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Typepad 101: Blogging in a non-English language

A question we often receive from potential customers is, "Can I blog in a language other than English on Typepad?" The answer is, yes, you can. In this post, we will walk you through creating a blog in a non-English language. We'll also showcase a couple of Typepad blogs in different languages.

The first thing to do is to go through all the areas in Typepad where you can customize the text that appears on your blog. Start on the Settings > Basics page for your blog and enter the blog title and blog description in your desired language. Next, head over to Design > Content. You'll want to be sure that you update both the navigation bar and blog footer modules so that the links use your preferred language. On the Settings > Categories page, you can delete or rename the default categories and add new categories. This allows you to set up all your blog categories in your desired language.

There are a few other places you might not have thought to update the language. Both posts and comments can be paginated (spread across multiple pages) and you can customize the links that allow readers to navigate across the different pages. To customize the comment pagination links, go to Settings > Comments and look for the Navigation Links section. For the post pagination links, go to Settings > Posts and again look for Navigation Links.

While you're on the Settings > Posts page, you can make the next important change: configure the Post Display Language.

Post Display Language

The results of changing the Post Display Language depend on what language you choose. For all of the languages on the list, the dates that appear in the date-based archives and the side calendar will be updated. For Japanese and the larger European languages such as French, Italian, Spanish, German, Dutch, and Finnish, the post footer and much of the automatically generated sidebar content will be updated. The automatically generated sidebar content includes the About Page Link, Post Feed, Archive lists, Recent Posts, and Recent Comments.

If your language uses a different date or time format than is common in the U.S., you can also configure the Post Date Format and Post Time format on the Settings > Posts page to use this format.

Now it's time to set up your blog's content. You can create TypeLists and photo albums in your own language. Many sidebar content modules are also highly customizable, including the Copyright module, Embed Your Own HTML (you can type text in this module, not just HTML code), and the Introduction module, among others. If you want to add a signature or a welcome message in your own language, you can do that as well.

If you're good at making graphics, you can also create a custom banner that displays your blog title and description in your preferred language. Sidebar header images are a great way to add impact to your blog's design - and you can also use them if your language isn't fully supported as a Post Display Language.

Once your blog design and settings are configured as much as possible in your desired language, it's time to get posting. You can type any language that you want for your blog posts - if your computer's keyboard supports it, you can use it.

Looking for inspiration? Check out HarpBlog. Besides their main blog in English, they have French and Spanish language blogs.

Le Harpblog

The Japanese-language blog, 小鳥ピヨピヨ, has a cute design with lots of graphics, and is also a good example of language customization using Typepad's default settings for a fully-supported language.

小鳥ピヨピヨ

There's a final option that you may want to use if you're experienced in coding in HTML. Advanced Templates allow you total control over every aspect of your blog's design. This may be a good choice for you if you're comfortable with HTML and if the language you want to use is not fully supported.

Are you blogging in a language other than English? Share a link to your blog in the comments so that everybody can check it out!

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