Forum Discussion
MicrosoftNew Translation Functions in Excel: TRANSLATE and DETECTLANGUAGE
Hey Microsoft 365 Insiders,
Great news for Excel enthusiasts!
Excel now includes powerful translation functions, allowing you to translate and detect languages directly within your spreadsheets. The new TRANSLATE and DETECTLANGUAGE functions help break down language barriers, making your data more accessible and your workflow smoother.
Discover how it works in our latest blog post by Gedion Alemayehu, Product Manager on the Excel team: New Translation Functions in Excel: TRANSLATE and DETECTLANGUAGE
NOTE:
These are preview functions. Their signature and results may change substantially before being broadly released, based on your feedback. So, we do not recommend using these functions in important workbooks until they are generally available.
Thanks!
Perry Sjogren
Microsoft 365 Insider Social Media Manager
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- When do we know when this is available on our version? I could really use this, but when I try in 365 or desktop the functions do not work, and in the demo files, it throws the #name error when I try to update them.
Since Excel team stopped blog new functionality on this resource and on Help->Feedback usually there is no feedback, I try to comment here.
1) Drop-down list to select language is not searchable. Or at least I didn't find how to do that, need to scroll the list to select if I don't know exact abbreviation.
2) Common Errors mentioned here DETECTLANGUAGE function - Microsoft Support (or for TRANSLATE) - text too long. What exactly that means? Translate Service allows 50000 characters x 1000 array elements which is on practice higher that Excel grid limits, or something else?
At the same time, translating text returned as =REPT("len ", 751) with =TRANSLATE(A1,,"fr") I have "You have exceeded the character limit." error.
Change on =REPT("len ", 750), translation works file, but =LEN( TRANSLATE(A1,,"fr") ) returns 119. Why? What are actual limits?
3) Another possible error is "You have exceeded your daily quota of the translation function." On Translate Service I found monthly quota and approximate hourly limit. What is the daily quote, could it be articulated bit more concrete?
I hope results are cached and we don't add number of translated characters with each recalculation.
How "daily" is handled, is it within Excel or on cloud is checked when the day started? Based on what? Is it enough to change IP address to reset the limit?
4) Another possible error "You have a non-text value in your cell. The function only accepts a text argument." Didn't catch that. =TRANSLATE( 3000,,"fr") successfully "translates" number 3000 into the text "3000".
5) My impression this function works relatively slow, at least compare to other on-cloud services (stock data types, python in Excel). Perhaps that's specific of Translate Services.
Some exercises to above are in attached file, assuming English is default language.
- Is there any update when this funcionality will be availble?
It's already available, for some people on Beta channel.
When it'll be in production nobody knows, even Microsoft. All depends on Beta phase results. I'd expect closer to the end of this year on Current channel.
And most optimistic next summer for semi-annual enterprise.
