Like many other popular open source program, localization is a standard feature to the program, SMF do have a simple way to get your forum board setup on a local language, that is by installing a language pack.
Installing a local language pack to your SMF forum is a simple task, all you need to do is :-
- Download the language pack from official SMF website
- extract the file (it will be extracted in to a folder Themes with lots of sub folder below it)
- FTP upload the extracted folder and place it to the same Themes folder in your SMF program folder (so that all the sub folder and files below the extracted Themes folder will be placed in the appropriate folders in your hosting account SMF program folder)
NOTE: if yo are using a custom theme, there may or may not have the selected language file present, you will have to double check the template folder to see if there is, else copy the language folder uploaded to the default template into the custom template folder, note that the graphic buttons may need to work if there is any hard coded language in them
- Login to SMF administration screen, select the Core configuration screen
- At the Default Forum Language option, select the newly installed language
Note that setting the forum default language will show the selected language to all new forum visitors, if you have allowed your forum member to set their default languages (option available in the forum administration screen), individual forum member will have a choice of default language in their profile setting.
