Translations Builder is an external tool created for Power BI Desktop to assist dataset authors and report authors with tasks associated with creating translations and building multi-language reports. As a user, you can install Translations Builder and use it together with Power BI Desktop to build and test datasets and reports that support multiple languages.
While this document has been designed to explain the features and limitations of Translations Builder, it is recommended that you also read through the guidance document and that you work through the hands-on lab exercises. These learning resources will complement the contents you’ll find here.
There are three types of translations that come into play when localizing Power BI datasets and building reports that support multiple languages. Translations Builder helps to create and manage the first two types of translations which are metadata translations and report label translations. Translations Builder does not provide assistance with implementing data translations. For more conceptual background on translations used with Power BI, please read Understanding the Three Types of Translations.
To use Translations Builder effectively, you should be aware of its scope and a few important limitations discussed here.
Translations Builder has been designed to work with Power BI datasets running locally in Power BI Desktop. Translations Builder does not support connecting to Power BI datasets in the Power BI Service or connecting to older dataset formats used by Analysis Services. It’s possible to move beyond these limitations by extending Translations Builder as a developer. See the Translations Builders Developer Guide for more information. Translations Builder is similar to Power BI Desktop in that it can only be installed on the Windows operating system.
While Translations Builder is designed to directly update datasets loaded into memory by Power BI Desktop, it is not able to persist changes to a dataset to the underlying PBIX project files on its own. Therefore, it is important to return to Power BI Desktop and save your changes after adding and editing translations with Translations Builder.
When the Power BI Service loads a report, it creates a user context that includes a language ID and a locale identifier. The Power BI Service parses the language ID and the locale identifier together into string-based value known as the culture identifier. For example, a culture identifier of en-US represents a user who speaks English (en) in the United States (US). A culture identifier of fr-FR represents a user who speaks French (fr) in the France (FR).
Translations Builder supports the following set of languages, each with a specific culture identifier.
| Afrikaans [af-ZA] | Filipino [fil-PH] | Italian [it-IT] | Serbian [sr-Latn-BA] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arabic [ar-001] | Finnish [fi-FI] | Japanese [ja-JP] | Slovak [sk-SK] |
| Bulgarian [bg-BG] | French [fr-FR] | Korean [ko-KR] | Slovenian [sl-SI] |
| Catalan [ca-ES] | German [de-DE] | Latvian [lv-LV] | Somalian [so-SO] |
| Chinese [zh-CN] | Greek [el-GR] | Napali [ne-NP] | Spanish [es-ES] |
| Croatian [hr-HR] | Hebrew [he-IL] | Norwegian [nb-NO] | Swedish [sv-SE] |
| Czech [cs-CZ] | Hindi [hi-IN] | Persian [fa-IR] | Thai [th-TH] |
| Danish [da-DK] | Hungarian [hu-HU] | Polish [pl-PL] | Turkish [tr-TR] |
| Dutch [nl-NL] | Icelandic [is-IS] | Portuguese [pt-PT] | Ukrainian [uk-UA] |
| English [en-US] | Indonesian [id-ID] | Romanian [ro-RO] | Vietnamese [vi-VN] |
| Estonian [et-EE] | Irish [ga-IE] | Russian [ru-RU] |
While Translations Builder supports all the languages shown above, it is important to understand that it only supports a single culture identifier per language. For example, you can add the language Spanish [es-ES] to your PBIX project. But you cannot add the language Spanish with the different culture identifier such as es-MX for Spanish in Mexico.
Even if you intend to build multi-language reports for users who speak Spanish in Mexico, you are required to add the language as Spanish [es-ES]. Keep in mind that the multi-language reports you build can still load with a cultural identifier of es-MX. The DAX code generated by Translations Builder for implementing report label translation only uses the first part of the culture identifier so it would not make a different whether the report is loaded with a culture identifier of es-ES or es-MX.
For any project that requires English, you must add the language as English [en-US]. For any project that requires French, you must add the language as French [fr-FR] and so on. You can inspect list of languages shown above to see which culture identifier is used for each of the supported languages.
Translations Builder 2.0 uses the CSV file format to import and export translations sheets. Due to CSV files using comma separated values, Translations Builder does not support adding commas (,) to translations as they will cause errors when generating or reading translations sheets during import and export operations.
In future versions of Translations Builder, we are considering adding support for other file formats for import/export operations such as the RESX file format and a JSON-based file format.
Before using Translations Builder, it is recommended you configure a few settings that are tracked on a per user basis. You can start by clicking the Configure Settings… from the Dataset Connection menu to display the Configuration Options dialog.
The Configuration Options dialog should appear like the one shown in the following screenshot.
To enable support for generating machine translations with the Azure Translator Service, you must supply configuration values for the Azure Translator Service Key and Azure Translator Service Location. If you have an Azure subscription, you can learn how to obtain this key and its location by reading Obtaining a Key for the Azure Translator Service.
The Configuration Options dialog also allows you to assign local folder paths for the Outbox and Inbox. The Outbox folder is where Translation Builder generates files for export operations. The Inbox folder is where Translations Builder looks for files when you want to perform an import operation. By default, both the Outbox and Inbox are configured to use the Documents folder for the current user. However,
In general, you start any PBIX project involving translations by adding one or more secondary languages. Once you have added the languages you require, then you can begin to add translations.
You will use the Add Language button to add new languages.
Click the Add Languages button will open the Add Language dialog. In this dialog you can select a language and then click the Add Language button.
Once the new language has been added, it should be displayed in the list box just underneath the Add Languages button in the Secondary Languages section. The new language should also get its own new column in the translation grid.
Note the Add Language dialog supports multiple selection if you’d like to add more than one language in one operation.
If you’d like to remove a language from your PBIX project, you can do so by right-clicking the column header for that language in the translation grid and clicking the Delete Secondary Language menu command.
When deleting a language, you’ll be prompted to confirm the operation as it deletes all the translations for that language.
Remember that calling SaveChanges doesn't update the PBIX project file. After making changes to a dataset using an external tool such as TranslationsBuilder, you still need to return to Power BI Desktop and save your changes there. OK, now you’ve been told several times to save your changes in Power BI Desktop. This is your last warning.
Show command to create table
Create simple label
Show behind the scenes what has been created
Delete all and add multiple labels at once
Import labels from a file
Show command.
Show the two tables behind the scenes.
While the Localized Labels table is hidden from report authors, the Translated Localized Labels table is not hidden. That is what report authors use to create translated report labels
Measure make life easy. Over the last two years, Power BI Desktop has been extended
-
Card visual
-
Shape such as a Rectangle
-
Button
When implementing metadata translations and report label translations, Translations Builder can automate a large percentage of the translations work that need to be done. Unfortunately, the same is not true for data translations. Implementing data translations will often require refactoring the underlying database or datasource to provide extra columns to provide translations on a row to row basis.