Language settings

Language Settings

The Language Settings screen is where you decide which languages are available to everyone in your DPMS and which one serves as the platform's default. If your organisation operates across multiple countries — say, offices in Germany, France, and the UK — this is the screen that lets each local team work in their preferred language. It sits inside the IT Settings section of DPMS, and getting it right early in your setup means every user lands in the right language from day one.

How to open it

Navigate to IT Settings in the left-hand sidebar (look for the settings or gear icon), then select Language Settings from the submenu. You need at least read access to IT Settings to load the page. If you also need to make changes, you must have edit access to Language Settings — without it, you will see the screen in read-only mode and the Edit button will be greyed out.

What you see

When you arrive, you land on the read-only overview. The main area shows a card labelled Language Settings. In the top-right corner of that card sits the Edit button — your entry point to making any changes.

Below the card header is a simple list of every language configured in the system. Each row shows the language name on the left (for example, "English", "Deutsch", "Français") and a status indicator on the right. A solid blue circle means the language is currently active and available to users. An outlined circle means it is inactive. If a language is also the system default, a small bold label reading Default appears next to the icon. This layout makes it easy to scan the whole picture at a glance — you can immediately tell which languages are on, which are off, and which one is the fallback.

When you click Edit, the screen transitions to the edit form. The card is replaced by a clean table with three columns: Languages, Active, and Default. Each language gets its own row, and this is where you make your changes.

Working with this screen

Activating a new language for the first time

Imagine your company has just expanded into a French-speaking market and the compliance team needs the platform available in French. Open Language Settings and check the read-only list — you will see that French (Français) has an outlined (inactive) circle and no Default label.

• Click Edit in the top-right corner of the card.
• In the edit form, find the French row. Its Active toggle is grey (switched off).
• Click the toggle — it turns solid blue, confirming French is now active. At the same moment, the Default radio button for French becomes clickable (it was greyed out before, because you cannot set an inactive language as the default).
• You do not need to change the default language, so leave the existing default radio button as it is.
• Click Save.

A success notification appears. The server stores the updated configuration, and the platform-wide language state refreshes immediately. When you return to the read-only view, French now shows a solid blue circle, confirming it is live.

Changing the system default language

Your organisation has decided that German should be the default language for the platform because most of your users are German-speaking. Currently the read-only view shows English with both the solid blue circle and the Default label.

• Click Edit.
• In the edit form, locate the German row. Because German is already active (its toggle is blue), its Default radio button is available.
• Click the radio button in the German row. It fills in, and the English radio button automatically deselects — you can only have one default at a time.
• Click Save.

After the save succeeds, return to the read-only view. German now shows the bold Default label, while English shows only the solid blue circle. Any user who has not set a personal language preference in their own profile will now see the platform in German.

Deactivating a language that is no longer needed

Your company closed its Spanish offices and no longer needs Spanish in the platform. You can see it listed as active (solid blue circle) in the read-only view.

• Click Edit.
• Find the Spanish row. Confirm it is not the current default (no filled radio button) and that you are not currently using Spanish as your own working language.
• Click the Active toggle for Spanish. It turns grey (off). The Default radio button for Spanish simultaneously becomes disabled — you cannot designate an inactive language as the default.
• Click Save.

Once saved, Spanish disappears as an option from user language-preference menus across the platform. Any user who had Spanish set as their preference will automatically fall back to the system default.

Reviewing the configuration without making changes

If you have read-only access, you can still check which languages are enabled and which one is the default. Open Language Settings and review the list. When you hover over the greyed-out Edit button, a tooltip explains that you do not have permission to edit this setting. If a change is needed, contact someone who holds IT Settings edit access and ask them to make the update on your behalf.

Field reference

Active toggle — Controls whether a language is switched on in the system. When blue (on), the language appears as an option in user preference menus. When grey (off), users cannot select it. The toggle is locked (cannot be clicked) in two cases: if the language is currently set as the system default, or if it matches the language you are currently working in. If you need to deactivate your own working language, change your personal language preference first, then return here.

Default radio button — Designates which language the platform uses for any user who has not chosen a personal preference. Only one language can be the default at a time. The radio button is locked if the language's Active toggle is switched off — you must activate a language before you can make it the default.

How this connects to the rest of DPMS

Language Settings is a foundational configuration step. It directly affects what languages users can choose in their personal profile settings. The default you set here is the language every new user sees before they have configured their own preference — so if it is wrong, every user will land in the wrong language until they change it manually.

The moment you click Save, the platform refreshes its language configuration across all active components — navigation menus, form labels, notification messages, and AI-assisted features. You do not need to restart the application or ask users to log out. However, individual users may need to refresh their browser to see any newly activated language appear in their personal preference dropdown.

If you are setting up DPMS for the first time, configuring Language Settings is one of the first steps to complete, before inviting users and populating records. Once it is correct, move on to other IT Settings such as general settings and integrations.

Tips & common pitfalls

Heads up: The Default language's toggle is locked. You cannot switch it off directly. To deactivate a language that is currently the default, first select a different language as the new default, save, and then return to deactivate the old one.

Heads up: Your own working language's toggle is locked while you are logged in with it. If you need to deactivate the language you are currently using, change your personal language preference first, log out and back in, then return to Language Settings.

• A language must be active before it can become the default. If you want to switch the default to a currently inactive language, turn its toggle on first — only then will its radio button become clickable.
• Leaving the edit form without saving discards all your changes. There is no autosave and no warning dialog. Always click Save before navigating away or clicking the back arrow.
• The bold "Default" label is the only visual cue for the system default. Both active-and-default and active-but-not-default languages show the same solid blue circle. Always look for the Default text label, not just the icon.
• Changes apply immediately after saving. No application restart or user re-login is required for the new configuration to take effect across the platform.