> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.dapta.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.dapta.ai/dforms/design/language-and-button-text.md).
# Language & button text
Choose the language visitors see on a dForms form (Auto, English or Spanish), learn how each visit picks it and what follows it, and replace the Back, Next and Submit button text with your own words.
Your questions are shown exactly as you write them. Everything around them, from the buttons and the progress to the error messages and the default thank-you copy, comes from dForms in English or Spanish. The first two cards of the **Design** panel decide which language that is, and let you replace the button text.
***
**Step 1:** Open your form, open the **Design** tab. **Language** and **Button text** are the first two cards of the left column.
Language and Button text, at the top of the Design panel. The preview uses the form's language and your button text.
***
**Step 2:** Pick a **Language**.
| Option | What visitors see |
| ---------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Auto (visitor’s browser)** | Spanish when the visitor's browser prefers Spanish, English for everyone else. |
| **English** | English for everyone. |
| **Spanish** | Spanish for everyone. |
A new form starts in the language you use the product in, not on **Auto** (see [Preferences (language)](/dforms/account/preferences.md)). Forms created before this setting existed stay on **Auto**.
***
**Step 3:** Fill in **Button text** if the stock words do not suit you. The fields hold up to 80 characters each. The placeholder of each field shows the stock word in the form's language, and an empty field keeps it.
| Field | Stock text (English / Spanish) | Where it shows |
| ---------- | ------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Back** | Back / Atrás | The name of the back arrow at the top of each screen. Screen readers announce it; it is not printed. |
| **Next** | Next / Siguiente | The button on every screen except the last one. |
| **Submit** | Submit / Enviar | The button that sends the form. |
On a **One page** form only **Submit** is offered, because there is no Back or Next.
***
**Step 4:** Click **Publish**. Language and button text are part of your draft, like every other **Design** setting.
***
## How each visit picks the language
Every visit uses one language, chosen in this order:
1. `?lang=` on the link, when its value starts with `es` or `en`, for example `?lang=es`. Any other value is ignored.
2. The form's **Language**, when it is **English** or **Spanish**.
3. The visitor's preferred browser language: Spanish if it is Spanish.
4. English.
So `?lang=en` still shows English on a form set to **Spanish**. It works on an embed too: add it to the iframe `src` (see [Embed on your website](/dforms/share/embed.md)).
***
## What follows the language
* The stock **Start**, **Back**, **Next** and **Submit** text, and *Submitting…* while the form sends.
* The progress indicator (*Step 2 of 6*) and, on a **One page** form, the answered counter.
* Validation messages such as *This field is required.*
* The default reveal copy and the default thank-you copy.
* The starting country of a **Phone** question whose **Default country** is **Automatic (based on visitor language)**: Mexico in Spanish, United States in English.
* The spam check, when [spam protection](/dforms/connect/spam-protection.md) is on.
* The *Made with dForms* badge.
* The page description, the page's `lang` attribute (used by screen readers and translation tools) and the text on the [share card](/dforms/design/share-card.md).
* The respondent's confirmation email, in the language they saw. A custom email is sent as you wrote it.
## What does not follow it
* Your own text: questions, options, helper text, cover copy, ending copy and anything else you typed is shown as written. Write it in the language of your audience.
* A question that carries its own button text keeps it. New **Message** steps come with the English button text *Continue*, and the editor has no field to change it, so a Message shows *Continue* even on a Spanish form.
* The cover's start button has its own field, **Start button text**, under [Cover screen & banner](/dforms/design/cover-screen-and-banner.md). Left empty, it shows the stock word in the form's language: **Start** or **Comenzar**.
***
## The preview
The live preview of the **Design** panel and the **Preview** window both show the form in its language, not in the language of your dashboard. With **Auto**, they use your dashboard language.
> **💡 Tip:** Chat apps and social networks read the share card without asking for a language, so a form on **Auto** gets English text there. Set **Language** to **Spanish** to get a Spanish card.
## What's next
* [Cover screen & banner](/dforms/design/cover-screen-and-banner.md): the **Start button text** field.
* [Share card (social preview image)](/dforms/design/share-card.md): the image and text people see when the link is shared.
* [What respondents see](/dforms/respondent-experience.md): the public form, screen by screen.
* [Preferences (language)](/dforms/account/preferences.md): the language you use the product in.
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