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    Translate extension
    • 11 Dec 2024
    • 2 Minutes to read
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    Contents

    Translate extension

    • Updated on 11 Dec 2024
    • 2 Minutes to read
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    Article summary

    The Airtable interface is available in English, French, German, and Spanish. You can select your preferred language from your account by selecting Language preferences.

    The translate extension uses a Google Cloud Translate API key to translate the contents of any text-based field from one language to another. You can choose from over a hundred different languages. Please note that you need a Google Cloud Translate API key in order to use this extension.

    Introduction

    Plan availability

    All paid plans

    Permissions

    • Owners/Creators - Can create, delete, and modify extensions

    • Editors - Can edit the configuration of previously configured extensions

    Platform(s)

    Web/Browser, Mac app, and Windows app

    Related reading

    Guide: Build your own Airtable extensions

    Airtable terminology

    Extension - Extensions are modular components that add visuals or functionality to a base, and were shown in the base's dashboard. Users can create custom extensions, or they can use extensions created by Airtable or other open-source extensions.

    Enter your Google Cloud API key

    After adding the translate extension to your base, you'll be prompted to enter your Google Cloud API key.

    Screen Shot 2017-11-15 at 4.34.35 PM

    Configure the extension settings

    Next, you need to specify the table and view containing the records you want to translate.

    Screen Shot 2017-11-15 at 4.51.03 PM

    Then, specify the source field and source language (the field with the values you want to translate into another language, and what language you want to translate from). The translate extension will automatically try to detect the language in which your records are written, but you can also choose the source language manually using the dropdown menu.

    You also need to pick a destination field into which your translations can go, and the language into which you'd like your records to be translated.

    Screen Shot 2017-11-15 at 4.53.15 PM

    Preview and translate text

    When you're ready, click the Translate with Google button. This will bring up a confirmation screen where you can confirm the amount that you'll be charged for the use of the API.

    Screen Shot 2017-11-15 at 4.55.07 PM

    After confirming the charge, the extension will generate previews of the translations. You can choose to uncheck the Update this record toggle on any of the previews if you don't want that particular translation to get added to the destination field. Once you're ready, click the Save button. The translations will then get added to the destination field.

    Screen Shot 2017-11-15 at 4.56.09 PM

    Alerts for text that needs to be re-translated

    Because translations do not automatically update, you may want to setup an alert to know when the source text has changed so that you can updated the translated text.

    To create this, start by adding a formula field to your table. Then, paste in the following formula, ensuring to replace any field names (which are shown below wrapped in {Curly Brackets}) with the field names that are in your own base.

    IF(LAST_MODIFIED_TIME({Notes})>LAST_MODIFIED_TIME({Translated notes}),"Translation may be out of date")

    alert_formula

    This formula compares the time that the {Notes} field was last modified with the time that the {Translated notes} field was last modified. If {Notes} was modified after you ran a translation, you'll receive the error message, "Translation may be out of date".

    alert_example

    You can take this alert a step further by automating email notifications to yourself (or others) using Airtable Automations.

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