Configuring your Zendesk for your locale and language

The default configuration of Zendesk is in the English language. However, the agent and administrator user interface, as well as the end-user experience, can be viewed in a number of supported languages . For example, the Help Center or Web portal can be displayed in more than 40 languages and you can change the language of the system messages that appear in email notifications to your end-users.

You can switch your Zendesk to a different default language by modifying your account settings and updating the default business rules that contain text in English.

If you want to support more than one language, see Configuring your Zendesk to support multiple languages .

Zendesk fully supports UTF-8 (Unicode) and all languages can be added to forms, comments, tags, and so on.

This article covers the following tasks:

• Setting your Zendesk time zone and format
• Translating system-generated new user email notifications
• Adding translated text to the agent signature
• Adding translated text in default automations, macros, and triggers
• Configuring your Help Center to support your language
• Configuring the Web portal to support your language
• Creating a Web Widget in a different language

Setting your Zendesk time zone and format

You can change your Zendesk's time zone and format so that timestamps, such as those on tickets and articles, correspond to your locale.

To set your Zendesk time and format

1. Click the Admin icon ( ) from the sidebar, then select Account .
2. Select the Localization tab.

Select the appropriate GMT time zone.

You can also select whether time appears in the 12-hour or 24-hour format.

Note: There is currently no support for locale specific date and number formats.

On Professional and Enterprise your staff and end-users to set their own time zone in the user profile.

Translating system-generated new user email notifications

When end-users sign up to use your Zendesk, they receive a number of email notifications. By default, these are in English but you can easily translate them into another language by selecting Settings > Customers and editing the messages.

The user welcome email:

Please follow the link below to choose a password, and we will log you in right away.

The email verification email:

We need to verify that you are the owner of this email address. Please follow the link below to verify.

If you run an open Zendesk and don't require your end-users to register and log in, they will not receive any of these messages. See Setting up to provide email-only support .

If you're using dynamic content (see Providing multiple language support with dynamic content , you'd replace this text with placeholders that automatically insert the appropriate language when the email notifications are sent.

Adding translated text to the agent signature

In the Agents settings page (Admin icon ( ) > Settings > Agents), you can configure an agent signature that appears in outgoing email notifications. You can use placeholders to dynamically insert the signature and phone number that agents add to their own user profiles, like in the example below:

You can also add additional text in the appropriate language to the account signature. For example:

{{agent.signature}} - {{agent.phone}}
Toute l'équipe du Support MondoCam

If you use dynamic content, you'd add a dynamic content placeholder here instead. See Providing multiple language support with dynamic content .

Translating the text in default automations, macros, and triggers

When you create a Zendesk account, a number of automations, macros, and triggers are included to help you get started managing your support workflow. Each of these contain text in English that is sent to end-users in email notifications. For more information, see the following topics:

• About the Zendesk default triggers
• Resetting default automations
• Zendesk macros to get you started

If you support more than one language, you can also use Liquid markup to generate messages in more than one language from a single business rule. For example, you can edit the Notify requester of received request trigger to generate messages based on the user's language setting. For more information, see Using Liquid markup to support multiple languages in automations, macros, and triggers .

On Professional and Enterprise, you can use dynamic content to manage content for multiple languages. Using dynamic content, you replace the text with a dynamic content placeholders that automatically insert the appropriate language version of the text based on the user's language. See Providing multiple language support with dynamic content .

Related topics

• Creating and managing triggers
• Streamlining workflow with time-based events and automations
• Using macros to update ickets and chat sessions

Configuring your Help Center to support your language

You can specify the language of the Help Center. You can also add a translated Help Center name as well as translated snippets of text.

Setting the default language of the Help Center

All Zendesk accounts can change the default language for the Help Center.

To set the default language for the Help Center

1. Click the Admin icon ( ) from the sidebar, then select Account .
2. Select the Localization tab.
3. In the Languages section, select a language.
4. Click Save tab .

For information on delivering your content in additional languages, see Localizing Help Center .

Adding a translated Help Center name

The default name of the Help Center is your Zendesk account name. You can change it in Help Center settings.

To add a translated Help Center name

1. In the Help Center, click General in the top menu bar, then select Help Center settings .

   

2. In the Languages and name section, enter a localized Help Center name for your default language.

   

3. Click Update to save your changes.

Configuring your Web portal to support your language

The Web portal can be displayed in more than 40 languages. Selecting a different language switches all of the text in the user interface to that language. You'll also need to manually translate the Forums tab name and update the home page welcome message.

Once you've fully translated the user interface text in the Web portal, you can create a knowledge base in your supported language.

Changing the default language of the Web portal

All Zendesk accounts can change the default language for the Web portal to something other than English. This affects the following pages: submit request, track requests, the home page, and the knowledge base.

To set the default language for the Web portal

1. Click the Admin icon ( ) from the sidebar, then select Account .
2. Select the Localization tab.
3. In the Languages section, select a language.
4. Click Save tab .

Your Web portal now appears in the new language..

Note: Changing this setting does not change the name of the Forums tab in your Web portal. For instructions, see Translating the name of the Forums tab .

Note: The agent's view of the forums continues to appear in English.

Note that the agent's view of the forums continues to appear in English.

If you support users in multiple languages, you can also allow your end-users to select the language that is displayed in the Web portal (see Configuring your Zendesk to support multiple languages ).

Translating the name of the Forums tab

You can change the name of the Forums in the Web portal settings page,

If you use dynamic content, you'd enter the placeholder here instead of text. See Providing multiple language support with dynamic content .

Changing the welcome message on the home page

Link to Customizing the welcome text on your Web portal topic.

Like the Forums tab name, the title and description text can be replaced with dynamic content placeholders. See Providing multiple language support with dynamic content .

Creating a Web Widget in a different language

The Web Widget is, by default, presented in the end-user's language. For instance, if the end-user's browser language is set to "es" for Spanish, the widget appears in Spanish for that user. You can also force the widget to only appear in a specific language.

For information on localizing the Web Widget, see Displaying your widget in a different language.

Disabling keyboard shortcuts

The agent and administrator Zendesk interface contains several keyboard shortcuts that conflict with keyboard shortcuts for entering characters in some other languages. Although it's not possible to remap these shortcuts, they can be disabled by an administrator using a custom JavaScript widget.

Note: JavaScript widgets are not supported if you started using Zendesk on or after August 21, 2013, or if you've activated the Help Center.

When editing tickets, the following keyboard shortcuts for submitting tickets are available:

• CTRL+S, which is a shortcut to submit the ticket update.
• CTRL+SHIFT+S, which is a shortcut to submit the update and open the next ticket.

CTRL+S is also available to agents and administrators in the new ticket form.

To add a widget to disable keyboard shortcuts

1. Click the Admin icon ( ) from the sidebar, then select Settings > Extensions .
2. Select the Widgets tab.
3. Select Add Widget .
4. Select the Global JavaScript widget.
5. Enter a title for the widget. For example: Disable keyboard shortcuts .
6. Set Available for to Anyone, including people who have not logged in .
7. In the Content input, enter the following code:

   jQuery(function() { 
   jQuery(document).unbind('.zendesk.keyboard-shortcut'); 
   });

8. Click Submit .

Note: This widget will not disable CTRL+M, also available when updating tickets, which opens the Apply Macro menu.

The keyboard shortcuts are still displayed in the Submit drop-down menu options, but are now disabled.