There can be a language barrier while sharing documents and other media with people from around the world. One may have written in their native language, whilst you have no gist of what is written in it.
However, Microsoft Office suites allow you to automatically translate a number of languages into the one which you understand. You can translate documents in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Although this article focuses on Microsoft Office 2021, the steps below are valid for all Office suites.
Microsoft Translator
Microsoft Translator is a plugin that is installed in your copy of Office, which is used to translate text from one language to another.
The translator plugin of MS Office now provides you easiness in translating any selected text within a file or document, or entire documents, into any language of your preference. You can also revert the translated text with the original text if required later.
If you have Microsoft Office 2016 or above installed, chances are that you already have this plugin installed. You can check whether you have Microsoft Translator installed by selecting some text and then right-click on it. If you see the “Translate” option in the context menu, then Translator is already installed.
If you do not find the option, you can download and install it from the given link:
Once on the page, click Get it now and then proceed with the given instructions to install the plugin in your copy of the Office suite.
After the plugin is installed, proceed with the given steps to translate a portion of a document:
- Select the text you want to translate and right-click on it. Now click “Translate” from the context menu.
- You will now see the selected text in a window on the right of the document, which has been automatically translated into your system’s default language. Check whether the translation is correct and understandable, and then click Insert to replace the selected text.
You can also change the To and From languages if you think that Office didn’t detect the correct language to translate, or you want the translated text in another language.
The same can be applied to PowerPoint and Excel to translate any text.
If you want to translate an entire document, click on Review from the top, click Translate, and then click Translate Document.
This will create a translated duplicate document that you can edit and save while maintaining the original copy.
Final Thoughts
Previously, you could also translate an entire Office document using TransTools – a small add-in for Microsoft Word. However, the support for dual-language documents has since been removed.
That said, we believe that Microsoft Translator has progressed over the years to make accurate translations from a variety of languages all across the world.
