Set Preferred Language

Pocket Hugo theme natively supports over 10 language settings, including English, Chinese, Japanese, French, Spanish, Russian, German, Korean, Portuguese, Italian, and more. You can specify a preferred language in hugo.toml; this preferred language typically corresponds directly to the index.md file within the content directory.

languageCode = "en"
defaultContentLanguage = "en"

If you require a different site name and title for each language, you can configure them individually in hugo.toml.

[languages.en]
  languageName = "English"
  title = "Pocket Hugo"
  weight = 1

[languages.en.params.sidebar]
  subtitle = "A cover-driven theme for long-term personal writing"

Language Switching Settings

If you configure two languages, you can switch between them with a single click using a button located in the website header and below the in-text table of contents. If you configure three or more languages, a dropdown menu will be enabled by default in the website header.

  [params.languageSwitcher]
    headerSelectThreshold = 3

• Responsive Image Pipeline Demo
• Shortcodes Demo

1. How the main header navigation works

The main navigation is not built by scanning every page under content/page/.

Instead, the header reads Hugo’s main menu:

{{ range .Site.Menus.main }}

That means a page only appears in the main header if you add it to menu.main in that page’s front matter.

Example:

---
title: "Guide"
slug: "guide"
menu:
  main:
    weight: -45
---

In this theme:

• menu.main decides whether a page becomes a header candidate
• weight controls the order
• smaller weights appear earlier

For example, these demo pages use this pattern:

• talks: weight: -90
• links: weight: -50
• guide: weight: -45
• about: weight: -40

So if you want to add your own fixed page to the header, the normal way is:

1. Create the page.
2. Add menu.main.
3. Give it a weight.

Example:

---
title: "Docs"
slug: "docs"
menu:
  main:
    weight: -42
---

2. How to configure social links

The social links in the header come from params.social in hugo.toml.

Example:

[[params.social]]
name = "GitHub"
url = "https://github.com/your-name"
icon = "brand-github"

[[params.social]]
name = "RSS"
url = "/index.xml"
icon = "rss"

Each item usually includes:

• name: used as the accessible label and tooltip
• url: the link target
• icon: the icon id used by the theme

If you want to add your own small icon, the simplest way is to put an SVG into assets/icons/ and then reference its file name without the .svg suffix. For example, you can search online for a suitable SVG icon, save it as something like assets/icons/brand-mastodon.svg, and then use:

[[params.social]]
name = "Mastodon"
url = "https://example.social/@your-name"
icon = "brand-mastodon"

In this theme:

• internal links such as /index.xml stay in the same tab
• external links open in a new tab automatically

If you remove all [[params.social]] entries, the social links area disappears.

3. The three tools in the top-right corner

The top-right area can show up to three controls:

• language switcher
• color palette picker
• dark/light mode switch

These three do not follow the same rules.

Language switcher behavior

The language switcher is rendered by the translation toggle partial.

It only appears when the current page actually has translations.

That means:

• if your site has only one language, it does not show
• if a page has no translated counterpart, it does not show on that page

The header behavior is also affected by this setting in hugo.toml:

[params.languageSwitcher]
  headerSelectThreshold = 2

This value controls when the header uses:

• a direct switch icon
• or a dropdown menu with language abbreviations

Practical rule:

• if total languages are less than or equal to the threshold, the header shows a simple switch entry
• if total languages are greater than the threshold, the header shows a dropdown

So this button can disappear naturally when your site or page is not translated.

Color palette picker behavior

The palette picker is optional.

It is controlled by:

[params.colorScheme]
  showPicker = true

The theme also accepts the legacy name:

showPalettePicker = true

If both are false or missing, the palette picker does not appear.

So this is a header tool that you can explicitly turn off in configuration.

Dark/light mode switch behavior

The dark/light switch is controlled by:

[params.colorScheme]
  toggle = true

The theme also supports the older compatibility key:

colorSchemeToggle = true

In the example site, this switch is enabled by default, so most users will see it unless they deliberately change the config.

Compared with the other two tools:

• the language switcher may disappear automatically when translations are not available
• the palette picker can be switched off directly
• the dark/light toggle is usually kept visible because it is enabled by default in normal theme setup

If you want it hidden, set the related toggle option to false.