Labeling file upload button

It is normally provided by the browser and hard to change, so the only way around it will be a CSS/JavaScript hack,

See the following links for some approaches:

• http://www.shauninman.com/archive/2007/09/10/styling_file_inputs_with_css_and_the_dom
• http://www.quirksmode.org/dom/inputfile.html
• http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/showtopic15621.htm

Take a step back! Firstly, you're assuming the user is using a foreign locale on their device, which is not a sound assumption for justifying taking over the button text of the file picker, and making it say what you want it to.

It is reasonable that you want to control every item of language visible on your page. The content of the File Upload control is not part of the HTML though. There is more content behind this control, for example, in WebKit, it also says "No file chosen" next to the button.

There are very hacky workarounds that attempt this (e.g. like those mentioned in @ChristopheD's answer), but none of them truly succeed:

• To a screen reader, the file control will still say "Browse..." or "Choose File", and a custom file upload will not be announced as a file upload control, but just a button or a text input.
• Many of them fail to display the chosen file, or to show that the user has no longer chosen a file
• Many of them look nothing like the native control, so might look strange on non-standard devices.
• Keyboard support is typically poor.
• An author-created UI component can never be as fully functional as its native equivalent (and the closer you get it to behave to suppose IE10 on Windows 7, the more it will deviate from other Browser and Operating System combinations).
• Modern browsers support drag & drop into the native file upload control.
• Some techniques may trigger heuristics in security software as a potential ‘click-jacking’ attempt to trick the user into uploading file.

Deviating from the native controls is always a risky thing, there is a whole host of different devices your users could be using, and whatever workaround you choose, you will not have tested it in every one of those devices.

However, there is an even bigger reason why all attempts fail from a User Experience perspective: there is even more non-localized content behind this control, the file selection dialog itself. Once the user is subject to traversing their file system or what not to select a file to upload, they will be subjected to the host Operating System locale.

Are you sure you're doing your user any justice by deviating from the native control, just to localize the text, when as soon as they click it, they're just going to get the Operating System locale anyway?

The best you can do for your users is to ensure you have adequate localised guidance surrounding your file input control. (e.g. Form field label, hint text, tooltip text).

Sorry. :-(

--

This answer is for those looking for any justification not to localise the file upload control.

Pure CSS solution:

.inputfile {
  /* visibility: hidden etc. wont work */
  width: 0.1px;
  height: 0.1px;
  opacity: 0;
  overflow: hidden;
  position: absolute;
  z-index: -1;
}
.inputfile:focus + label {
  /* keyboard navigation */
  outline: 1px dotted #000;
  outline: -webkit-focus-ring-color auto 5px;
}
.inputfile + label * {
  pointer-events: none;
}

<input type="file" name="file" id="file" class="inputfile">
<label for="file">Choose a file (Click me)</label>

source: http://tympanus.net/codrops