Translating documents with Microsoft Word - this is how it works!

Even if many people today speak and understand English, French or Spanish more or less well, most of them still have problems with technical terms, correct grammar and business language. If, for example, you receive a technical article in exactly this language, you often don’t understand a word of it. On the other hand, it can happen that you want to send a text you wrote in German to a business partner or pen pal in Sweden, China or Chioggia who doesn’t understand German. But thanks to Microsoft Office 365 Home, documents can be translated very quickly and converted into the target language. We reveal how this works here.

Translating documents: individual sections

You understand most of it, but here and there some technical terms are missing? No problem! You can also easily translate a Microsoft Word document section by section. The following steps are necessary:

  • First, the text section that is to be translated into the target language is marked with the left mouse button.
  • Now click on the marked text with the right mouse button and select „Translate“ from the menu.
  • In the window that then appears, the text is already translated into German.
  • If you want to translate into another language, you can select the desired language from the drop-down menu in the „To“ field.
  • If the original text is to be replaced in the new target language, select the relevant section and then click on „Insert“. The text section is converted into the new language.
  • If you want to keep both language versions, simply move the cursor in the document to the place where the text should appear in the target language and then click on „Insert“.
  • Of course, these steps also work in reverse, for example, if you want to translate documents from German to English.

Note: These steps can only be used to translate documents written in Word, Excel or PowerPoint. Outlook has its own translator, which must be installed as an add-in from the Office Store. It enables the translation of an e-mail message text without preparation. In this case, the translation is displayed directly next to the reading area in the inbox.

Translate entire Word document

Not only individual text passages, but also complete documents can be translated into countless languages with Microsoft Word.

  • To do this, first click on the „Translate“ button in the „Check“ tab.
  • Next, select „Translate document“.
  • Both the source and target languages can now be selected in the window on the right.
  • Then click on „Translate“ again, Word automatically creates a new file with the translated document.

Quick translation made easy

If you want a quick translation without Word, you can also use a helpful tool from Google. Here, however, translating documents is not always completely error-free.

  • First, open the corresponding document in Google Docs.
  • Then click on „Tools“ in the upper menu and select „Translate document“.
  • The document must then be given a name and the language selected.
  • Click on „Translate“.
  • A version containing the translation will then open in a new window.

Attention: If Microsoft Office files are used, it can happen that „Translate document“ is not displayed. In this case, the file must first be converted.

What if I want to translate a text into Chinese or Cyrillic?

Documents can also be translated from non-Latin languages or letters. In this case, the menu „Input Tools“ is displayed in the toolbar. If you click on the down arrow next to it, you can select the corresponding language. Now the individual words or text passages can be entered and translated either in their phonetic spelling with Latin characters, via the virtual on-screen keyboard or even as handwritten characters. Tip: The „Input tools“ menu can also be called up quite simply using keyboard shortcuts: PC: Ctrl + Alt + Shift + K Mac: ⌘ + Option + Shift + K

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