Note
Information about this topic for WinCC Advanced is available in the system manual in this chapter:
"WinCC Advanced > Visualizing processes > Using global functions > Managing languages".

Information about this topic for WinCC Professional is available in the system manual in this chapter:
"WinCC Professional > Editing projects> Creating and managing projects > Working with multi-language projects".

This entry is for WinCC flexible.

Configuration Notes
With regard to languages, distinctions are made between:

• User interface languages - the language shown in the menus in WinCC flexible ES
• Project languages - the languages in which the project is created.
  Note
  Always check beforehand in the catalog (in the ST80 catalog, for example) to see which languages your operator panel supports.
• System message languages - default languages in which system messages are displayed.
• Online languages/runtime languages - the languages which can be selected in the runtime software or on the panels in runtime.
• Peculiarities in online languages - languages, such as Arabic, which are written from right to left.

User interface languages
Up to WinCC flexible 2005 the configuration interface can be set to five languages depending on the edition of WinCC flexible. German, English, Spanish, Italian and French are available in the standard editions. English, Chinese (traditional), Chinese (simplified), Japanese and Korean can be set in the editions for the Asian market. Up to WinCC flexible 2005 you cannot install the standard editions and the Asian additions together on one PC.
From WinCC flexible 2007 onwards you can activate the languages depending on the license you have. This means that there are nine possible user interface languages for WinCC flexible. The user interface language can be changed in WinCC flexible via "Options > Settings". The current language can be changed in the "Settings" menu (Fig. 01) under "Workbench" > "User interface language" provided the required language is installed during the installation of WinCC flexible.

Fig. 01
 

WinCC flexible	Languages
Version	German, English, French, Italian, Spanish	English, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Korean, Japanese
2004	X
2004 ASIA		X
2005	X
2005 ASIA		X
From 2007 onwards	X	X

Table 01 - Languages available for the different versions of WinCC flexible

Project languages
A project in WinCC flexible can be created in up to 32 standard Windows languages. The requirement is that that your language choice has been loaded in the regional options in Windows. They can be found in the Control Panel under "Start > ("Settings") > Control Panel > Regional and Language Options (or "Regional Options")".
There you can set the required options for the languages in which you wish to configure. Select the project languages in the following menu in WinCC flexible. (Fig. 02). Texts and text lists can then be edited in the selected languages.

Fig. 02

System message languages
There are specified standard languages available for system messages for panels and PC Runtime 21. If another language is selected, system messages are output in English on the panel or in the runtime software.
Should you wish to receive system messages in a language other than those listed here, this can be edited. However, this should be done with great care as it involves system intervention. It is imperative that you follow the relevant instructions in the WinCC flexible Help. You can find the relevant place quickly by clicking "System messages" in the index.

System messages are available and tested in the following languages:
German, English, Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese (traditional), Chinese (simplified), Japanese, Korean, Czech, Danish, Greek, Finnish, Hungarian, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Swedish and Turkish.

Online languages
You can load a maximum of five languages to a panel; with WinCC flexible 2007 from the 277 series, you can load 16 languages from the configuration. They can be compiled and selected in any way (
Important:
The standard layout of online keyboards or virtual alpha keyboards in panels is "English (US)". Other languages are not available.
WinCE system messages on the panel are likewise always in English.

Fig. 03

Peculiarities in online languages:
Should you wish to use a language which is not supported as standard by Windows, you must first incorporate this into Windows, as described in Project languages. It can then be selected in WinCC flexible. If, for example, you select Arabic or another of the fonts which are written from right to left, it is important to note that the standard font "Tahoma" cannot be retained for the PC. As shown in Fig. 04, the "configured font family 0" (1) must be converted first to a language-dependent font, such as "Simplified Arabic Fixed". This font then has to be selected for the "standard font" (2).

Note
Panels with Windows CE or Linux as operating system do not support fonts written from right to left. This is only possible with WinCC flexible PC Runtime.

Fig. 04