The panel shows English because the Korean language slot has no entries: the language setting only chooses which stored entry each object displays. Set the PC's Korean font set, select the Korean slot, enter the text, download once, and operators switch languages afterwards with a Set Language button, no second download.
An HMI that stays in English after you set it to Korean and download is not broken, and the download is not at fault. The panel is showing every text entry it holds: the Korean language slot is empty. A language setting on an HMI chooses which stored entry each text object displays. It cannot fill slots, and no panel setting translates text for you. The fix happens in the editor, at the moment the text is entered. This article walks through filling the Korean slot, the one download that carries it, and the on-panel button that switches languages from then on.
What the language setting actually does
A multilingual HMI project holds 1 text entry per object per language. A screen title, a button label, an alarm message: each object carries a separate entry for every language the project declares. The panel stores whatever was typed or pasted into each entry in the editor, and nothing else.
When you select a language on the panel, the runtime swaps every object to the entry stored in that language's slot. Where a slot has no entry, the object shows the text it does have, which is why an empty Korean slot leaves a screen full of English letters. English characters after a Korean selection point at empty entries, not at a fault in the panel or the download.
Symptoms and what each points to
| What you see | What it points to | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Every string stays English after you select Korean on the panel | The Korean slot has no entries, so the panel shows the only text it holds | Fill the slot entries in the editor, steps below |
| The editor shows English letters or substitute characters where Korean was typed | The PC's font set during entry was not Korean | Set the PC to a Korean font set and re-enter the text |
| Korean reads correctly in the editor but the panel still shows English after a download | The panel is switched to a language whose slots are empty, or the download ran before the entries were filled | Select the filled language on the panel and download the updated project once |
| One label stays English while the rest of the screen switches | That object has no entry in the active slot | Fill that one entry; the rest of the project is already correct |
Fill the Korean slot in the editor
- Set the programming PC's active font set to Korean before touching the project; budget about 10 minutes for this step the first time. Korean is written in Hangul with some Hanja, so the editor needs a Korean font to place the characters. If the PC has none, a free Korean font such as Noto Serif KR covers Hangul, Hanja and Latin.
- In the editor's language setup, assign a free slot to Korean. On the panel family this article uses as its example, the Language Setup window offers up to 9 languages and 4 come preconfigured for English, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese, so Korean goes into one of the 5 free slots. The vendor indexes the whole entry procedure in its help system as topic CM441; search the installed help for that number if the online pages have moved.
- Select the Korean slot as the project's active language before typing or pasting. The open entry receives whatever text is in force at that moment, so pasting a translator's Korean while English is selected files it into the English entry.
- Type or paste the Korean text into each object's entry for that slot and leave the English entry untouched, so operators can still run the panel in English.
- Check a screen title, a button label and a status message in the editor, on at least 2 screens, and confirm the characters are Korean before working through the rest of the project. Then download the project once. A download carries the entries exactly as configured; it fills nothing. What a download does to editable text entries is covered in Keep editable HMI text entries after a project download.
Example: an English, Japanese and Korean panel on one download
Inputs. The project needs 3 languages: English, Japanese and Korean, the combination of the panel family used in this article. The Language Setup window offers up to 9 language slots, 4 of them preconfigured (English, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese), both figures from the vendor's language-setup documentation. Each text object holds 1 entry per language. The check set is the article's 3 representative objects: a screen title, a button label, a status message. The commissioning download itself takes about 5 minutes.
Rule. The panel displays, for each object, the entry stored in the slot matching the selected language. An entry lands in a slot while that slot is the selected language in the editor, with a Korean font set active on the PC for the Korean slot.
Arithmetic. Free slots before Korean: 9 slots - 4 slots = 5 slots. Korean takes slot 3, with English in slot 1 and Japanese in slot 2, so free slots after setup: 5 slots - 1 slot = 4 slots. Entries to author for the check set: 3 objects x 1 Korean entry = 3 entries. Downloads for commissioning: 1 download. Downloads for every language change afterwards: 0 downloads.
Result. After the single 5-minute download, every object with a slot 3 entry shows Korean, and an operator switches among English, Japanese and Korean from the panel itself.
Decision. Commission with 1 download and treat any further download as a text change, never a language change: if an object still shows English after the switch, that object's slot 3 entry is empty, and the fix is to fill the entry in the editor and download once more.
Switch languages on the panel with no second download
Once the slots hold entries, give operators a panel button configured with the Set Language option under the System menu. One press changes the displayed language, and the panel needs no download to move between language 1, 2 or 3. The switch selects among the stored entries, so it changes nothing about the text itself: adding Korean to an object that has only English still takes an editor session and a download.
The same switch is worked through step by step for English and Spanish in Switch an HMI between English and Spanish at runtime. Other panel changes that skip a download, such as renaming a recipe label, are covered in Rename a recipe button label on an HMI without a download.
Check it on the panel
Verify on the panel, not only in the editor preview. Leave the panel in English and confirm the English entries still show. Press the Set Language button, move to Korean, and read the screen title, the button label and the status message on at least 2 screens. Switch to Japanese and back to English the same way. If one label stayed English while everything around it switched, that object has no entry in the active slot: fill that one entry in the editor, download once for about 5 minutes, then spot-check the rest of the project, because a project can hold correct Korean entries on some objects and none on others.
Recommendation: fill every object's Korean entry while the Korean slot is selected, download once, and put a Set Language button on the panel before the line starts. Re-download only when text entries change; the button changes the language shown with 0 downloads at all.
Questions
Do I need to change the PC's region or country settings to Korean?
The documented requirement is the font set active during text entry, not the PC's country or region setting. Set the active font to a Korean set so the Hangul characters are placed in the entry, and select the Korean slot in the editor before you type or paste. Changing the region setting alone leaves the project's text entries as they are, so the panel keeps showing whatever its filled slots contain.
How many languages can one HMI project hold?
The Language Setup window in the example panel's software offers up to 9 languages. 4 ship preconfigured for English, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese, so a Korean project takes one of the 5 free slots, and 4 slots remain free for languages you add later.
What does an empty language entry look like on the panel?
On the panel in this article, an object with no entry in the active slot keeps showing the text it does have, so English fills the space. At least one other major HMI platform marks the same empty-slot condition on screen with a ##Text Missing## placeholder. The check is the same either way: confirm the target language is activated in the project and that its entries are filled.
Planning information, not legal or engineering advice. Rules differ by place: check codes and permits with your local authority and your licensed trades.