This week I’m going to cover how you can run BeerSmith desktop in a variety of languages using the language files available online.
With the worldwide popularity of our BeerSmith software, I often get users asking if it is available in non-English versions. Fortunately the software was designed with this in mind, so there are alternative language files available for many languages.
Language Files for BeerSmith Desktop
On the main download page for BeerSmith there is a section called “Additional Downloads and Language Files” where you can download language files for Spanish, French, Portuguese and German. In addition on the discussion forum there are additional translation files for a wider selection of languages.
From any of these locations you are going to download a file that will either be named “Lang.xml” or will have the name of the language like “Spanish.xml”. Store this file somewhere safe on your computer such as under your Documents directory.
If you are running the latest version of BeerSmith desktop, simply open the Tools->Options dialog (BeerSmith->Preferences on the Mac) and scroll down to the bottom of that dialog. Under the Language File section, click on the button labeled Set Language XML File and then select the language XML file you downloaded. Finally restart BeerSmith and it should come up in the language you selected.
Keep in mind that the XML file will only translate the main program. All of the data (ingredients and profiles) will still be in English. However, for some languages additional files are available as add-ons such as local maltsters and style guides you can download and use. Many ingredient and equipment providers also have BeerSmith compatible BSMX or XML files on their websites.
If you want to learn more about creating a language XML file you can visit the discussion forum thread here.
So that’s a quick summary of how to use BeerSmith in another language. You can give BeerSmith desktop a free trial by downloading it here or try our web based version for free here. I hope you enjoyed this week’s article from the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog. Please subscribe for regular weekly delivery, and don’t hesitate to leave a comment or send this article to a friend.
