Changing Languages (Desktop and Advanced Editor)

Language settings within a document fall into two important distinctions: Document-wide languages, and tag or section-specific languages.
 

• Document-wide languages: This is sometimes referred to as a document's "primary language." This reflects the language that is used in the entirety of the document or the majority of the document. For example, if the document is entirely English or all but one section of the document is in English, the primary language should be set to English. This field needs to be set in the document Metadata. 
• Tag-specific or section-specific languages: This is used with a section or tag uses a language that is different from the primary language. This change needs to be set in the properties of the relevant tag. For example, if the document is in English, but there is one section in Spanish, the primary language should be set to English in the document Metadata, and the tags that are written in Spanish should be set to Spanish in their tag properties. 

Document-Wide Languages

Languages that reflect the entirety of or majority of the document need to be set in a document's Metadata. To do so, navigate to the Windows tab and select Metadata. 

Tag-Specific Languages

Sometimes the language of a section in a document needs to be changed from the document’s primary language.  If the content is tagged in a Paragraph, List, Table, etc. then, in the Properties panel for that tag, the language can be easily changed.  However, when dealing with a word or phrase within a sentence or paragraph, place the text in a Span tag and then, in the Properties panel for that tag, scroll down to the bottom and select the correct language.

Note:  Span tags have a number of very helpful uses.  Refer to the article on Span Tags for more information. 

The screenshot below shows the word “fajitas” placed in a Span tag.  In the Properties panel, the language has been set to Spanish and the country has been set to Mexico. 

Language and Language Changes When Running a Verification

When verifying a document for compliance CommonLook will ask you to set and/or verify the language is correct for the document and its parts.  When the language has been changed for a tag, a section, etc., CommonLook will also ask you to verify that the change in language is correct. 

What to do if a Needed Language is not an Option?

In some scenarios, a needed language is not listed in the language drop-down. For example, if you are working on a document with the Hmong language in it, that is simply not an option in the tag properties. It is important to understand that the languages listed in this menu are all of the languages that are supported by PDF.  Here are two possible solutions if the language of your document is not listed: 

1. Use a custom language code in Adobe Acrobat.  All languages have custom codes that can be used to identify and indicate language use. In the case of Hmong, the language code is "hmn." These language codes can usually be found with a quick internet search or by visiting the following Wikipedia pages that list all needed codes (Hmong is on the second page of codes):

   • 639-1
   • 639-2
   • 639-3
      
2. Use a parent-language and country in CommonLook PDF

In some scenarios, creatively using languages and countries can help better share the needed language properties. For example, a document from Australia would be technically written in English, but changing the country to Australia could make a screen reader share the information with an Australian accent. In a situation like this, it is valuable to indicate the parent language and the country of the spoken language.

Note: Please understand that both of these solutions can be viable, but that in some situations, one of these will offer a better experience to the audience using assistive technology. For our example with the Hmong language, there is no easily-identifiable parent language, so using the language code would be the ideal solution. Additionally, these solutions are always at the mercy of the assistive technology's functionality. To put it plainly, if we use the correct custom language code for Hmong but the screen reader doesn't have the capability of sharing Hmong, the coding is not going to change that.  

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