Online Excel Formula Translator to other languages

maninweb

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Germany
Website
excel-translator.de
Excel Version(s)
2010, 2016, 2016 Insider
Hi there...

I have published my first version of my free online tool at http://translator.excel-ticker.de for translating single and especially combined Excel 2010 (or lower) Formulas to another language. Currently the tool supports English, German and French.

The main reason for me to implement the tool in PHP was, that I am also active in English speaking forums and when trying out posted formulas, in many cases, I have to firstly change my Excel language, inserting the formula in a sheet, save it and then switch back to German. I thought, it's a complicated way for just one formula, especially if the formula is more complex and retyping it, is some 'work'. Also, I experienced sometimes that a user has, for example, only a french version of Excel and wants to post a formula to a german speaking forum and a translation of the formula is not possible on the fly.

I am currently adding more languages to the tool. Then I am planning to create a widget or something similar for use and/or embed in forums or blogs.

But before realize my plans, I would be thankful, if you can give me a feedback to the ideas and tell me if such a tool can be useful for you. Thanks in advance.

Regards :)
 
I think it would be better if the input and output boxes were separate, so you can still see your original formula. You could then switch target from say Deutsch to Francais without changing the target language, which would be better.
 
Also, in the English text, your eaxmples should be delimited by comma not semi-colons.
 
Hi Bob...

much thanks for your suggestions and feedback :)

Yes, I think, you are right, may be better to have 2 boxes for the formulas. Will be implemented.

Regards :)
 
Yes, those commas are an issue for those of us in North America. (Not sure where else may suffer that.) When I translate the following:
=ROUND(MIN((SUM($F54:G54)-$C$10*COUNTA($F9:G9)/12)*$C$12*$C$13,$C$14)-SUM($E56:F56),2)

I get this:
=RUNDEN(MIN((SUMME($F54:G54)-$C$10*ANZAHL2($F9:G9)/12)*$C$12*$C$13,$C$14)-SUMME($E56:F56),2)

I'm guessing that it should be:
=RUNDEN(MIN((SUMME($F54:G54)-$C$10*ANZAHL2($F9:G9)/12)*$C$12*$C$13;$C$14)-SUMME($E56:F56);2)

Awesome tool though... I can see where that would be very helpful.

(Also agree with Bob's suggestion about two windows.)
 
Not necessarily Ken. I don't think you have semi-colons JUST because it is German or French, it is more to do with the international settings (of course, the international settings for France and Germany would default to semi-colons, but can be changed). Having said that though, I think it makes sense to change to the expected defaults, but I guess that makes it that much harder.
 
What about months that are spelt out, such as

=SUMPRODUCT(--(TEXT(A1:A20="mmmm")="February"))

=SUMPRODUCT(--(TEXT(A1:A20="mmm")="Feb"))

And whilst we are at it, what about

=TEXT(A2,"dd")

In French that would be

=TEXTE(A1,"jj")

and in German

=TEXT(A1,"tt")
 
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Fair enough. My experience is pretty limited with foreign language translation in Excel. I guess the people I've helped have either been able to work with what I've given, or translated it on their own. :)
 
You mean that you haven't read that chapter in PED?
 
Hi Ken, Hi Bob...

Ken, much thanks your feedback too :)

Yes, the tool does not currently convert the commas to semi-colons and as Bob said, it depends on the system's settings. I changed my Excel language to EN and still have semicolons on my Windows 7 DE system. And I tried the same on my Windows 7 VM in English to change the Excel language to German and the have the commas instead of semicolons (=WENN(B1<>1,"Hello World","Ok"))

I think, Bobs suggestion to set it per default would be a way and will surely apply to most systems but not to all. I can create an option, setted by default, and let the user decide by himself. The problem when converting the commas to semicolons will be to not replace the commas included in static text. PHP however offers powerful functions to find regular expressions; however I must teach myself a little bit in RegExpr..

So, my next steps will be adding more languages, primarly languages with a latin charset. Then change the formula boxes as suggested by Bob and try some replacements for the commas and semicolons. And when I am ready, I'll post here an update.

Update: I have been writing while yu have posted. Months who are spelt out can be replaced; concerning the formats, hmm, I must think about it. But it's on my list now :)

Regards :)
 
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Hay,
Good idea Mourad, I will appreciate your online formula translator
What about the following functions (in French syntax) :
INFORMATIONS(no_type) :
=INFORMATIONS("répertoire") =INFORMATIONS("nbfich") =INFORMATIONS("cellule") =INFORMATIONS("versionse")
=INFORMATIONS("recalcul") =INFORMATIONS("version") =INFORMATIONS("systexpl")

CELLULE(type_info;[référence]) :
=CELLULE("adresse";$B$3) =CELLULE("colonne";$B$3) =CELLULE("contenu";$B$3) =CELLULE("coord";$B$3)
=CELLULE("couleur";$B$3) =CELLULE("format";$B$3) =CELLULE("largeur";$B$3) =CELLULE("ligne";$B$3)
=CELLULE("nomfichier";$B$3) =CELLULE("parentheses";$B$3) =CELLULE("protege";$B$3) =CELLULE("type";$B$3)
Best regards
 
Hi jpr73...

