Easy Translations

by Allen Wyatt
(last updated December 26, 2013)

You've probably used Google's translation site before in order to do elementary translations from one language to another. (You can find it by visiting http://translate.google.com.) Now Sheets brings the power of Google Translate directly into your spreadsheet. All you need to do is use the GOOGLETRANSLATE FUNCTION, in this manner:

=GoogleTranslate(A1, "en", "es")

In this example, the function returns a translation of whatever is in cell A1 from English ("en") to Spanish ("es"). You could, if you wanted, also provide cell references for the source language and the target language:

=GoogleTranslate(A1, A2, A3)

When specifying a source and target language, use the two-character designation for langauges. Some of the more common designations are en (English), sp (Spanish), fr (French), ja (Japanese), ko (Korean), etc. You could, if desired, also tell Google to figure out what the source language is, in this manner:

=GoogleTranslate(A1, "auto", A2)

This example translates whatever is in cell A1 (after Google figures out what language it is) into whatever language you specify in cell A2.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Saving Everything

Need to force users to save their work? It may be as simple as implementing a couple of macros that get a bit more ...

Discover More

Preventing Jumbled Sorts

Click the Sort tool in Excel, and you may be surprised that the data in your worksheet is jumbled. In order to sort ...

Discover More

Finding the Address of the Lowest Value in a Range

Uncovering the lowest value in a range is relatively easy; you can just use the MIN worksheet function. Discovering the ...

Discover More
More DriveTips

Adding Stock Information

Adding stock information to a spreadsheet is a common need. Rather than enter information manually, why not let Sheets ...

Discover More

Grading Assignments with Flubaroo

Flubaroo is a third-party extension for Sheets that can help make grading classroom papers fast and easy. Here's a quick ...

Discover More

When in Rome, Count Like a Roman

Do you remember working with Roman numerals when you were in school? Sheets allows you to put those lessons to work by ...

Discover More
Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 8 + 6?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR AUTHORS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2019 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.