Change language of an Indesign document ?

[AndreBellaiche]

How can I change the language from English-UK to French for one Indesign document ? I do not want to change the default language of the application, since I am working simultaneously with the French and English versions of the same document.

[jane-e]

It is a character setting and is found in the character and control panels. It is best applied to styles, of course, although you could do a select all and then update your styles.

You apply the French to just selected text, so it doesn't have to be the whole document.

Some people use layers for what I think you are doing:

1. Graphics

2. English-UK

3. French

Hidden layers don't print.

[AndreBellaiche]

But I do want to apply the French to the whole document! In only one move.

I cannot really use layers, because the French translation is usually 10 or 15% longer than the English text and the original page layout is lost after 2 or 3 pages.

It would be difficult to change the language for every style, as there seems to be more than 200 or 300 styles in the document I have received.

What I am looking for is a kind of "mother of all styles" which should exist somewhere in the software. By modifying this mother style, I would be able to modify at once all the existing styles.

Thank you, Jane, for allowing me to clarify my point.

[BobLevine]

It won’t help here but this is where based on comes in handy. If you started with one style that you don’t even use in the document and base things on it you could just change the language there and it would flow through the entire document.

[lfcorullon]

Try my script to apply a language to the text frames and styles:

http://bit.ly/scripts_lfc

[AnneMarie Concepcion]

Nice! I love your scripts. I'd like to "buy you a cup of coffee" (at the bottom of your page) but the form is in Portuguese and I don't understand one of the fields.

[lfcorullon]

What an honor, AM!

Users from outside Brazil must uses the PayPal donation button.

I'll remove the portuguese ones...

Thank you so much!

[MELZ]

This script is not working on my INDD2024.  Is it still supported?

[jane-e · Accepted solution]

Bob's idea is excellent (if you planned ahead).

Setting the language is a character-based setting. If you decided to make the entire document bold (horrors!) or change the type-size or change the typeface, those would also be character-based.

Many people base styles on other styles instead of making them stand-alone, which makes it easier to add in this kind of change.

For example:

Body copy stands alone

Bullets are based on body copy

First para is based on body copy

When body copy is edited, all three change.

This far along and with 200 or 300 styles--if they are not in separate frames--you could Select All with the Type tool and change the language. It is not a best practice to do local formatting, but you could then redefine the styles if you had time.

Note that changing the language does not translate. It spell checks and hyphenates in the appropriate language.

If you want a "mother of all styles", you need to create it yourself and base all styles on it. There is one base style built into InDesign, but most people don't use it and create their own instead. You could spot check some of your styles and see what they are based on. If they have the same parent (unlikely, but possible), you can redefine the parent and the children will change. It's worth looking.

[AndreBellaiche]

I have checked some styles, and most of them are based on [Aucun style], that is [No style]. And there is no way to change the style [No style].

Bob's idea is good, I would even say evident, but some publishing houses prefer not to use it. Alernatively, Adobe could make [No style] modifiable.

Jane, do you suggest that I select all of a chapter, for instance (this seems possible, but the text in the tables is not selected) and I change the language in the character menu, in the same way as if I wanted to make all the text bold? Are you sure this not harmful? Will this operation be sufficient to get French hyphenation (my main concern)?

The alternative is feasable: Delete all the unused paragraph styles, and modify the remaining styles (only 100, instead of more than 600) by hand?

Will the result be the same for both ways? Or is one of the ways preferable?

[BobLevine]

How do you propose to modify something that by definition has no definition?

[winterm]

I don't get it. What stops you from using lf.corullon's script, which does the job In the blink of an eye? It correctly updates Para and Char styles, also takes care about the text with no style applied. Not sure if it digs into Style groups, didn't test.

There are other scripts with identical functions (Loic Aigon's version comes to mind), but this one offered to you works just fine, too.

Deleting all the unused paragraph styles is quite good idea, anyway. Clean project is always better than that full of clutter and junk.

@Bob: Ha! Couldn't say better

[lfcorullon]

Yes. It changes all the paraStyles and charStyles, even if them are within groups.

I use it a lot.

[AndreBellaiche]

To winterm. I am not able to use LF Corullon's script because I have never used scripts. I would not no where to begin.

To Bob. They do not say "Not based on anything", they say "Based on [Sans]". So it is enough to change provisionally the definition (or non-definition if you like) of [Sans], during the time the styles are charged, then to restore the original definition of [Sans]. After that, you are free to copy the styles in any file you like. This would do no harm, since the internal definition of [Sans] has surely a different name: "sans" is the French word for "without".

In TeX or LaTeX I could almost do that, and TeX gurus could certainly do it.

[lfcorullon]

That's not a problem.

Follow the steps in this video and you'll be able to use scripts in InDesign.

You'll never look to ID as before the scripts usage.

InDesign JavaScript by LFCorullón | Como instalar scripts | How to install - YouTube

[jane-e]

AndreBellaiche  wrote

To winterm. I am not able to use LF Corullon's script because I have never used scripts. I would not no where to begin.

Don't be afraid of scripts. They automate the process instead of you doing it manually. I haven't seen this one, but plan to look at it when I get a chance.

To "install" a script, you copy and paste it into your Scripts folder, preferably the User sub-folder.

To use it, double-click it.

To view it, look at it in a text editor.

Try a built-in one in a new document.

Try this one in a copy of your document.

And while you are thinking of the pros and cons, think of the time you are facing doing this manually.

If you have any control over the process, setting it up correctly in the beginning is always a Best Practice.

Check back here and let us know how it goes.

Wishing you the best,

Jane

[lfcorullon]

A very good practice is save your document before to run any script.

If anything goes wrong, just revert your document.

[AndreBellaiche]

I have downloaded lf.corullon's script. After some bad experience in the past, I was reluctant to download an unarchiver from an unknown website to open the rar file, but I found a free one (The Unarchiver) on App Store. The script was very easy to install and to use, and it works.

Thank you all for your help.

LF, I will not forget your Paypal account.

André

[lfcorullon]

We're very welcome André.

Thank you!

[softa92382644]

Hi Luis,

I have also downloaded your script and it works as expected. Thank you so much.

BR;

Javier.

[Stefano2185312033bd]

You have no idea how much this helped to speed up the design of the files for an educational project. Thanks a lot. I am going to give you a coffee straight forward on your website, it is the minimum I can do. Beautiful script. 

[Jongware]

If you did not use styles or don't mind having the language as a local override, use Find/Change: How do I change the language in InDesign so that I can do a spell check (in this case from english t...

You don't have even to search for a specific language, you can put any formatting in the Find field that you are sure of to be applied to all of your text, e.g., "color: Black" or "underline tint: 100%".

[Benadryl Coughsyrup]

I'm probably late for the party, but other readers might still profit.
Here's how I do it:

• call up the find/replace panel
• if not yet open, click on "More options"
• you will see two more input fields labelled "Find format" and "Change format" respectively
• on the right of "Find format", find the (tiny) magnifying glass icon, click on it
• a window opens, titles "Find Format settings"
• in the list on the left choose Advanced character settings
• in the right panel on the bottom a dropdown list appears, labelled "Language"
• use this list to select the source language (the one you want to change from)
• click OK (window closes)
• now do the same for the "Change format" panel, this time select your wanted target langet (the one you want to change to), OK, back to find/replace main pane.
• you will see that your source and target language appear marked with a little plus sign
• do not put anything into "find what" or "change to"!
• In the "Search" dropdown select "Document"
• Hit "Change all"

Voìla! The description might be a bit lengthy, the process only takes a few seconds.

[Willi Adelberger]

Why so complicated? 

1. Work with paragraph and character styles.
2. Change the language in the paragraph style.

Your description will cause a manual format change and this must be avoided!

[JR Boulay]

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