This page provides some orientation for newcomers to Web internationalization who don't really know where to start. The aim is to ease you gently into some of the material on the site.
You can find a selection of more detailed articles using the links to the right. Once you get some ideas from this page, you will probably just use Learn to internationalize, or the site search.
HTML and XML-based formats allow you to declare the natural language (ie. human rather than program language) of a document or a range of text so that tools and applications can use that information for language-sensitive tasks. These include things such as applying appropriate fonts or other styling, switching voice in text to speech, spell-checking, etc.
The more content is tagged and tagged correctly with language information, the more useful and pervasive such applications will become.
It is also possible to use language information provided by a browser or user agent to ensure that, where a choice exists, users receive data in their preferred language.
Learn more...
Why use the language attribute? discusses why, in a little more detail, content authors and developers should declare language information.
Content authors need to know how to declare the language of a document or range of text in the Web technology they are dealing with. HTML uses the lang attribute, but there may be other markup. For example, most
XML-based formats, such as XHTML, SVG, SSML, etc. make use of the xml:lang attribute defined by the XML specification.
Content authors should consider whether they need to make a difference between declaring the language of a document or range of text so that tools can process it, and declaring the intended audience of a resource (ie. metadata). You may need to apply slightly different approaches for these in HTML, for example. You should also avoid confusing language declarations with script and character encoding declarations.
Content authors and webmasters also need to know how to use values for languages in a standard way. The current standard approach for W3C specifications is to use the rules expressed in BCP 47. This replaces earlier specifications such as RFC 3066 and RFC 1766, and goes beyond information available in the ISO language and country standards. You should also use the IANA Language Subtag Registry to look up language tags, rather than the ISO specifications.
Web masters or people working with server settings may also need to set up the server so that it sends language-related HTTP information with requested files. This is typically done as part of content-negotiation, where the server sends the user one of several alternative versions of a document depending on the settings of the users browser.
HTML & CSS authors
SVG authors
XML authors
Server setup
When an HTTP request is made to a server, the requesting user agent usually sends information about language preferences. The server can then use this information to return a version of the document in the appropriate language if such an alternative is available.
End-users should know how to check that their language preferences are correctly set, and how to change them if not.
Webmasters should know how to set up their server to manage language-based content negotiation.
Web designers and developers dealing with multilingual sites should consider how to guide visitors to the right resources.
User settings
HTML & CSS authors
On most browsers, you can use CSS selectors to apply different styling according to the language of a range of text. For example, within an English document you can assign embedded Thai text a particular font and appropriate line height adjustments anywhere it appears, just by the fact that the content is labeled as Thai.
In CSS, style sheet developers can use selectors with the content property, where it is supported, to automatically
indicate the language of a link target.
User settings
HTML & CSS authors
Schema or specification developers should consider whether the format they are developing includes markup to enable authors to identify the document's main language and any changes in language within the document.
Schema or specification developers should also be clear when it is appropriate to use xml:lang in XML-based formats, and when they should
create a different attribute or element to specify language information.
Schema developers