themes use dropdown instead of flags to select languages
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#1200 themes use dropdown instead of flags to select languages
Most available themes display an array of flags to select languages. While this has some positive features, there are reasons to favor a dropdown language selection as in the Standard theme:
* People may be put off by having to choose a flag of a foreign country to select their language.
* If your host permits using all languages the many flags displayed take an inordinate amount of screen real estate and affect layout. Flags inhibit using a theme with all languages supported.
* Flags are inherently nationalistic and should their unnecessary use may be unwelcome.
While I'd prefer doing away with flags altogether, having an option with themes (perhaps two available versions or a setup flag) would be satisfactory.
I'm not a CSS person, or I'd work on it myself.
Sorry, this won't be accepted. PGV's design in this area is sound.
However, there's nothing to stop you from modifying an existing theme and replacing the flag method with a drop-down as is done in the Minimal, Standard, and Ocean themes. It's best to not use one of the standard theme names when you make your customization.
The themes all use function print_lang_form() to generate the language selector. For most themes, this function call is in header.php. For the Ocean theme, it's in footer.php.
This function takes a single argument:
print_lang_form() or print_lang_form(0) produces a selector list
print_lang_form(1) produces an array of clickable flag buttons
When you wish to use a flag other than the default one for a given language (Australia in place of USA for English, for instance) you can configure this in the respective language configuration accessible from the Admin page.
You should also examine the need to have so many languages active on the site. Look at your user community. Do you really need to support Chinese, Arabic, Greek, Latvian, Hungarian, ....? I'm using these languages as examples that might be of low interest to most sites -- they are obviously not a reflection on how your own site is set up.