The purpose of this tutorial is to show how to change the language in LibreOffice on a Linux system. Setting the language in LibreOffice will not only reflect changes in the menus of the application, but will also allow you to get auto correct recommendations in the target language, but these settings can be configured independently of each other. Follow the steps below to get started.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to change the configured language in LibreOffice
- How to install additional languages in LibreOffice
| Category | Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used |
|---|---|
| System | Any Linux distro |
| Software | LibreOffice |
| Other | Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command. |
| Conventions |
# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user |
How to change LibreOffice language step by step instructions
- Get started by opening LibreOffice. In this example, we will configure the language settings inside of LibreOffice Writer. However, the settings and menus look the same across all LibreOffice applications – Writer, Calc, Math, Base, Draw, Impress, etc. Alternatively, you can open the LibreOffice launcher, which will allow you to change settings across the entire suite of applications.
Opening up the LibreOffice launcher - In the application you chose to open, navigate to Tools > Options.
Open up the Options menu of the LibreOffice application - Next, navigate to the Languages tab. You have options here to configure the language of the user interface, the locale, as well as the language for the document itself (mainly to get proper suggestions for auto correction). Note that you can also check the box at the bottom to apply the settings only to the current document.
Changing the language of user interface, locale, and document in LibreOffice
- After you’re satisfied with the changes, click Apply and OK to exit the settings menu. LibreOffice will prompt you to restart the application in order for the changes to take effect.
We must restart LibreOffice in order to see our changed language settings
If you need to enable spell check suggestions for a particular language, check out our other tutorial on How to enable language spell check in LibreOffice
Installing additional languages in LibreOffice
Don’t see the desired language in the menus we went through above? You have a couple of options to install the language that you need.
- First, you can manually install the desired LibreOffice edition from the official LibreOffice download page. This will allow you to select the language you need.
Downloading the desired language from the official LibreOffice download page - Alternatively, most Linux distros should allow you to install individual language packs from the system’s package manager. For example, executing the following command on Debian or Ubuntu based systems will show dozens of different language packs that can be installed for LibreOffice.
$ apt search libreoffice
Available language packs that can be installed for LibreOffice Find the one you need and then install it (for example, to install Italian language pack):
$ sudo apt install libreoffice-l10n-it -y
Once it is installed, go back and repeat the step by step instructions from the first section of the tutorial.
Closing Thoughts
In this tutorial, we saw how to change the language in LibreOffice on a Linux system. This includes the user interface and menus, locale, and the spell check or document language for all applications in the LibreOffice suite. We also learned how to install additional language packs via system package manager, or download a dedicated version from the official website in the desired language.
