Translation of words according to babel language

Question

I've got a template that is to be used in french or english, is there a name in babel defining the "of" of "page x of yy" than I want to translate automaticaly to "page x sur y"

If not, is there a way of setting a name according to language selected in babel.

Answer 1

Two packages come to mind: translator (from the beamer bundle) and translations. I'll show an example for both each giving the following output:

First page: Second page:

---

Here's the translations version:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[ngerman,french,english]{babel}
\usepackage[lastpage,user]{zref}

\usepackage{translations}
% used when a language is used for which no translation exists:
\DeclareTranslationFallback{page-of-pages}
  {page~\thepage\ of~\zpageref{LastPage}}

% translations:
\DeclareTranslation{German}{page-of-pages}
  {Seite~\thepage\ von~\zpageref{LastPage}}
\DeclareTranslation{French}{page-of-pages}
  {page~\thepage\ sur~\zpageref{LastPage}}
\DeclareTranslation{English}{page-of-pages}
  {page~\thepage\ of~\zpageref{LastPage}}


\begin{document}
\selectlanguage{ngerman}
\GetTranslation{page-of-pages}

\selectlanguage{french}
\GetTranslation{page-of-pages}

\selectlanguage{english}
\GetTranslation{page-of-pages}

\newpage
\selectlanguage{ngerman}
\GetTranslation{page-of-pages}

\selectlanguage{french}
\GetTranslation{page-of-pages}

\selectlanguage{english}
\GetTranslation{page-of-pages}

\end{document}

---

Here's the analogous version with translator. Note, that it needs to know the languages by providing them as option which is done here by declaring them as class option:

\documentclass[ngerman,french,english]{article}
\usepackage{babel}
\usepackage[lastpage,user]{zref}

\usepackage{translator}
\newtranslation[to=German]{page-of-pages}
  {Seite~\thepage\ von~\zpageref{LastPage}}
\newtranslation[to=French]{page-of-pages}
  {page~\thepage\ sur~\zpageref{LastPage}}
\newtranslation[to=English]{page-of-pages}
  {page~\thepage\ of~\zpageref{LastPage}}


\begin{document}
\selectlanguage{ngerman}
\translate{page-of-pages}

\selectlanguage{french}
\translate{page-of-pages}

\selectlanguage{english}
\translate{page-of-pages}

\newpage
\selectlanguage{ngerman}
\translate{page-of-pages}

\selectlanguage{french}
\translate{page-of-pages}

\selectlanguage{english}
\translate{page-of-pages}

\end{document}

Answer 2

For a limited scope, one can do it manually:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english,french]{babel}
\usepackage{lastpage}

\makeatletter
\newcommand{\pageofpages}{%
  \@ifundefined{pageof@\languagename}
    {page \thepage\ of \pageref{LastPage}} % a default
    {\@nameuse{pageof@\languagename}}%
 }
% English is already default
% \newcommand{\pageof@english}{page \thepage\ of \pageref{LastPage}}
% French
\newcommand{\pageof@french}{page \thepage\ sur \pageref{LastPage}}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\pageofpages\newpage

\selectlanguage{english}
\pageofpages\newpage

\pageofpages

\selectlanguage{french}\pageofpages

\end{document}