Microsoft Excel Has a Secret English to Spanish (and Other Languages) Translator

Microsoft Excel This is a case of cuteness. One of the key Office applications is used for more than just organizing data, performing math calculations, or automating tasks. Excel, too has a secret function that allows you to translate text into other languages just by writing the formula.

A few weeks ago, Microsoft announced two new translation features in Excel. The technology behind these features is designed to Simplify and automate translations directly from your spreadsheet. Users can access them from their workbook using a formula, just like other features in the app.

The first of them TRANSFERand as the name suggests, allows you to translate text from one language to another. To activate it, simply write the command = in the cell. TRANSLATE (text, original language, language into which it is translated). For example, if you want to translate “Hello, my name is Alberto” into English, you would have to type = TRANSLATION ("Hello, my name is Alberto", "es", "en") and the cell will convert the text to the language you specified in the formula.

Second function DEFINITION OF LANGUAGE and is used for determine the language of a specific text. Taking the previous example, if you write = LANGUAGE DEFINITION ("Hello, my name is Alberto")The cell will display the Spanish abbreviation (es). This feature is useful if you have a workbook with data in multiple languages, as you can select the text and translate it directly in Excel without leaving the workbook.

Excel functions are based on Microsoft’s translator. The tech giant has confirmed this. These features support over 100 languages.including English, Spanish, French, Catalan, Basque or Yucatec Mayan, to name a few.

How to Translate from Spanish to English and Other Languages ​​Using Excel

If you want to use translation features in your book, just follow these steps. First of all, make sure you are using Excel for Windows or Macbecause it is only offered from the following versions:

• Windows: Version 2407 (Build 16.0.17808.20000) or later.
• Mac: 16.87 (build 24062430) or later.

Translator available for betaso you’ll need to sign up for the Insider program first and wait for it to be released in your region. Since the release is a few weeks old, Excel Translator will likely be available in all countries by the time this post is published.

If you want to translate a text into another language, the formula for this is as follows: = TRANSLATION (text, source language, target language). You just need to write it in a cell, like any other operation in Excel. On the other hand, the language detector is activated by the command = DEFINELANGUAGE(text).

Microsoft hasn’t confirmed whether Excel translation will be available in other countries, although since it’s such a useful feature, we hope so.