Configuring your Zendesk for your locale and language

Configuring your Zendesk for your locale and language

The default configuration of Zendesk is in the English language. However, the user experience supports other 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.

To switch your Zendesk to a different language, you'll need to do the following:

• Set your time zone and format
• Translate the system-generated new user email notifications
• Optionally, add translated text to the agent signature
• Translate the text in default automations, macros, and triggers
• Configure the Help Center to support your language
• Configure the Web portal to support your language
• Optionally, create a Feedback Tab

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.
   Zendesk Classic: Select the Settings menu, 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.

In the Plus and Enterprise versions of Zendesk, you can allow 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:

• Resetting 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.

In the Plus and Enterprise versions of Zendesk, 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

• Streamlining workflow with ticket updates and triggers
• Streamlining workflow with time-based events and automations
• Using macros to update tickets and chat sessionsUsing macros to update and add comments to tickets

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 the 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 Settings in the tools panel on the lower-right side of the page.

   

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.
   Zendesk Classic: Select the Settings menu, 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 Selecting the languages you want to support).

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 Feedback Tab in a different language

You can display the Feedback Tab in a language other than English. For example, if you want to include the Feedback Tab in your Web portal, you select the language when setting the Feedback Tab options and generating the JavaScript code that you include in a Global JavaScript widget.

To set the language for a Feedback Tab

1. Click the Admin icon () in the sidebar, then select Channels > Feedback Tab.
   Zendesk Classic: Select the Setting menu, then select Channels > Feedback Tab > Edit.
2. Select a language.
3. Click Preview & grab code snippet. Follow the instructions for creating a Feedback Tab in Setting up your Feedback Tab channel.

Note: If you support more than one language and want Feedback Tabs on each of your localized web sites, you create Feedback Tabs for each and then place that JavaScript code in each localized web site.

For example here's what the Italian version of the Feedback Tab user interface looks like to your end-users:

The Feedback Tab itself, which is placed along the edge of the Web browser, looks like this:

When you create a Feedback Tab, you select one of the following titles to use. They are images and are in English only.

To create a translated version of the Feedback Tab title, you need to create a custom image. Follow the instructions in Creating your own Feedback Tab translation below.

Note: If you're curious, your language selection isn't explicitly declared in the JavaScript code that is generated for the Feedback Tab. It is instead associated with the Feedback Tab ID (called the dropboxID) in the code below. When the Feedback Tab is clicked on and opened, the JavaScript code displays the language you selected when you created it.

<script type="text/JavaScript" src="//asset0.zendesk.com/external/zenbox/v2.4/zenbox.js"></script>
<style type="text/css" media="screen, projection">
  @import url(//asset0.zendesk.com/external/zenbox/v2.4/zenbox.css);
</style>
<script type="text/javascript">
  if (typeof(Zenbox) !== "undefined") {
    Zenbox.init({
      dropboxID:   "2830039812",
      url:         "https://myaccount.zendesk.com",
      tabID:       "support",
      tabColor:    "black",
      tabPosition: "Left"
    });
  }
</script>

Creating your own Feedback Tab translation

You also have the option of creating your own translation by selecting the Advanced Customization tab of the Feedback Tab settings page and entering your own text.

Even if you do not want or need to create your own translation, you'll most likely want to add a customized tab title. As noted above, the default tab titles are in English only.

If you want to change the Feedback Tab title to another language, you need to create and host an image that is 45 pixels wide and 108 pixels tall in a vertical orientation. You then link to that image from the Advanced Customization tab.

The supported image formats are PNG, GIF, and JPG.