Translate spreadsheet cells and shape text in place — and keep the record inside the file.
An ONLYOFFICE spreadsheet plugin that translates cell content and text inside drawn shapes, then records every translation in a hidden sheet inside the workbook itself.
That last part is the point. Translation memory lives in the file, not on your machine, so it travels with the workbook when it is copied, emailed or renamed. Repeated text is translated once and reused; any translated cell can be reverted to its original.
- Three engines — offline (Bergamot), self-hosted (LibreTranslate), or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint.
- Works offline. Bergamot runs as WebAssembly in the editor. Language models download once and are cached locally.
- Translation memory in the workbook. A hidden
_CellTranslatorsheet holds the ledger, so identical text is never translated twice. - Shapes too. Text inside autoshapes and callouts is translated per paragraph, preserving each paragraph's formatting.
- Revert anything. Every translated cell keeps a route back to its original.
- Refine a single cell with AI, or pick from alternative translations (LibreTranslate only).
- Automatic language detection, with a manual override per cell.
- ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors or Docs 9.4 or newer
- Node.js 20+ (only to build the plugin)
There is no marketplace listing yet, so installation is manual. Download
cell-translator-vX.Y.Z.plugin from the latest release,
or build it yourself (see Development).
Every release also ships a .sha256 file. Worth checking, since the plugin runs
inside your editor:
shasum -a 256 -c cell-translator-v1.0.2.plugin.sha256- Open the Plugins tab
- Click Plugin Manager
- Go to the My plugins tab
- Click Install plugin manually
- Select the
.pluginfile and click Open
It becomes available immediately, in open documents and future ones.
If you would rather drop it in as a folder, unzip the .plugin (it is a plain
zip) into a directory named cell-translator under:
Windows %ProgramFiles%\ONLYOFFICE\DesktopEditors\editors\sdkjs-plugins\
macOS ~/Library/Application Support/asc.onlyoffice.ONLYOFFICE/data/sdkjs-plugins/
Linux /opt/onlyoffice/desktopeditors/editors/sdkjs-plugins/
Docs takes a plugin folder, not a .plugin archive, so unzip it first:
mkdir cell-translator
unzip cell-translator-v1.0.2.plugin -d cell-translatorThen move it into the plugins directory:
# Linux
sudo mv cell-translator /var/www/onlyoffice/documentserver/sdkjs-plugins/
# Windows
move cell-translator %ProgramFiles%\ONLYOFFICE\DocumentServer\sdkjs-plugins\On Linux, restart the services if the plugin does not appear:
sudo systemctl restart ds-converter ds-docservice ds-example ds-metricsThe plugin is then available to every user of that server.
For Docker, copy the folder to the same path inside the container, or mount it there. ONLYOFFICE publishes no official Docker instructions for this, so treat the following as a starting point rather than a documented procedure:
docker cp cell-translator \
<container>:/var/www/onlyoffice/documentserver/sdkjs-plugins/Cloud (onlyoffice.com) installations cannot take manually installed plugins.
| Action | How |
|---|---|
| Translate a sheet | Toolbar → Cell Translator → Execute Translation |
| Inspect one cell | Right-click a cell → Show translation panel |
| Translate a shape | Select the shape with the panel open |
| Change engine or target language | Toolbar → Cell Translator → Settings |
| Undo a translation | Translation panel → Revert |
By default translations are shown in the panel and the sheet is left untouched. Switch Display Mode to Replace in Settings to write translations into the cells themselves.
The toolbar, under the Cell Translator group:
Settings — engine, quality, target language and downloaded models:
The plugin runs in the background, so it appears under Background plugins as well as in the Plugin Manager:
| Engine | Runs where | Needs | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bergamot | Locally, WebAssembly | Nothing | Default. Fully offline once models are cached. |
| LibreTranslate | Your own server | A running instance | The only engine that offers alternative translations. |
| AI | Any OpenAI-compatible API | Endpoint + model | Also powers Improve with AI on a single cell. |
A compose.yml is included to run LibreTranslate locally:
docker compose up -d # http://localhost:15065_CellTranslator (hidden sheet)
A–D ledger checksum | source | translation | txn
E–G refs sheet | cellRef -> ledgerRow
I–J history timestamped events
The ledger is keyed by a checksum of the source text, so the same phrase repeated across hundreds of cells is translated once. Refs map each cell — or each shape paragraph — back to its ledger row, which is what makes revert possible.
See docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for the full design.
npm install
npm run build # bundle into dist/
npm run pack # build + zip into translator-plugin.plugin
npm run icons # re-rasterise icons from assets/*.svg
npm run lint # biome
npm run lint:fixIcons are committed as PNGs because ONLYOFFICE wants a fixed set of sizes, but
they are generated, not hand-drawn. The sources are assets/icon.svg (plugin
list), assets/icon-store.svg (marketplace card) and assets/toolbar/*.svg
(toolbar buttons). Edit those and run npm run icons.
Source lives in src/, one directory per plugin window, each with a main.js
entry that the build bundles into a single IIFE (the ONLYOFFICE plugin sandbox
does not support ES modules).
src/
background/ the controller — owns all state and logic
panel/ Cell Translator panel
settings/ Settings panel
translation-view/ per-cell inspector
sync/ manual sync to the document
shared/ engines, ledger, sidecar sheet, logging
Bergamot translates entirely on your machine; nothing leaves it. Choosing LibreTranslate or AI sends cell text to whichever endpoint you configure — pick one you trust with the contents of your spreadsheets.
Your AI API key is stored in the editor's localStorage, unencrypted. Treat it
as you would any other credential kept in a browser profile.
Issues and pull requests are welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md.
MIT — see LICENSE.
Bundled third-party components under vendors/ keep their own licences; see
NOTICE, which also records an unresolved licensing question about the
vendored Bergamot package.