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Translation and language detection functions come to Excel |
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Microsoft are introducing two new functions to Excel: TRANSLATE (to translate passages of text into another language) and DETECTLANGUAGE (to determine the language in which a particular passage of text is written). |
You can now translate text from one language to another in Excel using the TRANSLATE function (*):
Here we're translating from English (en) to French (fr).
(*) Except - you can't, or at least I can't (the above diagram was faked). Read on for more details!
The Microsoft blog page announcing the new language functions says that the feature is available if you're using Excel on the Beta Channel, which I am:
Most people won't be using the Beta Channel, but I have switched to this (the sacrifices I make for this newsletter!).
Here's my version:
This shows I'm using a build later than the minimum version required.
Microsoft do warn that "features are released over some time to ensure things are working smoothly", so I guess I just need to wait a bit!
This function takes up to 3 arguments:
Argument | What it shows | Example |
---|---|---|
1 | The text you want to translate | The cat sat on the mat |
2 | The language you're translating from | en (ie English) |
3 | The language you're translating to | tlh-Latn (ie Klingon) |
Over 100 languages are supported: you can see a list here.
This function is even simpler, taking just one argument:
Argument | What it shows | Example |
---|---|---|
1 | Text written in a foreign language | Le chat s'est assis sur le tapis |
The above example would return fr, since the text is written (I hope!) in French.
This is an impressive new feature, although the common errors are worrying (one is Test Too Long, and another is You have exceeded your daily quota of the translation function).
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