Translation Language Settings
Translation Language Settings is a Setup page where administrators manage the languages available for translation in the Translation Workbench.
Definition
Translation Language Settings is a Setup page where administrators manage the languages available for translation in the Translation Workbench. It allows admins to enable specific languages for translating custom labels, picklist values, help text, and other translatable metadata components in the org.
In plain English
“Here's a simple way to think about it: Translation Language Settings opens the Translation Workbench to a specific language pair. Enable French; the Workbench grows a French column. Leave it off; French translation isn't possible regardless of UI language enablement.”
Worked example
The admin at GlobalTech opens Translation Language Settings and adds French, German, and Japanese as active translation languages. She then assigns translators for each language and grants them access to the Translation Workbench, where they can translate custom field labels, picklist values, and validation rule error messages into their respective languages.
Why Translation Language Settings open the Translation Workbench to a specific language pair
The Translation Workbench is the surface where translatable metadata - custom labels, picklist values, help text, error messages - gets a localized version. Translation Language Settings is the gate that decides which languages are visible inside the Workbench. Enable French here, and the Workbench grows a French column; leave it off, and the entire translation workflow for French simply doesn't exist for your org.
The reason it's a separate page from Language Settings is that letting users choose a language and letting translators produce content in that language are different decisions. A market may need a UI in Spanish before any internal team is ready to translate the custom labels - in which case you enable Spanish in Language Settings (UI flips to Salesforce's standard Spanish translation) but leave it off here (Workbench doesn't gain a Spanish column). Coordinate the two pages with whoever owns translation work.
How to set up Translation Language Settings
Translation Language Settings configure which languages your org supports for UI translation via Translation Workbench. It's the org-wide list — adding a language here unlocks per-language translation work in Translation Workbench.
- Open Setup → Translation Settings
Setup gear → Quick Find: Translation → Translation Settings (Translation Language Settings is a synonym path).
- Tick Enable Translation Workbench
First-time enablement. Required before adding languages.
- Click Supported Languages → Add
Multi-select from the list of Salesforce-supported languages — French, Spanish, German, Japanese, etc.
- For each added language, assign Translators
Translation Workbench → Translators → assign Salesforce Users by language. Translators can edit only their assigned language.
- Save
Languages are now translatable. Open Translation Workbench → Translate to start populating per-language strings.
From Salesforce's list of 50+ supported languages.
Salesforce Users with edit access for that language.
End-User languages allow display only. Platform languages allow display + admin / Setup translation.
- End-User Languages are display-only. A user set to an End-User Language sees translated UI but admin Setup pages stay in the org's default language.
- Adding a new Supported Language doesn't automatically populate translations. Each translatable string must be entered via Translation Workbench manually or imported via XLF.
- Per-Profile Language overrides exist but are limited. Most language assignment happens at the User level.
How organizations use Translation Language Settings
Enabled Spanish in both Language Settings and Translation Language Settings before EU expansion; translation pipeline ready before market entry.
Multi-language patient content uses Workbench for clinical terms; the gating settings ensure approved translators have the right surfaces.
Trust & references
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Translation Language Settings.
- Add Translated Languages and TranslatorsSalesforce Help
🧠 Test your knowledge
Q1. Why is understanding Translation Language Settings important for Salesforce admins?
Q2. What is the primary benefit of Translation Language Settings for Salesforce administrators?
Q3. Can a Salesforce admin configure Translation Language Settings without writing code?
Discussion
Loading discussion…