Title: hardcode language choice in the theme Last modified: August 20, 2016 --- # hardcode language choice in the theme * [iceq](https://wordpress.org/support/users/iceq/) * (@iceq) * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hardcode-language-choice-in-the-theme/) * Hi. I installed a theme that has an RTL (Right to Left) stylesheet to use on my RTL, Arabic blog. The documentation of the theme said the RTL style will be automatically loaded in an RTL blog. My blog is RTL, Arabic.But the RTL style didn’t load, instead, the default, LTR one. I made sure I have “”`define ('WPLANG',' ar_AR');`“” in the wp-config file. But still didn’t help. * I installed the plugin WordPress Languages, and using it, I changed the front end language to Arabic, and then the RTL style was loaded fine. But I do not want to use a plugin, I want to hardcode that into my WordPress, How can I do it? * This info might help: * when the WordPress Languages plugin **isn’t active**, and the **RTL of the theme isn’t loaded**, the index’s source shows this, * ``` ``` * when the WordPress Languages plugin **IS active**, and I chose **English as the front-end** language, (so the **RTL of the theme isn’t loaded**), the index’s source shows this, * ``` ``` * when the WordPress Languages plugin **IS> active ``` Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total) * [wpmnger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpmnger/) * (@wpmnger) * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hardcode-language-choice-in-the-theme/#post-3481270) * Which theme are you using and how are they generating the html? * do you have: `>` in the header.php? * If you just want to * > hardcode that into my WordPress * Then you can edit the header.php file in the theme and just write the desired html output. * Generating the output dynamically allows for more options of course and multilingual sites. * Could you please give some more specific details… * Thread Starter [iceq](https://wordpress.org/support/users/iceq/) * (@iceq) * [13 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hardcode-language-choice-in-the-theme/#post-3481306) * Thank you wpmnger, sorry for late response, it seems WordPress.org’s email notification service is not working. * In my theme’s header there’s this: * ``` > ``` * So how should I modify it to make my blog look like an Arabic blog? * BTW, are you sure it’s in the theme, not in the blog? * Basically, I want to hardcode what that plugin did, into the theme or the WP installation, in order to avoid using the plugin. How ? * [wpmnger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpmnger/) * (@wpmnger) * [13 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hardcode-language-choice-in-the-theme/#post-3481307) * > I want to hardcode what that plugin did * Then in header.php just type ` dir="rtl" >` * But it would be wiser to let WordPress determine these settings for you. If your language is not automatically generating the dir attribute as rtl you might want to post a question specifically for your localization team [http://ar.wordpress.org/](http://ar.wordpress.org/) * I don’t know Arabic so I can’t help you any further however, try `define('WPLANG',' ar');` instead of `define ('WPLANG', 'ar_AR');` * That is what is in the config-sample for WordPress in Arabic * Thread Starter [iceq](https://wordpress.org/support/users/iceq/) * (@iceq) * [13 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hardcode-language-choice-in-the-theme/#post-3481310) * Thank you wpmnger I added ` dir="rtl">` to the header, and replaced define `('WPLANG', 'ar_AR');` with `define('WPLANG',' ar');` , but still the theme doesn’t load the rtl style. * please note: if you know what that plugin above does, I am sure you’ll be able to know the trick. That plugin allows me to select the language of the dashboard, and the front end, and it works perfectly. Currently, I configured the plugin to set my blog’s interface (the public pages) to Arabic, and the dashboard to English. So what is it that the plugin does, that implements this setting? * [wpmnger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpmnger/) * (@wpmnger) * [13 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hardcode-language-choice-in-the-theme/#post-3481313) * Sorry iceq, but without knowing which theme you are using or which plugin – I really can’t help. * If you want to “hard code” you can always add a link to your rtl stylesheet: ` ` * This is assuming your stylesheet is named rtl.css and is located in your theme directory. * [wpmnger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpmnger/) * (@wpmnger) * [13 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hardcode-language-choice-in-the-theme/#post-3481314) * `` * Sorry, typo * Thread Starter [iceq](https://wordpress.org/support/users/iceq/) * (@iceq) * [13 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hardcode-language-choice-in-the-theme/#post-3481315) * No need to be sorry, you are helping me alot 🙂 I mentioned the plugin’s name before, it is “WordPress Language” found [here](http://wpml.org/documentation/related-projects/wordpress-language/) * The theme is a premium theme called Sahifa * Can you please tell me where to put that “link” ? Thank you * [wpmnger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpmnger/) * (@wpmnger) * [13 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hardcode-language-choice-in-the-theme/#post-3481316) * you can place it directly in header.php in between the tags * OR * you can create a function in your functions.php that will add it [http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wp_enqueue_style](http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wp_enqueue_style) * [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/) * (@esmi) * [13 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hardcode-language-choice-in-the-theme/#post-3481317) * I’m sorry but as you are using a commercial theme, you need to seek support from the theme’s developer/vendor. We do not support commercial themes here. Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total) The topic ‘hardcode language choice in the theme’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [language](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/language/) * [RTL](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/rtl/) * 9 replies * 3 participants * Last reply from: [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/) * Last activity: [13 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hardcode-language-choice-in-the-theme/#post-3481317) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics