Internationalization for Swing standard components

Internationalization is a very hot topic, especially on desktop applications. Java offers very nice, easy-to-use and comprehensive tools for this. And, unlike Microsoft, there are not undocumented features. On what I’ll go a little bit deeper in here is not an “undocumented” feature, but a little bit harder to find documentation for. As said, localizing a Java desktop application (developed on Swing) is pretty easy and straightforward. But what is a little bit harder is to localize the Swing standard components, like a file chooser dialog or a confirmation dialog.

For changing the localized texts on this components is fairly easy: simply set a key on the UIManager.

UIManager.put(name, value);

You must do this before creating the component or call SwingUtilities.updateComponentTreeUI(rootComponent) after.

What is more difficult is to know the right names for each component. Below I described some of the most important keys, the associated Swing components and their meaning. I also attached a screenshot with a file chooser dialog to easily identify its components (on the description you will also find a number to refer to the component on the given screenshot). Please keep in mind that these are LnF dependent.

Key name	Associated component	Description	Default value
FileChooser.openDialogTitleText	JFileChooser	The text on the title bar (open dialog)	Open
FileChooser.saveDialogTitleText	JFileChooser	The text on the title bar (save dialog)	Save
FileChooser.lookInLabelText	JFileChooser	The text for the label in front of the folder selection box (open dialog) – 1	Look In:
FileChooser.saveInLabelText	JFileChooser	The text for the label in front of the folder selection box (save dialog) – 1	Save In:
FileChooser.upFolderToolTipText	JFileChooser	The tooltip of the button for navigating to the parent folder – 2	Up One Level
FileChooser.homeFolderToolTipText	JFileChooser	The tooltip of the button for navigating to the home folder – 3	Desktop
FileChooser.newFolderToolTipText	JFileChooser	The tooltip of the button used to create a new folder – 4	Create New Folder
FileChooser.listViewButtonToolTipText	JFileChooser	The tooltip of the button for switching to list view – 5	List
FileChooser.detailsViewButtonToolTipText	JFileChooser	The tooltip of the button for switching to detailed view – 6	Details
FileChooser.fileNameHeaderText	JFileChooser	The text placed on the header column displaying the file name in the detailed view – 7	Name
FileChooser.fileSizeHeaderText	JFileChooser	The text placed on the header column displaying the file size in the detailed view – 8	Size
FileChooser.fileTypeHeaderText	JFileChooser	The text placed on the header column displaying the file type in the detailed view – 9	Type
FileChooser.fileDateHeaderText	JFileChooser	The text placed on the header column displaying the last modified date of the file in the detailed view – 10	Date Modified
FileChooser.fileAttrHeaderText	JFileChooser	The text placed on the header column displaying the file attributes in the detailed view	Attributes
FileChooser.fileNameLabelText	JFileChooser	The text of the label in front of the textfield containing the selected file name – 11	File Name:
FileChooser.filesOfTypeLabelText	JFileChooser	The text for the label in front of the filter selection box – 12	Files of Type:
FileChooser.openButtonText	JFileChooser	The text on the button used to select the file on an open type dialog – 13	Open
FileChooser.openButtonToolTipText	JFileChooser	The tooltip text for the button used to select the file on an open type dialog – 13	Open selected file
FileChooser.saveButtonText	JFileChooser	The text on the button used to select the file on a save type dialog – 13	Save
FileChooser.saveButtonToolTipText	JFileChooser	The tooltip text for the button used to select the file on a save type dialog – 13	Save selected file
FileChooser.directoryOpenButtonText	JFileChooser	The text on the button used to open a folder while browsing – 13	Save
FileChooser.directoryOpenButtonToolTipText	JFileChooser	The tooltip text for the button used to open a folder while browsing – 13	Save selected file
FileChooser.cancelButtonText	JFileChooser	The text on the button used to cancel the file selection dialog – 14	Cancel
FileChooser.cancelButtonToolTipText	JFileChooser	The tooltip text for the button used to cancel the file selection dialog – 14	Abort file chooser dialog
FileChooser.updateButtonText	JFileChooser
FileChooser.updateButtonToolTipText	JFileChooser
FileChooser.helpButtonText	JFileChooser
FileChooser.helpButtonToolTipText	JFileChooser
FileChooser.newFolderErrorText	JFileChooser	The error text to appear when an error occurs while creating a new folder	Error creating new folder
FileChooser.acceptAllFileFilterText	JFileChooser	The description, to appear in the filter combobox, for the filter used in the file chooser to accept all the files.	All Files
OptionPane.yesButtonText	JOptionPane	The button caption for confirmation in an option dialog	Yes
OptionPane.noButtonText	JOptionPane	The button caption for denying an option dialog	No
OptionPane.cancelButtonText	JOptionPane	The button caption for aborting an option dialog	Cancel
ProgressMonitor.progressText	ProgressMonitor	The text for the progress monitor	Please wait

If you want to see all the keys defined in the UIManager that paste the code below that will output them.

UIDefaults defaults = UIManager.getDefaults();
System.out.println(defaults.size()+ " properties");
for (Enumeration e = defaults.keys();
    e.hasMoreElements();) {
  Object key = e.nextElement();
  System.out.println(key + " = " + defaults.get(key));
}

This code doesn’t display the properties in the above table. Those properties are subject to localization and they could be displayed using UIManager.get(propertyName) or UIManager.getString(propertyName, locale).