One PDF document - multiple languages

[Ledrocnoc]

I need to distribute a PDF file in 7 different languages.  I was wondering if there was a way to have only one electronic file that would contain all the 7 different language versions and when a user opens the file have either Acrobat Reader select which language to display based on the current user default language selection or have the user select which language he wants to see the file displayed in.

[lrosenth · Accepted solution]

Absolutely!

The feature of PDF is called “Optional Content Groups” (or Layers, in the UI) and has been there for over a decade (since Acrobat 5). You can author this in products such as Adobe InDesign or many PDF libraries including Adobe’s.

[try67]

Just to elaborate a bit, once you created the PDF with the layers you would need to set up some mechanism that allows the user to switch between them. That can be done using a drop-down field that shows/hides the various layers based on the user's selection, or even automatically by checking the application's language property and using it to determine which layers to display when the file is opened. All of this will require a custom-made script, though.

[lrosenth]

Actually, language will happen automatically if the OCGs are properly configured with appropriate AutoState.

And there is always the Layers panel that the user can switch.

But, as Try67 says - custom scripts and UI are good!

[m.johnson2027]

Is it possible to attach an example of what this document would look like - One pdf with 7 languages? I am curious on how it is layed out and how the end user interacts with the different languages within.