Introduction

OpenOffice traditionally has always had excellent localization support, especially with its support of over 100 languages, including many minority languages that are not commonly supported in commercial products. Our community-led, all-volunteer, open source development model facilitates this.

Each new version of OpenOffice requires the translations to be updated, to add translations for terms and phrases that have been added or changed in the product. So maintaining support for any given translation is an ongoing effort, requiring volunteers to help keep the translations current, complete and accurate.

A list of complete, released, translations available in the most recent release of Apache OpenOffice can be found here.

A larger list of languages, including ones where translation work is still ongoing, can be found here, while the full list of available translations, including incomplete and dormant ones, is available here.

How to Help

First, subscribe to our localization ("L10N") mailing list by sending an email to L10N-subscribe@openoffice.apache.org; you will receive a confirmation request, just reply to it to be subscribed.

If an OpenOffice build is already available in your language, you should download and install it. If you find errors in the translation, you can report them via bug reports in Bugzilla or enter a suggested fix into Pootle (more on Pootle below). You can contact the L10n list also for reporting errors in the English version.

If an OpenOffice build is not yet available for your language, then that typically means that the translation is not yet complete. You can help finish the translation by obtaining an account in Pootle, our online translation system.

Please refer to our comprehensive guide to the OpenOffice Pootle server to know how to request access to Pootle and find useful tips for translators.

When you have completed the initial translation, send a note to the L10n list. At that point we can make a special test build of Apache OpenOffice for you to review. If more changes are required in the translation, we can iterate on these steps, making changes, making new test builds, etc.

Note: This process works best if there is a community of users supporting the effort, and not just a single translator. The additional users, even if they cannot help with the translation directly, can help review the test build and point out errors in translation, as well as other localization errors. Others on the OpenOffice project might be able to help you find other interested users, so let us know, via a note to the L10n list if you want that help.