phpBB • Free and Open Source Forum Software

In phpBB, you can upload several language packs for your users to use. Every text string displayed by the system should be translated after you upload a new language pack. Using a different language pack does not change the contents of posts, as translating them is not possible due to the various content they can have and the limits of computer translation.

Language packs can be downloaded from the Downloads page on phpBB.com. To add a language pack, unzip the downloaded file and upload the contents to the language/ directory. The files should be contained in a directory named with the language's ISO code, the default British English pack is in the en/ directory for example. After you upload the files to the system, the pack should show in the Uninstalled language packs list. Click Install to add it to the board and make it available for users.

If you are not comfortable with editing PHP files manually and you would like to change some text phpBB is displaying, you can use the in-built language pack editor which is accessible once you click the language pack title in the Installed language packs list. You can change the language pack details and the contents of individual language files on this page. In case you have more language packs installed and you select another language pack than the default one, you will see a list of untranslated variables if the packs are not synchronised. This is useful when you install MODs for one language and you cannot find what language strings you are missing in the other ones for example.

If you choose to edit a file using the ACP you have two options on how to update the translation on the board. First you can choose to Submit or Submit and download the file, which will store the file you are editing in the store/ directory and the file will be offered for download if you choose the second button. If you choose to save the file in the store directory, you will have to manually move it to the language pack directory. The second possibility, which is right under these two buttons is to move the file to the language pack directory by using FTP. You will be prompted for FTP login credentials and if possible the file be saved and updated immediately by the script.