If you and your colleagues use different language versions of Excel, the Function Translator is a great tool for you. This Microsoft add-on can translate entire formulas or help you find the function you want in the language you need.

The Function Translator is a Microsoft add-on that is available for free. You install it by going to the Insert tab and selecting Get Add-ins in the Add-ins group on the ribbon. The images in this guide are in Swedish. The images can still be helpful as they correspond to exactly the same thing in English.

In the dialog that opens, you can now search for the term “translator”. Once you have located the add-on, press Add.

For the add-on to be installed, you need to accept the license terms and privacy policy. You do this by pressing Continue.

You can now find the Translator icon under the Home tab in the Function Translator group.

Since it’s the first time the add-on is opened, we also need to approve the use of the add-on by pressing Allow and continue.

You now have two choices – skip the introduction of the add-on or Get Started. With the first option, you get to choose for which languages you wish to translate our functions and delimiters from and to. If you choose to skip the introduction, you will go directly to the next image.

Once you have reached the actual Function Translator, you have three choices.

• Reference – here we see all the functions in the two selected languages. Here you also choose Function Category to navigate between Excel’s functions. If you want to know, for example, what the translation of VLOOKUP is for the selected language, you select Search and reference in the list.
• Glossary – here you can simply search for the function you want. It doesn’t matter for which of the two selected languages you search.
• Translator – here you can copy and paste entire formulas. The specified formula will then be translated. Not just function names, but also delimiters between arguments in the functions and number delimiters.
• Settings – more on this further down.

In the example below, you can see how the Translator tab works. All you need to do is choose the direction of translation. In my case, I have chosen the languages Swedish and English. All I need to do then is to choose whether I want to translate from Swedish to English, or vice versa.

Note also the different buttons with punctuation marks. The Function Translator identifies itself which punctuation marks are used, but if it evaluates a formula incorrectly, you can manually specify which punctuation marks have been used here.

Did you skip the introduction or want to change languages? Then press the gear icon at the bottom right.

It doesn’t really matter which language you choose as From and which one you choose as To. The Function Translator will work the same way regardless.

The Function Translator comes in handy if you work in different language versions of Excel, or if you often need to paste in formulas that you, for example, find on the internet. The Function Translator can also be used in conjunction with Learnesy’s courses.