language

1.7.3 is introducing quite a few improvements concerning multilanguage and languages in general.

A. Multilanguage

1. In 1.7.1 was introduced the new Multilanguage Status Module: http://community.joomla.org/blogs/community/1501-171-new-multilanguage-status-module.html
In 1.7.3, a necessary improvement is implemented: checking the status of the Contacts linked to an Author, as it is necessary to create a unique contact per author and tagged to 'All' languages OR one contact per published Content Language.
If an error occurs, a message is added in the modal with the user name concerned (Thanks Marc Studer and Christophe Demko):

2. It is now possible to customize the Site Name depending on the Content Language displayed.
A new parameter has been created in Extensions=>Language Manager=>Content tab=>Edit a Content Language:

3. By enabling a parameter when editing the Language filter plugin, users will at last get a new feature that has been expected for long:
the Content Language prefix will not be used anymore in the url for the Site default language when SEF is on!
(Thanks to all who participated in trying to patch this —See: http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla/tracker/?action=TrackerItemEdit&tracker_item_id=25037 — and to Christophe Demko who solved it.)
Extensions=>Plugin Manager=>Filter by System=>Edit System - Language Filter

Front-end result:

4. The batch processing in various Managers in back-end now includes a Language field.
It is now possible to batch-change language for ticked items, as well as batch-copy including Language change to another Menu (in Menu Manager) or another Category (Thanks Michael Babker). We hope to also include Menu Associations in this process for 2.5 .
 

B. General Languages improvements

1. Global Configuration now includes a default Offline Message per Language pack.
If this option is chosen, the offline message will be customized depending on the site language displayed.
It is always possible to override this value by using an xx-XX.override.ini ( See http://docs.joomla.org/International_Enhancements_for_Version_1.6#Language_String_Overrides )

2. The Administrator Help menu may now propose different forums to link to, depending on Language.
A registered language pack may propose a link to the Official Language sub-forum on forum.joomla.org. Custom distributions may propose links to their own external Community Forum by adding in their customized sample data the said link.
Users may decide of their preferred help forum.
Module Manager=>Filter by Administrator=>Edit Admin Menu

3. A new column has been added in the Installed Languages Managers to display the Language tag (en-GB, fr-FR, it-IT, etc.)

Thanks again to all who participated in implementing these improvements and do not forget to upgrade to 1.7.3 !
http://www.joomla.org/announcements/release-news/5392-joomla-173-released.html

And last but not least, we do now have an official multilanguage demo site (1.7.2 for now) where users can log in back-end to make sure they structure their site correctly:
See: http://multilingual-joomla-demo.cloudaccess.net/

Read more: http://community.joomla.org/blogs/community/1522-languages-173-improvements.html

1.6 has brought a simple but efficient way to implement a multilang site in Joomla!®.
See the tutorial.

1.7 goes further.

1. Some bugs were corrected in the languagefilter plugin
2. The Language switcher module has new display possibilties. Drop-down for the languages, use of short names like FR, EN, etc.
   
    
3. Ordering was added in the Language Manager-Content. This orders the flags or names in the switcher in front-end.
4. Last but not least, we introduced a totally new feature. Those of you familiar with a 1.5 extension M17n will fastly understand.
   We can now associate menu items in different languages.
   When a menu item, let's say tagged to fr-FR, is associated to a menu item tagged en-GB, if the language switcher module is present on the page, clicking on the en-GB flag/name redirects to the en-GB menu item and reciprocally.
   If a menu item is not associated, the behavior will be the same as in 1.6, that is redirect to the home page in the language concerned.
   This let's therefore the choice for the webmaster to associate or not, item per item.

A Basic Tutorial:
Prepare your multilingual site as indicated in the tutorial. Browse the forum if you have issues as this has to be done in a structured way.

1. Activate the language filter plugin. Make sure that "Menu Association" is set to "Yes".
   
2. Edit one menu item to which a language is assigned.
   It is not supposed to work if the menu item is set to "All", for obvious reasons.
3. A new slider called "Menu Items Associations" has appeared by magic.
   Each Content language created on your site will display in the slider with a combo box where you can choose a menu item in that language to be associated.
   Just choose, for one language or more.
   A menu item to which is assigned an unpublished Content language can be associated, but the menu items to which it is associated will not display that choice until the Content Language is published.
   
    

That's it. Now, when the language switcher module is present on the page displayed by a menu item with association(s), clicking on the flag/name will redirect to the associated menu item(s).

Read more: http://community.joomla.org/blogs/community/1468-multilang-in-17-whats-new.html