1 *mlang.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Jul 20
4 VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar
7 Multi-language features *multilang* *multi-lang*
9 This is about using messages and menus in various languages. For editing
10 multi-byte text see |multibyte|.
12 The basics are explained in the user manual: |usr_45.txt|.
14 1. Messages |multilang-messages|
15 2. Menus |multilang-menus|
16 3. Scripts |multilang-scripts|
18 Also see |help-translated| for multi-language help.
20 {Vi does not have any of these features}
21 {not available when compiled without the |+multi_lang| feature}
23 ==============================================================================
24 1. Messages *multilang-messages*
26 Vim picks up the locale from the environment. In most cases this means Vim
27 will use the language that you prefer, unless it's not available.
29 To see a list of supported locale names on your system, look in one of these
30 directories (for Unix):
33 Unfortunately, upper/lowercase differences matter. Also watch out for the
36 *:lan* *:lang* *:language* *E197*
38 :lan[guage] mes[sages]
41 Print the current language (aka locale).
42 With the "messages" argument the language used for
43 messages is printed. Technical: LC_MESSAGES.
44 With the "ctype" argument the language used for
45 character encoding is printed. Technical: LC_CTYPE.
46 With the "time" argument the language used for
47 strftime() is printed. Technical: LC_TIME.
48 Without argument all parts of the locale are printed
49 (this is system dependent).
50 The current language can also be obtained with the
51 |v:lang|, |v:ctype| and |v:lc_time| variables.
54 :lan[guage] mes[sages] {name}
55 :lan[guage] cty[pe] {name}
56 :lan[guage] tim[e] {name}
57 Set the current language (aka locale) to {name}.
58 The locale {name} must be a valid locale on your
59 system. Some systems accept aliases like "en" or
60 "en_US", but some only accept the full specification
61 like "en_US.ISO_8859-1". On Unix systems you can use
62 the this command to see what locales are supported: >
64 < With the "messages" argument the language used for
65 messages is set. This can be different when you want,
66 for example, English messages while editing Japanese
67 text. This sets $LC_MESSAGES.
68 With the "ctype" argument the language used for
69 character encoding is set. This affects the libraries
70 that Vim was linked with. It's unusual to set this to
71 a different value from 'encoding'. This sets
73 With the "time" argument the language used for time
74 and date messages is set. This affects strftime().
76 Without an argument both are set, and additionally
78 When compiled with the |+float| feature the LC_NUMERIC
79 value will always be set to "C", so that floating
80 point numbers use '.' as the decimal point.
81 This will make a difference for items that depend on
82 the language (some messages, time and date format).
83 Not fully supported on all systems
84 If this fails there will be an error message. If it
85 succeeds there is no message. Example: >
88 :language de_DE.ISO_8859-1
90 Current messages language: de_DE.ISO_8859-1
94 MS-WINDOWS MESSAGE TRANSLATIONS *win32-gettext*
96 If you used the self-installing .exe file, message translations should work
97 already. Otherwise get the libintl.dll file if you don't have it yet:
99 http://sourceforge.net/projects/gettext
101 This also contains tools xgettext, msgformat and others.
103 libintl.dll should be placed in same directory with (g)vim.exe, or some
104 place where PATH environment value describe. Message files (vim.mo)
105 have to be placed in "$VIMRUNTIME/lang/xx/LC_MESSAGES", where "xx" is the
106 abbreviation of the language (mostly two letters).
108 If you write your own translations you need to generate the .po file and
109 convert it to a .mo file. You need to get the source distribution and read
110 the file "src/po/README.txt".
112 To overrule the automatic choice of the language, set the $LANG variable to
113 the language of your choice. use "en" to disable translations. >
117 (text for Windows by Muraoka Taro)
119 ==============================================================================
120 2. Menus *multilang-menus*
122 See |45.2| for the basics, esp. using 'langmenu'.
124 Note that if changes have been made to the menus after the translation was
125 done, some of the menus may be shown in English. Please try contacting the
126 maintainer of the translation and ask him to update it. You can find the
127 name and e-mail address of the translator in
128 "$VIMRUNTIME/lang/menu_<lang>.vim".
130 To set the font (or fontset) to use for the menus, use the |:highlight|
133 :highlight Menu font=k12,r12
138 Unfortunately, the locale names are different on various systems, even though
139 they are for the same language and encoding. If you do not get the menu
140 translations you expected, check the output of this command: >
144 Now check the "$VIMRUNTIME/lang" directory for menu translation files that use
145 a similar language. A difference in a "-" being a "_" already causes a file
146 not to be found! Another common difference to watch out for is "iso8859-1"
147 versus "iso_8859-1". Fortunately Vim makes all names lowercase, thus you
148 don't have to worry about case differences. Spaces are changed to
149 underscores, to avoid having to escape them.
151 If you find a menu translation file for your language with a different name,
152 create a file in your own runtime directory to load that one. The name of
153 that file could be: >
155 ~/.vim/lang/menu_<v:lang>.vim
157 Check the 'runtimepath' option for directories which are searched. In that
158 file put a command to load the menu file with the other name: >
160 runtime lang/menu_<other_lang>.vim
165 If you want to do your own translations, you can use the |:menutrans| command,
166 explained below. It is recommended to put the translations for one language
167 in a Vim script. For a language that has no translation yet, please consider
168 becoming the maintainer and make your translations available to all Vim users.
169 Send an e-mail to the Vim maintainer <maintainer@vim.org>.
171 *:menut* *:menutrans* *:menutranslate*
172 :menut[ranslate] clear
173 Clear all menu translations.
175 :menut[ranslate] {english} {mylang}
176 Translate menu name {english} to {mylang}. All
177 special characters like "&" and "<Tab>" need to be
178 included. Spaces and dots need to be escaped with a
179 backslash, just like in other |:menu| commands.
181 See the $VIMRUNTIME/lang directory for examples.
183 To try out your translations you first have to remove all menus. This is how
184 you can do it without restarting Vim: >
185 :source $VIMRUNTIME/delmenu.vim
186 :source <your-new-menu-file>
187 :source $VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim
189 Each part of a menu path is translated separately. The result is that when
190 "Help" is translated to "Hilfe" and "Overview" to "Überblick" then
191 "Help.Overview" will be translated to "Hilfe.Überblick".
193 ==============================================================================
194 3. Scripts *multilang-scripts*
196 In Vim scripts you can use the |v:lang| variable to get the current language
197 (locale). The default value is "C" or comes from the $LANG environment
200 The following example shows how this variable is used in a simple way, to make
201 a message adapt to language preferences of the user, >
203 :if v:lang =~ "de_DE"
204 : echo "Guten Morgen"
206 : echo "Good morning"
210 vim:tw=78:sw=4:ts=8:ft=help:norl: