Translate an Excel file into Danish

What Danish changes in a spreadsheet

Danish uses the Latin alphabet, left to right, plus three letters of its own: æ, ø and å. An .xlsx file stores them without trouble and standard fonts display them. The real differences lie elsewhere.

• Closed compounds. As in German, "expected delivery date" becomes forventet leveringsdato and "customer service lead" kundeserviceansvarlig. With wrap text on, Excel only breaks lines at spaces, so a twenty-letter compound stays on one line and may spill over or be cut off in a narrow column.
• Sentence-case headers. Danish does not capitalise every word: Samlet beløb ("Total amount"), not "Samlet Beløb". If your source uses title case, the Danish will look different, and that is correct.
• A direct register. Trackers and input sheets address the reader as du and use short imperatives: Udfyld feltet ("Fill in the field"). The formal De now reads as old-fashioned in most business settings.
• Articles attached to the noun. "the item" is varen, "the items" varerne, so labels cannot be built by placing a word in front of another.

Formulas, lists and text that refer to each other

Manuce leaves formulas alone: a calculated cell keeps its formula and goes on calculating. Numbers, dates and amounts stay as they are. Excel then shows separators according to each computer's settings, so a Danish user sees 1.234,50 for an amount entered as a number; that is not part of the translation.

Two traps deserve attention:

• Text inside a formula. In =IF(C2>0,"Paid","Unpaid"), the quoted words belong to the formula and stay in the source language. If the result should read Betalt / Ubetalt, edit the formula yourself after delivery.
• Formulas that match text. =COUNTIF(B:B,"Open") counts cells containing "Open". Once column B is translated to Åben, the count drops to zero. Find these formulas before uploading so you can update the criterion.

Danish plurals have only two forms, one for 1 and one for everything else: 1 vare, 2 varer. A cell reading "item(s)" translates simply, but a label built by formula, such as =A2&" items", needs reworking.

Finally, an alphabetically sorted list keeps its original order. In Danish, Æ, Ø and Å come after Z, so re-sort if the order matters.

What Manuce returns, and what it does not do

You get your original .xlsx back with the Danish text in place: column widths, colours, borders, number formats, filters and merged cells are preserved. You also receive a Word version, a PDF and the plain text, handy for a Danish colleague who wants to review without opening Excel.

What is not translated:

• sheet tab names: rename them yourself, bearing in mind Excel's 31-character limit, which a compound such as Leverandøroversigt ("Supplier overview") quickly approaches;
• cell comments;
• charts (titles, legends, axes) and shapes or text boxes placed on the sheet.

Narrow columns are not widened: a longer Danish word may be cut off on screen, just as text could be in the original. Manuce does not provide certified (sworn) translation either; if a Danish authority requires an official translation, you will need an authorised translator. Danish carries a language supplement (×1.25), already included in the quote.

Preparing the workbook and checking the result

Before uploading:

• move any important text sitting in text boxes or comments into cells so that it is translated;
• list the formulas that contain or match text (IF, COUNTIF, VLOOKUP on a label);
• make sure figures are stored as numbers: an amount typed as text, such as "£1,250.00", is treated as text.

For a product or brand name that must stay unchanged, check how it appears in the free sample, then in the delivered translation.

After delivery:

• widen columns where a Danish compound is truncated, or reduce the font size;
• recalculate and check totals that depend on text criteria;
• re-run alphabetical sorts and make sure filters use the new labels;
• rename the tabs and translate chart titles and comments.

In practice

1. Move text from text boxes and comments into cells if it needs translating.
2. Upload the .xlsx and choose Danish: the quote appears straight away.
3. Check the free sample, particularly register and names to keep.
4. After delivery, widen columns, update text-matching formulas and re-sort lists.
5. Rename the tabs and translate charts and comments.