16. Locale profile reference
The full operational, safety, workflow, reporting, locale, and issue reference.
Locale is not merely a language label. It controls which typographic patterns Avellio expects, which differences it reports confidently, and which cases it deliberately leaves to editorial review. Version 1.1.0 exposes AUTO plus 34 explicit choices in the compact Loc: menu.
Every locale label in this chapter includes a regional flag or a neutral region symbol. The icon is a navigation aid only: 
EN US means the US English convention, while 
FR means the French profile calibrated for France. 
AUTO, 
EN Intl, and 
ES LatAm are not single-country profiles and therefore use neutral Avellio symbols. Always rely on the written locale code and label when language and territory differ.
16.1 How AUTO resolves a paragraph
For each eligible paragraph, AUTO follows this sequence:
- Read the paragraph's applied InDesign language.
- Normalize a recognized language and region, such as English: USA, German: Switzerland, French: Canada, or Portuguese: Brazil.
- Select the corresponding Avellio locale profile for that paragraph.
- If the language name is recognized only at family level, use the family profile, such as English International, German — Germany, French — France, or Spanish.
- If the language is missing or unresolved, use English International as the operational fallback.
AUTO is the best choice for a genuinely multilingual document only when paragraph languages are assigned accurately. An explicit choice is better when a complete scope must follow one regional house style or when imported text has unreliable language metadata.
Important — Locale selection is an analysis setting. It does not rewrite InDesign language attributes, switch dictionaries, or translate content. Changing Loc: requires a new audit.
16.2 What locale-aware analysis can recognize
| Rule family | What Avellio evaluates | Important boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Quotation marks | Straight quotes, expected primary and nested quote pairs, apostrophe context, and selected alternate pairs. | Several regional profiles use conservative quote validation because publisher house styles differ. Complete quote pairing is not batch-normalized. |
| Punctuation | Missing or unwanted spacing, Spanish inverted opening marks, French high punctuation, ellipses, repeated punctuation, and dash conventions. | URLs, email addresses, code-like text, numeric punctuation, and technical ranges are guarded. |
| Dates | Recognized numeric date patterns, profile consistency, and unambiguous US month-first versus day-first conflicts. | Dates such as 03/04/2026 remain ambiguous and are not automatically converted. |
| Numbers | Thousands grouping and decimal punctuation against the selected profile and the dominant document pattern. | Avellio reports inconsistency; it does not infer the numeric meaning well enough to rewrite separators automatically. |
| Currency | Recognized regional symbols or codes, prefix or suffix placement, spacing, and consistency. | A symbol such as $ can name different currencies. Conversion remains preview-only or manual. |
| Units and percent | Missing non-breaking spacing between a number and recognized measurements or symbols. | English-family profiles normally do not require a space before %; many continental European families do. |
| Short words | Czech and Polish one-letter prepositions or conjunctions followed by a breaking space. | Review Queue requires a concrete CZ or PL locale and an exact range. |
| Abbreviations and titles | Profile dictionaries, punctuation consistency, and non-breaking spacing after selected academic titles. | This is a targeted QA dictionary, not a language-wide abbreviation or grammar checker. |
| Capitalization | Document consistency plus special rules such as Dutch IJ, Italian lowercase month names in dates, and Swiss German ss. |
Avellio does not perform general grammar, spelling, or title-case conversion. |
| Dashes | Numeric ranges, hyphen-minus used as a prose dash, and selected regional dash preference. | House style can override the regional default; prose dash changes normally require review. |
The unit-spacing scanner recognizes common measurements and production units including kg, mg, g, km, m, cm, mm, l, ml, s, ms, h, min, ha, µm, nm, m², km², m³, °C, °F, W, kW, Wh, kWh, V, A, KB, MB, GB, px, pt, dpi, ppi, and %. Single-letter units receive additional context guards to avoid obvious prose false positives.
16.3 Detection confidence versus correction authority
Locale awareness operates at several safety levels:
| Level | Examples | What the user should do |
|---|---|---|
| Concrete detection | Unambiguous US date-order conflict, missing Spanish inverted punctuation, Dutch Ij, Swiss German ß, or Brazilian currency placement. |
Inspect the highlighted context and confirm the intended publication standard. |
| Consistency or conservative detection | English International, CH Mix, general Latin American Spanish, and regional quote conventions with multiple accepted house styles. | Compare like-for-like text and follow the project's style guide. |
| Safe Auto-Fix | A recognized number–unit pair that passes the range and context guards. | Review the confirmation, apply only to a saved working copy, and rerun the audit. |
| Review Required | Exact Czech or Polish short-word NBSP, an apostrophe inside a word, a clearly missing punctuation-after space, or an unambiguous one-character straight quote. | Apply one candidate at a time in Review Queue. |
| Preview or Manual Only | Complete quote pairing, date order conversion, number separators, currency placement, abbreviations, and most house-style dash decisions. | Correct deliberately in InDesign, then run a new audit. |
This separation is intentional. A strong locale hint does not grant Avellio permission to rewrite ambiguous copy.
