Sometimes you come across Word documents in a foreign language. Of course you can copy and paste the text into Google Translate or DeepL, but it is also possible to have it translated directly by the Microsoft application. Of course you should not expect an impeccable grammatical text from such a machine translation, but you can understand the content of the text.
Step 1: Document, fragment or word
Most of the world speaks a language other than your native language. It is therefore inevitable that you occasionally have to call on a translator. To use Word's translation function, you need an active internet connection. Select the text you want to translate or press Ctrl+A to select the entire document. Then go to the tab Check where you in the group Language the option Translate finds. The first time you use this function, Word will open the dialog Using Intelligent Services to show. You have to turn it on. If you don't see this window, it means that this service is already active. Under the button Translate are three options Translate document, Selected texttranslate and Mini translator. When you enable the mini translator, it will remain active every time you use the application.
Step 2: From and to
For translation, the application uses Microsoft Translator, a cloud service for multilingual machine translation. As of April 2019, the service supports no fewer than 65 language systems and is integrated into various Microsoft consumer products. This means that this function also works in the same way in other Office applications such as Excel and Powerpoint. In the right bar, Word will indicate which source language the program uses. Usually this is correct, because this service can recognize foreign languages itself. If the program should make a mistake, you can do this in the box below the word By straighten up. In the box below the word To select the language in which you want to read the text in a moment.
Step 3: Insert or Copy
Press the button Insert and the text you just selected is immediately replaced in the document with the translation. Instead of Insert can you do the command To copy so that you can then paste the copied translation somewhere in a document. If you are not satisfied, Microsoft provides a few additional online reference works in this bar that you can activate for the automatic translation.
