc. ?
The text that is used to display this information is contained in language files that are included with the default installation of Joomla.
The main benefit of using these language files is that they provide some uniformity throughout your website, and once you become comfortable with using these files, you can update this text across your website.
The other great advantage of using these files is that you can display your website, not including the main article, in multiple languages as long as you have the correct files installed. There are extensions available for you to use, such as Joom!Fish, that can provide your visitors with the option of changing to their native language by clicking a link.
If your site is in English, then the files are found under your main web directory at (web-root)/language/en-GB. You can work directly with these files through your hosting control panel if you’re comfortable doing that, or you can use your favorite FTP program to access the files.
Once you’ve located the file you want to work with, make sure to create a backup copy before you edit anything. This way, if you mess something up, you can always just go back to the original. Also know that these files control the default text for both the front end display as well as the back end Administrator. Make sure you are modifying the correct lines!
If the text you’d like to modify is within a component, then look for something such as “en-GB.com_” followed by the name of the component. You will also see files with .mod_ in the filename, and these refer to module language files.
We’ll update the “forgot your password” link that shows up every time you display the default Joomla login module. To update it, find the file:Access the file and open it in a plain text editor (NotePAD) on your local machine.
Again, make a backup of the file!
Search for the current text and replace it with your text. Remember, these lines provide links to perform certain functions, so if you modify them make sure the function is still perfectly clear. You will see the constant value on the left, MOD_LOGIN_REGISTER for example, and then the text you want to modify in quotations on the right.
Save the file, upload it if you are working over FTP, and test on the front end.
Clear your browser and site cache!
You should see your changes exactly how you placed them in the file. If something goes wrong, just upload the backup language file you made earlier and try again!
You can find language file packs here.
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John Wesley Brett 12 years, 10 months ago.We moved to new unified forum. Please post all new support queries in our New Forum
Joomla Language Files
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