Changing the Language on Your Computer

Computers allow you to change all sorts of things in order to make them easier for you to use.  Each thing that you change only changes SOME of the programs on your computer.

This post will at least show you where to go to change the language. Knowing that it can be done is the first step.

You may need to go into each of the programs that you want to use and change the language that it uses. The way this is done varies with each program, but there are a few things that are the same. The instructions below should get you started. As usual, if you have anything to add to what is here please put a comment so that we can all learn from each other.

ON A MAC
On a Mac all of the controls are in the System Preferences.

1. The best place to find these is to click on the Apple at the top corner of the screen. On my computer it is black, but it can also be a rainbow apple. 
2. Look for the word System Preferences in the window that comes down.
3. When you choose System Preferences you will see that in the top row you have a choice called Languages and Text.

1. When you open this up it will give you lots of choices for how you want your computer to communicate to you.
2. Down below that you will see something called "Universal Access". This is where you can change the size of the font and the color of the screen. You can also make it so that your computer talks to you and change the speed of the keyboard and the mouse.

3.  On the top row is a button called Languages and Text. Click on this to set the main language for your computer to use. 

4. Once you have clicked on it you can drag the language you want your computer to show to the top of the list. You can also change several other things that have to do with language here, like what characters show up when you type or what format is shown for money or time.

On this blog there is an arrow on the top right that lets me change the language that it shows up in and it changes right away.

ON A PC

On a PC all of the set up items are found in the Control Panel.  Click on the Start Button or picture of windows on the bottom left corner. On the right side you will see the words Control Panel.

In this window you will be able to change the LOCATION which tells the computer that you are in a different country. Your time will change on the clock. Then you can choose the tab at the top of the page Keyboards and Languages. Here you can choose to change the default language for input. 

When you open the Control Panel one of the choices is Clock, Language and Region. 







Click on that choice and then choose Region and Language. 










 Once you have set your main languages there is a language bar that shows up at the top and you can switch back and forth.

 When I changed the language settings on my computer it seemed to change the languages on most of the webpages in Internet Explorer.












It also changed the way that words showed up in the controls of my computer.