16.4 English regional comparison
| UI label | Quotes and dash model | Dates and numbers | Currency and special behavior |
|---|---|---|---|
| EN Intl |
Primary “…”, nested ‘…’; dash follows house style. |
Date and number analysis favors consistency rather than a hard regional order. | Mixed $, USD, £, GBP, €, EUR, and CHF context; conservative date and currency validation. |
| EN US |
Primary “…”, nested ‘…’; em dash preference. |
Month–day–year when unambiguous; 1,200.50. |
Prefix $ or USD; concrete date and currency validation. |
 EN UK |
Primary ‘…’, nested “…”; en dash preference. |
Day–month–year when unambiguous; 1,200.50. |
Prefix £ or GBP; concrete date and currency validation. |
 EN AU |
Usually single primary quotes; spaced en dash preference, with conservative quote enforcement. | Day–month–year; 1,200.50. |
Prefix $, A$, AUD, or AUD$. |
 EN NZ |
Usually single primary quotes; house-style dash, with conservative quote enforcement. | Day–month–year; 1,200.50. |
Prefix $, NZ$, NZD, or NZD$; reports can add a reminder to review te reo Māori macrons and forms, but Avellio is not a Māori spell-checker. |
16.5 German and Swiss regional comparison
| UI label | Quote and language behavior | Dates and numbers | Currency and regional distinction |
|---|---|---|---|
 DE |
German „…“ with »…« accepted as an alternate house style; German noun capitalization is not treated as English title case. |
Day–month–year; 1.200,50. |
Suffix € or EUR; general Germany profile. |
 DE AT |
Inherits the German quote, abbreviation, number, and dash model; quote enforcement remains conservative. | Day–month–year; 1.200,50. |
Narrows the expected currency context to € or EUR for Austria. |
 DE CH |
German-language Swiss profile; quote enforcement remains conservative; flags ß where Swiss German normally uses ss. |
Day–month–year; Swiss grouping such as 1'200. |
Suffix CHF, Fr., or fr.. |
| CH Mix |
Conservative multilingual Swiss profile; it does not assume one document language and does not apply the DE CH ß rule. |
Swiss grouping such as 1'200; consistency-focused validation. |
Suffix CHF, Fr., or fr.; use for mixed Swiss material only when paragraph-level language resolution is not preferable. |
For a multilingual Swiss document with reliable paragraph languages, AUTO is normally more precise because German, French, and Italian paragraphs can resolve to DE CH, FR CH, and IT CH independently. CH Mix is intentionally broader and more conservative.
16.6 French and Italian regional comparison
| UI label | Punctuation and quotes | Dates and numbers | Currency and special behavior |
|---|---|---|---|
| FR |
Guillemets «…»; Avellio expects a narrow non-breaking space (U+202F) inside guillemets and before : ; ! ?. |
Day–month–year; space grouping and decimal comma, for example 1 200,50. |
Suffix € or EUR with spacing. |
| FR CH |
Preserves French narrow non-breaking spacing and uses conservative regional quote enforcement. | Day–month–year; Swiss grouping such as 1'200. |
Suffix CHF, Fr., or fr.. |
 FR CA |
Preserves the French spacing model; project style can affect punctuation details. | Day–month–year when unambiguous; space grouping and decimal comma. | CAD, C$, or $ can appear before or after the value; review the chosen Canadian house style. |
 IT |
Guillemets «…» with double curly nested quotes; Italian month names in dates are expected lowercase. |
Day–month–year; 1.200,50. |
Suffix € or EUR. |
| IT CH |
Italian-language Swiss profile with conservative quote enforcement; retains Italian lowercase-month checking. | Day–month–year; Swiss grouping such as 1'200. |
Suffix CHF, Fr., or fr.. |
If a French publisher intentionally uses a normal non-breaking space instead of U+202F, document that house-style exception: the current FR profiles are calibrated to narrow non-breaking spacing and can report the wider space.
16.7 Spanish regional comparison
All Spanish profiles check paired inverted question and exclamation marks, preserve Spanish punctuation logic, and treat quotation and dash choices conservatively where house styles differ.
| UI label | Date and number policy | Currency context |
|---|---|---|
 ES |
Day–month–year; Spain-oriented dot grouping and decimal comma, with consistency review. | Usually suffix € or EUR; also recognizes common international and Spanish-market tokens. |
| ES LatAm |
Day–month–year; separator conventions are deliberately flexible because Latin American markets differ. | Prefix $, USD, US$, or EUR; currency-code suffixes can be accepted. Plain $ is not assumed to mean US dollars. |
 ES AR |
Latin American flexible separators. | Argentine peso: $, AR$, or ARS; ARS can appear as a suffix code. |
 ES CL |
Latin American flexible separators. | Chilean peso: $ or CLP; CLP can appear as a suffix code. |
 ES CO |
Latin American flexible separators. | Colombian peso: $ or COP; COP can appear as a suffix code. |
 ES PE |
Latin American flexible separators. | Peruvian sol: S/, S/., or PEN; PEN can appear as a suffix code. |
The engine also contains internal AUTO/report profiles for 
Spanish — Uruguay ($U, UYU), 
Ecuador ($, US$, USD), 
Bolivia (Bs, BOB), 
Paraguay (Gs, PYG), and 
Venezuela (Bs, VES). These are not separate choices in the version 1.1.0 compact menu. They can be reached only when recognized paragraph-language metadata resolves to that region or when the engine processes a corresponding locale identifier. Use ES LatAm when you need a user-selectable general profile.
