The complete guide to managing translation projects with Excel

Excel is a very popular tool for translation management, especially in smaller projects. It can be used to maintain an overview of translation keys, translators, languages, and deliverables at the same time. Spreadsheets are often the starting point before teams graduate to more structured i18n workflows; the full evolution is covered in our complete technical guide to internationalization and software localization. The benefits of Excel are that it is flexible, collaborative, and easy to use.

We explain when spreadsheets make sense, and when teams outgrow them, in our localization strategy guide.

How to use Excel as a translation management tool

Excel is a great tool to start translation management in a new project. With a simple Excel file, you can check the current translation version, progress of translating new keys or languages, and share the file easily with your team members.

How to create a spreadsheet for project translations

How to get started? Create a new file in Excel or Google Sheets and start by naming your columns. The best way is to extract or copy translation keys from your project, and put them in the first column.

Next, add language columns and their translations in corresponding cells. Here is a sample translation layout. Quite easy, right?

This is a basic and simple translation template which will work perfectly for your project.

Some useful tips for translating in Excel:

• Freeze the key column so you can scroll between languages without losing context.
• Add an extra column for a screenshot or image of the translated area, sometimes you may not remember where the key came from. With the screenshot, you can associate the key and its location.
• Use international codes for naming language columns (e.g., en, es) together with their locale like en-GB, es-ES, es-CL. Starting with proper locale codes makes it easier to adopt full internationalization later.
• Make one language your main one and fully translate it first. It will serve as a base for all other languages.

How to work with Excel translation files

An Excel file is a great tool for translations, but it still needs to be uploaded to your app or website. The file lets you control updated texts, add languages, and modify translations, but it does not connect directly with the source code.

In most setups, you need to convert the Excel file to JSON before it can go into the codebase. Every time a copywriter fixes a typo or a new string gets added, a developer has to manually re-import the file and replace the existing translations. That process breaks deployment cadence and burns engineering time on work that should be automated.

When the team is small and the string count is low, this is manageable. At three or more languages and 100+ keys, it becomes a meaningful source of release delays and translation debt.

Why Excel fails at scale

Before investing time in building an Excel-based workflow, here is what teams consistently run into as projects grow:

• No version control. Two people editing the same file at the same time creates conflicting versions with no clean way to merge.
• Data type corruption. Excel auto-converts string IDs like 1.10 into dates or floats, silently breaking translation key references.
• No translator context. Translators work from a raw grid with no visibility into the UI. This leads to technically correct but contextually wrong translations.
• Manual sync on every change. Every update requires re-exporting, converting, and re-importing. There is no automation path without significant custom scripting.
• Invisible unused keys. Deleted features leave orphan strings in the file. There is no way to detect or clean them without manual cross-referencing against the codebase.

These are not reasons to avoid Excel at the start — they are signals to watch for as the project grows. When they start costing real time, it is usually the right moment to move to a dedicated translation management system.

AI-powered translation in Excel

Built-in and add-in AI features have changed what is possible directly inside spreadsheets. Here is what is available today.

Google Sheets: Gemini and GOOGLETRANSLATE

The classic approach in Google Sheets uses the built-in GOOGLETRANSLATE formula:

=GOOGLETRANSLATE(A2, "en", "de")

Spread across a column, this gives you a fast first pass for any language pair. It works well for short UI strings, though it can return errors on large sheets or strings that contain HTML.

More recently, Google Workspace has integrated Gemini directly into Sheets. With Gemini available in the sidebar, you can ask it to translate a selected range, rewrite strings for a specific tone, or generate locale-aware variants — without leaving the spreadsheet. Natural language instructions like "translate column B to French using informal tone" work directly in the sidebar.

For bulk UI string translation, the formula approach is still faster. For marketing copy or strings that need tone matching, Gemini gives you more control.

Microsoft Excel: Copilot and Excel Labs

Excel's native Translate function (under the Review tab) has been available for years and covers most common language pairs via Microsoft Translator. For straightforward string translation, it works without any add-ins.

With Microsoft 365 Copilot, you can go further. Copilot can process a selected range and apply translation instructions expressed in natural language: "translate column B from English to French using informal tone." This is useful when you need style consistency across a batch, not just literal conversion.

For teams interested in experimental features, the Excel Labs add-in from Microsoft Garage has explored AI formula capabilities including the =LABS.GENERATIVEAI() function, which lets you pass prompts directly to an AI model from within a cell. Availability depends on your Microsoft 365 plan and region — check the Microsoft Store for current status.

For the official built-in option, see Microsoft's Excel translation guide.

Auto-translate with OpenAI, DeepL or Google Translate

Instead of working through spreadsheet formulas, you can use a translation management tool that integrates directly with AI and MT providers.

How does it work?
Log in to SimpleLocalize with a free Community plan and create your project. Then, with one click, upload your existing Excel file and hit Start auto translation.

SimpleLocalize will auto-translate with OpenAI, Google Translate or DeepL for your selected languages. In a few seconds, your project can be fully translated and ready to go.

When your translations are ready, you can export them to many supported formats including Excel, or upload translations automatically with CLI.

Tip: If you are managing more than two languages or 50 translation keys, a dedicated localization tool will save more time than it costs. You can upload your existing .xlsx directly to SimpleLocalize without abandoning your current Excel workflow. It is not an either/or choice at the start.

Pros and cons of using spreadsheets for translation management

Using spreadsheets as a translation management tool is a popular starting point, but the trade-offs become more visible as projects grow.

Pros:

• Simple to import and export data
• Easy to track changes in a translation file
• Familiar to everyone on the team
• Allows file sharing without requiring tool access
• Low or zero cost

Cons:

• Significant manual work for copy-pasting and formula maintenance
• Not designed for translation: no context, no QA checks, no key status tracking
• Requires manual file updates and re-imports with every change
• Difficult to track new strings and remove unused keys at scale
• No version control or merge support for concurrent edits

Easy Excel file translation with SimpleLocalize

SimpleLocalize is a simple, intuitive way to manage internationalization in Excel. It is data-driven, easy to use, and reduces the manual work that makes spreadsheet-based localization time-consuming at scale.

Import your current Excel files to SimpleLocalize and start translating your projects efficiently with auto-translation features. Start now with our free Community plan and see how SimpleLocalize can help in your localization work.