SharePoint 2010 Language Packs MUI & Variations

Language Packs, MUI & Variations

Multi-lingual User Interfaces (MUI) differ from Multi-lingual Sites (Variations). I.e. application may need labels change but content is not translated. I think of MUI as chrome language resource switching whereas variations are used for translating content.

Language packs I would load :

• en-US (default & in place)
• fr-FR
• es-ES
• zh-CH (Chinese)
• Japanese?  But it really comes down to your situation. 

Note: If you do not run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard after you install a language pack, the language pack will not be installed properly. From MS but I believe this can be done using Powershell. There will be down time on the production farm.

• MUI can be added at any time and allow the site/application to display multiple languages.
• MUI can be enabled at site collection or web level.
• Not all site definitions and templates support MUI so we should apply it only at the web level, is my current thinking.
• Language packs cannot be uninstalled.
• Variations may be needed either for translating content in SP2010 or for delivering to specific devices such as Smart Phones and tablets. Having the language packs is the easy part, implementing variations needs design/is complex.
• Install language packs on all WFE and app servers in the farm
• Language packs are a good idea to install even if you are not using MUI or Variations as it helps index documents in search when the documents are run in another language.

Update 8 July 2015: Regional browser setting dictate which language is used in SharePoint 2013 and SP2013 does not allow you to change between languages via the UI as it did in SP2010 on the Welcome Menu. 

More Info:

http://www.thelapointes.com/blog/presentations/sptechcon/Variations_and_the_MUI_in_SharePoint2010.pdf

References:

http://blog.falchionconsulting.com/

MSDN