# Missing dropdown menu / button for multiple languages (language switch) #i18n

**URL:** <https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/missing-dropdown-menu-button-for-multiple-languages-language-switch-i18n/51881>\
**Category:** support\
**Tags:** i18n\
**Created:** [October 10, 2024, 12:05pm UTC](https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/missing-dropdown-menu-button-for-multiple-languages-language-switch-i18n/51881 "2024-10-10T12:05:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wehrend](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.gohugo.io/wehrend/32/22842_2.png) [@wehrend](https://discourse.gohugo.io/u/wehrend)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2024, 12:05pm UTC](https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/missing-dropdown-menu-button-for-multiple-languages-language-switch-i18n/51881/1 "2024-10-10T12:05:56Z")

</div>

Hello there,

it seems I have some problemes to make my site support i18n and multiple languages.  
I am using the latest version of hugo (v0.135), to generate my site.  
My blog is divided into blog and content …

Please consider the next post (reply) too, because I was limited regarding link count…

Please do a  
git clone https: // [GitHub - wehrend/hugo\_blog](http://github.com/wehrend/hugo_blog) blog,  
followed by a  
cd blog and  
git clone https: // [GitHub - wehrend/hugo\_content: blog content](http://github.com/wehrend/hugo_content) content to copy my setup,

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wehrend](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.gohugo.io/wehrend/32/22842_2.png) [@wehrend](https://discourse.gohugo.io/u/wehrend)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2024, 12:18pm UTC](https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/missing-dropdown-menu-button-for-multiple-languages-language-switch-i18n/51881/2 "2024-10-10T12:18:21Z")

</div>

I am using the theme hugo-books from alex shpak…

> **[GitHub - alex-shpak/hugo-book: Hugo documentation theme as simple as plain book](https://github.com/alex-shpak/hugo-book)**
>
> Hugo documentation theme as simple as plain book

After generating the html sites, I do not get the language switcher block located on my site - where is it?

I have successfully tested the multilanguage example from here ( [GitHub - rayjolt/hugo-multilingual-example: An example of how to make a multilingual site with Hugo.](https://github.com/rayjolt/hugo-multilingual-example.git)) with the hugo book theme

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![irkode](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.gohugo.io/irkode/32/26135_2.png) [@irkode](https://discourse.gohugo.io/u/irkode)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2024, 12:37pm UTC](https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/missing-dropdown-menu-button-for-multiple-languages-language-switch-i18n/51881/3 "2024-10-10T12:37:07Z")

</div>

There’s no language switcher _block_ the theme, neither the repo you tested with has something like that…

In fact there’s nothing like “THE language switcher” that depends on all the layouts, config … of site and theme. guess you won’t find a _plug and play_ thing to use

The Theme does not support the functionality you need - time to dig in the documentation and coding…

to have a language switcher you will have to adjust the menu for each page to show a link to the translated page.

start here:

> **[Multilingual mode](https://gohugo.io/content-management/multilingual/#translate-your-content)**
>
> Localize your project for each language and region, including translations, images, dates, currencies, numbers, percentages, and collation sequence. Hugo's multilingual framework supports single-host and multihost configurations.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wehrend](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.gohugo.io/wehrend/32/22842_2.png) [@wehrend](https://discourse.gohugo.io/u/wehrend)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2024, 12:45pm UTC](https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/missing-dropdown-menu-button-for-multiple-languages-language-switch-i18n/51881/4 "2024-10-10T12:45:13Z")

</div>

Let me show you, what I am missing. It is the following html / code snippet :

 ![Screenshot_multilanguage-example](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/uploads/gohugo/original/3X/8/5/85e9d61e828e0e764b474dbcdc366b252dbb1497.png)

how can I replicate this in my local environment?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wehrend](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.gohugo.io/wehrend/32/22842_2.png) [@wehrend](https://discourse.gohugo.io/u/wehrend)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2024, 12:47pm UTC](https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/missing-dropdown-menu-button-for-multiple-languages-language-switch-i18n/51881/5 "2024-10-10T12:47:02Z")

</div>

Would I need this:

> **[Multilingual mode](https://gohugo.io/content-management/multilingual/#reference-translated-content)**
>
> Localize your project for each language and region, including translations, images, dates, currencies, numbers, percentages, and collation sequence. Hugo's multilingual framework supports single-host and multihost configurations.

?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![irkode](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.gohugo.io/irkode/32/26135_2.png) [@irkode](https://discourse.gohugo.io/u/irkode)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2024, 1:10pm UTC](https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/missing-dropdown-menu-button-for-multiple-languages-language-switch-i18n/51881/6 "2024-10-10T13:10:44Z")

</div>

> [@wehrend](#):
>
> Please do a  
> git clone https: // [GitHub - wehrend/hugo\_blog](http://github.com/wehrend/hugo_blog) blog,  
> followed by a  
> cd blog and  
> git clone https: // [GitHub - wehrend/hugo\_content: blog content](http://github.com/wehrend/hugo_content) content to copy my setup,

This does not work as described

- there is no blog folder after the first clone
- looks like the second clone should go into content?

whatever

The site needs some more setup you should describe: Ruby, Asciidoc …

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![irkode](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.gohugo.io/irkode/32/26135_2.png) [@irkode](https://discourse.gohugo.io/u/irkode)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2024, 1:18pm UTC](https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/missing-dropdown-menu-button-for-multiple-languages-language-switch-i18n/51881/7 "2024-10-10T13:18:56Z")

</div>

I just have to correct myself - ther’s a language switcher within the hugo-book theme:

For me it looks like your config and/or your site organization (folders/files/config…) does not match the way the Hugo-Book theme is expecting things.

I would recommend to take their exampleSite and get it up and running. Study their docs and the exampleSite content organization.

Then try to step by step integrate your content …

here’s a bare running example site setup for the Hugo-Book theme:

```bash
git clone https://github.com/alex-shpak/hugo-book
cd hugo-book/exampleSite
hugo server --themesDir ../..

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wehrend](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.gohugo.io/wehrend/32/22842_2.png) [@wehrend](https://discourse.gohugo.io/u/wehrend)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2024, 2:07pm UTC](https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/missing-dropdown-menu-button-for-multiple-languages-language-switch-i18n/51881/8 "2024-10-10T14:07:49Z")

</div>

Thanks, that sounds more suitable and I will check out the example site as suggested, maybe even add an issue to the hugo book themes project…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wehrend](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.gohugo.io/wehrend/32/22842_2.png) [@wehrend](https://discourse.gohugo.io/u/wehrend)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2024, 3:22pm UTC](https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/missing-dropdown-menu-button-for-multiple-languages-language-switch-i18n/51881/9 "2024-10-10T15:22:00Z")

</div>

I’ve set up the given example and could run it working including the rtl feature.  
But so far I am able to build it from scratch in my personal project.  
And I have no clue , where it goes wrong…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![irkode](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.gohugo.io/irkode/32/26135_2.png) [@irkode](https://discourse.gohugo.io/u/irkode)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2024, 3:56pm UTC](https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/missing-dropdown-menu-button-for-multiple-languages-language-switch-i18n/51881/10 "2024-10-10T15:56:03Z")

</div>

> [@irkode](#):
>
> Then try to step by step integrate your content …

Add One content page only then a translation…