If you are reviewing an international contract or reading an essay containing a few sentences in a foreign language, you do not need to constantly copy and paste the text into a web browser to translate it. Microsoft Word includes a highly accurate, built-in translation engine powered by Microsoft Translator that can instantly convert entire paragraphs or specific phrases without ever leaving your document.
How to Translate Specific Text
Translating a small section of text is incredibly fast and keeps your original document formatting intact.
- Open your Microsoft Word document.
- Use your mouse to highlight the specific foreign sentence or paragraph you want to translate.
- Right-click directly on the highlighted text.
- From the dropdown menu, select Translate.
- A new “Translator” sidebar will immediately slide out from the right side of your screen.
Using the Translator Sidebar
The sidebar is divided into two boxes: the original text at the top, and the translated text at the bottom.
- Word will automatically attempt to detect the original language (e.g., “Spanish – Detected”). If it guesses incorrectly, simply click the dropdown menu and select the correct source language.
- In the bottom box, select the language you want to translate the text To (e.g., English).
- The translation will instantly appear in the bottom box. You can read it directly from the sidebar.
- If you want to permanently replace the foreign text in your actual document with the new English translation, simply click the blue Insert button at the bottom of the sidebar.
The highlighted foreign text on your page will instantly be overwritten with the translated version, maintaining the original font, size, and styling.