There is one field in quartz.config.yaml:
configuration:
locale: en-USIt decides the interface: the words Quartz contributes itself — “Backlinks”, “Last updated”, the label on the search — and the format of dates. It applies to the whole site, and there is exactly one of it.
That is enough to build a site in one language. Anyone with notes in two languages can put them all in one vault — Quartz builds pages from them, and the pages sit next to each other. What is missing is everything that turns two piles of pages into one bilingual site:
| What is missing | What that means |
|---|---|
| The language per page | Quartz does not know that de/kaffee is German. <html lang> says the same on every page. |
| The connection | Nobody knows that de/kaffee and en/coffee are the same page. |
| A switcher | Without the connection there cannot be one. |
hreflang | Search engines see two independent pages instead of two versions of one. |
| The way in | / leads to a start page. Which one? |
| The notice | A visitor lands in the wrong language and never learns that theirs exists. |
Those six gaps are exactly what the plugin fills — each in a chapter of this handbook.
What it does not change
The site-wide locale stays. The interface texts of other plugins still follow it, not the
language of the individual page. On an English site the box under the text therefore says
“Backlinks” on the German pages too.
That is not negligence but the line between plugin and Quartz: those texts come from Quartz’ own translation table, which is loaded once per build. Anyone wanting them translated as well builds one site per language — how, is in chapter 8.