---
title: Setting up a multilingual user interface
---
> Agent instructions:
> **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown.
>
> - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version.
> - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt).
The user interface culture determines the language of the **Kentico administration interface**, as well as other factors like numeric and date formats.
> **Info:** **Multilingual website content**
>
> If you want to learn more about localization of website content (i.e. documents in the content tree), please refer to the [Setting up multilingual websites](https://docs.kentico.com/k8/multilingual-websites/setting-up-multilingual-websites.md) chapter.
## Managing site cultures
You can manage all cultures in the **Localization** application on the **Cultures** tab. To display only UI cultures, choose **Yes** in the **Is UI culture** filter and click **Search**.
When you create a new culture or edit an existing culture, you can define the following properties:
| Property | Description |
| ------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Culture name | Name displayed for the culture in the administration interface. |
| Culture code | The standard identifier of the culture in format: _-_
You cannot use neutral culture codes that represent languages in general. Enter the culture code of a specific country/region. For example **en-US**, not **en**. |
| Culture short name | A shortcut for the culture. |
| Culture alias | If set, the culture alias is displayed instead of the culture code in the language selector and in URL language prefixes. |
| Is UI culture | Indicates if the culture is available as a language option for the administration interface. |
## Preparing UI cultures
Kentico allows you to manage content in any language, including double-byte (eastern) languages, such as Chinese. All content is stored and published in UNICODE.
To have the administration interface displayed in a different language or at least with different culture settings (e.g. calendar and numeric format):
1. Open the **Localization** application.
2. Select the **Cultures** tab.
3. Edit () the culture you want to use for the administration interface.
4. Select the **Is UI culture** check box.
5. Click **Save**.
6. Create a copy of the **\CMS\CMSResources\cms.resx** file in the same folder and name it **cms..resx** (for example, **cms.he-IL.resx**).
- This file stores the strings with translated text of the administration interface.
> **Note:** After modifying a _.resx_ file, you need to restart the application to apply the changes to the user interface — open the **System** application and click **Restart application**.
You can start translating the strings that are used to display text in the user interface. See [Working with resource strings](https://docs.kentico.com/k8/multilingual-websites/setting-up-a-multilingual-user-interface/working-with-resource-strings.md) for more information.
## Setting the default UI culture
The default UI culture can be set by adding the following key to the __ section of your site's _web.config_ file:
```html
```
The value of this key must be a valid culture code (in the example above, _en-nz_ represents the **English - New Zealand** culture).
> **Note:** If you wish to change the default UI culture, you also need to rename the **\~\CMSResources\CMS.resx** file to **CMS.en-us.resx** and the **CMS.en-nz.resx** file to **CMS.resx**. This is needed because the _CMS.resx_ file is used when the _(default)_ option is selected as a user's **Preferred user interface culture**.
When the above mentioned key is used and the CMS.resx file contains the en-nz dictionary, the UI culture will be _en-nz_ for users who have their **Preferred user interface culture** set to **(default)**.
## Applying a culture to a specific user's UI
You can set the administration interface to a specific culture for each user in the system:
1. Open the **Users** application.
2. Edit () the user.
3. Select the required **Preferred user interface culture** on the **General** tab.
4. Click **Save.**
Users may also select their own user interface culture in the **My profile** application on the **Details** tab, by setting the **Preferred user interface culture**.
When the user signs out and then back in, the system displays the interface according to the new culture settings and with translated strings (once the translation is complete).
> **Tip:** Users can also change the culture of their interface by opening the **User menu** and clicking on **Change language**. This selection also changes the **Preferred user interface culture** setting of the given user.