Many Thanks for your feedback; I will check these functions and if necessary correct/add them :)

Regards :)
 
Excellent Idea. Microsoft has such a long way to go on languages and anything that helps is worthwhile.

A couple of points:

It seems to require function names to be in upper case.

Comma/semicolon separators are complex, but Excel let's you override the system setting and change things without quitting Excel, so nobody need have a problem. I would stick to simple and use semicolons for non-English European languages and commas otherwise.

Are you aware of http://www.piuha.fi/excel-function-name-translation/index.php
 
Seeing Tony join in reminds me that he posted a nice MS 'feature' recently, where the MID function in Swedish is EXTEXT in Excel 2003 and MITT in Excel 2010 (there may be others). Ron de Bruin also mentioned that in 2007 there was this bug that is fixed in SP2 http://www.rondebruin.nl/atp.htm.

Not simple is it?
 
Hi Tony, Hi Bob...

Thank you, Tony, for your feedback. Yes, the tool assumes the function names in upper case letters, because Excel transforms
formulas to upper case after enter was pressed.

Bob, this means, I have to add those special cases to the array; assuming the formula names are in all cases unique. If so, then
I think, this problem will be resolvable.

Thanks both for the links :)

I am currently preparing and extending my Excel file I used for the three current languages (I use a macro for generating the php files
with the arrays) for more languages. I will then upload the file here; hoping that some people will have a look on it.

I bought www.excel-translator.de (and .com) yesterday. The new domains are however only redirecting to the previous domain
as I am also moving to another provider, but that's another problem and a long story.

A subscript is now pointing to a developer version of the translator: http://translator.excel-ticker.de/developer.php Currently a copy
of the released version is stored, but this will change soon. The developer version will then reflect my last developing state and when
it's tested move to the release version. And I am also creating a support and bug reporting site for the translator; this work is in progress.

Best regards :)
 
Hi all...

I have uploaded my basic file serving me for the translations. The Excel file includes the translations
of the english functions of Excel 2010 for German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese and
Swedish. The worksheet is protected by an empty password.

The translations were done by Excel, I installed all language packs on a VM, switched to another
language and pressed my button "Extract". The first step was to enter all excel formulas in English
manually; hope I have not forgotten one.

When opening the file, your current language ID is shown in the red field on top left. If you want
for example support me by providing languages, please just fill in in a empty column your language
ID (a number like 1033), a language name and code (just as you like). When pressing "Extract"
a dialogue searches those ID and puts all formulas to the column. If you are using the file,
please don't change the sorting (based on English). The sheet contain hidden row, in case I
forgot formulas for a character (A-Z); each char has placeholders for max 64 functions.

I am now going to add the new languages to the translator and performing some changes to
the algo; some questions:

- What do you think, is there a need to also translate older Excel 4 macro functions?
- May it make sense to translate the most used Add-In functions and if so which ones?

Best Regards :)
 

Attachments

  • formulas.xlsm
    327.7 KB · Views: 40
Wow... a lot of work!

Personally, I don't use much (if any) of the Excel 4 macro functions. I know there's some things that they're very useful for, but since they trigger security warnings in Excel 2010, and I never really did learn them, I avoid them.

Re Add-ins... are you talking about add-ins like Laurant Longre's MoreFunc addin? I personally avoid them too, but I've seen quite a few people recommend that one at mrexcel.com...
 
Hi together...

I have released version 1.05 on my server and added following features...

  • New languages for translations, so that the translator knows about the formulas for English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese and Swedish.
  • UTF 8 support for the language files for the Excel formulas and interface translations (currently only German, English and French). May be great if someone who speaks more languages can support me.
  • Parameter for setting the interface language when calling the translator, example http://translator.excel-ticker.de/translator.php?Language=en loads the english interface, de and fr will then load German and French; default is English.
  • Two textboxes are now shown for the formulas, the first for the source formula and the second for the translated formula.
  • Minor changes for the parser. However, as I am planning to also be able to translate keywords in formulas (CELL("Filename"), ...) and some of the date and time formats, I will rewrite the parser as the current version is not able to do that.
  • The developer version for the translator is ready and and has additional options; the parser can be choosen there, primarly for me. So when developing, I am completely independent from the released version.
Unfortunately, the file for extracting the formulas had a minor bug (especially for FALSE and TRUE), I have fixed this and uploaded a new version here.

@Ken: thanks :) Personally I also do not use these old macros, but I know few people who do. May be perhaps the best to firstly finish the translator with the current formulas and the consider the Excel 4 macro formulas later when all things work fine. Concerning the Add-Ins, I thought about the Analysis Toolpack, for example for Excel 2003. As I know and if I am right, a considerable number of people is using this Add-In; for example for calculating the week number with the ISO Standard (I also avoid this Add-In). However, I am not sure if a localized version of this Add-In is installed with a language pack. If not, it will be IMHO more difficult to retrieve the translated formulas.

Next steps for the translator will be to replace and improve the parser module, support the replacement for commas and semicolons, make the layout a little bit nicier, add languages, etc.. However this work will only start from September, as I am busy next week.

Best Regards :)
 

Attachments

  • formulas.xlsm
    352.4 KB · Views: 30
Analysis toolpack, definitely. I checked your file though, and you listed the most common two that I use: EOMONTH and MROUND.
 
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