Is it possible to launch a program in a specific language?

Question

I'm a developer, and my primary language is French, so I use Mac OS X in French. However, I need on a regular basis to open an application in English to do support.

Right now I'm going to the International System Preferences and I put English above in the languages list, then I open the app I need to run in English. When I'm done, I switch it back to French.

This is an annoying process. Is there something else I can use, like a command-line program, to launch an application in a specific language?

score 73 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:18

73

You can change the language inside the preferences file of the application :

defaults write com.apple.TextEdit AppleLanguages '("en-US")'

Or just run once one application with another language :

/Applications/iCal.app/Contents/MacOS/iCal -AppleLanguages '(de)'

To determine the bundle identifier, run

mdls -name kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier /Applications/Mail.app

or directly in one command:

defaults write $(mdls -name kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier -raw /Applications/Mail.app) AppleLanguages '("en-UK")'

(via SuperUser)

edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:18

Community

1

answered Aug 18 '10 at 21:20

Studer

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Interesting. The direct "program-call"-approach works for Excel, but not for Numbers. With Numbers you have to change language in the preference file. (The first example above). – Erk Oct 15 '16 at 21:45
This preference does not work anymore on 10.11. Is there any alternatives? – Hamid Rouhani Oct 19 '16 at 12:00
1

It just worked for me on 10.11, no problem here. – Ben-Uri May 03 '17 at 21:50
Worked for me on High Sierra (10.13) as well. – Yassine ElBadaoui Jan 19 '18 at 09:10

Am1rr3zA · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-21T16:45:43.600

17

There is a freeware, Language Switcher, to launch a single application with a different languages.

it's really simple and work amazingly.

edited Nov 21 '16 at 16:45

answered Aug 18 '10 at 21:08

Am1rr3zA

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Under the hood, it just launches the program with a -AppleLanguages (French) switch, which is what I really needed. Thank you! – zneak Aug 18 '10 at 21:21
This app seems to be unavailable now. Alternative: App Language Chooser from MAS https://apps.apple.com/de/app/app-language-chooser/id451732904 – Mahatma_Fatal_Error Nov 23 '19 at 18:02

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 18 '10 at 21:12

1

Go to the app, Press Command + I and if there are other languages they will show up in the info page. Just untick all except the language you want

answered Aug 18 '10 at 21:12

Avi

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This no longer work in Snow Leopard. – Loïc Wolff Aug 18 '10 at 21:59
In Safari on Mojave, it is email shortcut. – anki Sep 23 '19 at 10:42

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 23 '19 at 10:23

1

For Google Chrome do this:

defaults write com.google.Chrome AppleLanguages '("en-US")'

answered Sep 23 '19 at 10:23

Achraf JEDAY

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For Compressor is com.apple.Compressor – motobói May 30 '20 at 15:55

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 01 '19 at 14:43

0

I also found this to work:

bash-3.2$ LANG=de.UTF-8
bash-3.2$ /Applications/MuseScore\ 3.app/Contents/MacOS/mscore

answered Oct 01 '19 at 14:43

Nevin Williams

111

score -2 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 25 '13 at 10:59

-2

In the Finder, get info on the application. There are languages here, and you can choose. Alas, this seems to have disappeared in Snow Leopard.

answered Aug 25 '13 at 10:59

Nicolas Barbulesco

2,382

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How does this differ from @Avi's answer made 3 years ago? – mmmmmm Aug 25 '13 at 11:07

Is it possible to launch a program in a specific language?

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