16.8 Portuguese and additional European profiles
| UI label | Core profile behavior | Regional or editorial note |
|---|---|---|
 PT |
Guillemets, day–month–year, dot grouping with decimal comma, suffix € or EUR. |
Portuguese house style controls exact quote and dash choices. |
 BR |
Curly double primary quotes, day–month–year, 1.234,56, prefix R$ or BRL. |
Concrete checks can flag suffix R$, English-style separators, or inconsistent Brazilian currency placement. |
 CZ |
Primary „…“, nested ‚…‘, dot/ISO dates, space grouping with decimal comma, suffix Kč or CZK. |
Checks Czech one-letter words v, k, s, z, o, u, i, a, unit/currency NBSP, and selected academic-title spacing. |
 PL |
Primary „…”, nested ‚…’, dot/ISO dates, space grouping with decimal comma, suffix zł or PLN. |
Checks Polish one-letter words w, z, i, o, u, a, unit/currency NBSP, and selected academic-title spacing. |
 NL |
Single primary quotes, dash/slash/ISO dates, dot grouping with decimal comma, prefix or suffix currency. | Detects word-initial Ij where the Dutch digraph should be IJ, except guarded brand/logo contexts in the locale-rule layer. |
 SE |
Swedish right-double quote model ”…”, ISO date pattern, space grouping with decimal comma, suffix kr or SEK. |
Treat date and dash differences as editorial review where house style varies. |
 HU |
Primary „…”, year–month–day date model, space grouping with decimal comma, suffix Ft or HUF. |
Numeric dates are kept conservative when their order is ambiguous. |
 SK |
Conservative profile derived from the Czech base, but without the Czech one-letter-word rule; dot/ISO dates and suffix € or EUR. |
Review inherited quote, abbreviation, and title-spacing expectations against Slovak house style. |
 DA |
Conservative Nordic profile with slash/dot/ISO dates, space grouping with decimal comma, suffix DKK, kr, or kr.. |
Quote enforcement is conservative. |
 NO |
Conservative Nordic profile with slash/dot/ISO dates, space grouping with decimal comma, suffix NOK or kr. |
Quote enforcement is conservative. |
 FI |
Conservative Nordic profile with slash/dot/ISO dates, space grouping with decimal comma, suffix € or EUR. |
Quote enforcement is conservative. |
 RO |
Conservative profile with dot/ISO dates, space grouping with decimal comma, suffix RON or lei. |
Review inherited quote, abbreviation, and title-spacing expectations against Romanian house style. |
 HR |
Conservative profile with dot/ISO dates, space grouping with decimal comma, suffix € or EUR. |
Review inherited quote, abbreviation, and title-spacing expectations against Croatian house style. |
 SI |
Conservative profile with dot/ISO dates, space grouping with decimal comma, suffix € or EUR. |
Review inherited quote, abbreviation, and title-spacing expectations against Slovenian house style. |
The conservative profiles extend useful separator, currency, date, and consistency coverage without claiming to encode every national style guide. A publication's documented house style remains authoritative.
16.9 Complete menu index
| Language family | User-selectable labels |
|---|---|
| Automatic | AUTO |
| English | EN Intl, EN US, EN UK, EN AU, EN NZ |
| Czech and Slovak | CZ, SK |
| German and Swiss | DE, DE AT, DE CH, CH Mix |
| French | FR, FR CH, FR CA |
| Italian | IT, IT CH |
| Spanish | ES, ES LatAm, ES AR, ES CL, ES CO, ES PE |
| Dutch and Polish | NL, PL |
| Portuguese | PT, BR |
| Nordic | SE, DA, NO, FI |
| Central and Southeast European | HU, RO, HR, SI |
The compact labels preserve palette width. Reports provide the fuller Resolved Locale, Locale Hint, Locale Fix Example, Locale Source Rule, Locale Specificity, and Locale Hint Confidence fields.
16.10 A dependable locale workflow
- Assign accurate InDesign paragraph languages before using AUTO.
- Choose an explicit locale when one regional convention governs the complete scope.
- Select a suitable Typography profile; locale does not enable disabled checkboxes by itself.
- Run a complete Typography Audit after every locale change.
- Read the locale label, source rule, specificity, confidence, and surrounding text together.
- Treat consistency findings and conservative regional profiles as review evidence, not absolute errors.
- Apply only exact guarded actions; correct ambiguous dates, numbers, currencies, quotes, and abbreviations manually.
- Rerun the audit and export a fresh report after corrections.
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