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How to Quickly Change the Language Used by InDesign

Learn the fastest and easiest way to change the language used in InDesign's interface.

Most InDesign users will never need to change the language used by the program. But if you’re among the few who do, this tip can save you some time.

The official way to change the language used by Adobe applications (including InDesign) is to use the Creative Cloud desktop app. Go to Preferences, select the new language you want, uninstall the application and then re-install it. You can read the details here.

But if you want a faster solution for InDesign that works on both macOS and Windows, and doesn’t require any uninstall/reinstall process, follow these steps. First, quit the program. Then, head to the InDesign application folder and look for subfolders named InDesign Shortcut Sets and InDesign_Workspaces.

Inside those you’ll find folders named with the codes for the currently used language, like en_US for Universal English, en_GB for International English, fr_FR for French, and so on.

localization folders within the InDesign application folder on the Macintosh

Change the names of those folders to the code of the language you want to switch to. You can find a list of all the language codes supported by InDesign here.

Restart InDesign and you’ll immediately see the change in the interface.

Adobe InDesign 2021 using Norwegian interface

InDesign using Norwegian (nb_NO) interface

Adobe InDesign 2021 using German interface

InDesign using German (de_DE) interface

Adobe InDesign 2021 using French interface

InDesign using French (fr_FR) interface

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  1. Hey guys, I think I may have found a problem with this solution. I was pretty thankful at first, but then a few weeks later my panels began to disappear and sometimes documents wouldn’t load.
    Now I’m absolutely no expert, but I’ve reinstalled InDesign about 4 times now, and only at the end did I try the ‘Adobe-Way’ of things and just changing my preferences in the Creative Cloud App, that did the trick. Since your instructions were super easy to follow, I don’t think I did anything wrong. Maybe it’s just my version (2022) but I really wished to know if there’s any way to avoid this problem. I have to reset my language presets on an almost daily basis, which currently sucks.

    But thanks anyway for all the wonderful tutorials and tricks, I love them!

    1. Mike Rankin

      Thanks for the heads up, Ken. If others report the same thing we’ll either add a warning or just tell them to use the slower, official way.

  2. Luis Felipe Corullon

    This is great. In Windows, to change these folders’ names we need Admin permissions (even being an Administrator). What I do here to switch from English to Portuguese is: a copy of my en_US folder and rename it to pt_BR in both Workspaces and Shortcut Sets folders; grant security permissions to user level in the main folders; then I write a javascript to rename the folders and quit InDesign. I just need to open InDesign again and the interface is in the ‘new’ language. Thanks for sharing this, Mr. Kahrel!

    1. Hey, Luis!
      I’ve tried exactly what you said – copying and renaming the folders with Admin permissions, but it didn’t work. Actually I didn’t understand what you mean by the script to change folders name.
      I’ve also tried switching the name of each file inside the folders – restarted, but InDesign is still in pt_BR (I wanted to switch into EN).
      Any ideas?
      Thanks

  3. Tom Berglie

    This is awesome, Peter! A real time saver: When teaching, I need to change between en_US, en_GB, and nb_NO a lot. Thanks!

  4. Jose Antonio Pulgarin Alvarez

    Thanks Peter! Good trick!
    But maybe it’s too early in the morning or I’m a bit slow. Can you show us some examples of ‘Change the names of those folders to the code of the language you want to switch to.’ ?
    The Indesign language in my system is es_ES. What if a want to change to en_US?
    Thanks in advance,
    Jose

    1. Jose Antonio Pulgarin Alvarez

      Oh my God! Maybe I must change ‘en_US’ folder name to ‘es_ES’ (after changing original folder name, of course…)???
      Sorry, I’m ashamed…