Translate an Excel file into Hindi

What Hindi changes in a spreadsheet

Hindi is written in Devanagari, left to right, with a horizontal headline joining the letters and many conjuncts. For a workbook, that means:

• Fonts and shaping. Calibri or Arial may not include Devanagari glyphs, so display falls back on whatever the system provides. A font that handles shaping (Nirmala UI, Mangal, Noto Sans Devanagari) avoids broken conjuncts or empty boxes.
• Row height. Vowel signs sit above the headline (ि, ी) or below the letter (ु, ृ). A fixed-height row that suited Latin text can clip the top or bottom of words.
• Length. Short headers such as “Qty” or “Ref.” often have no established Hindi abbreviation, so the translated label may be longer and a narrow column will cut it off.
• Punctuation. Hindi sentences end with the danda । rather than a full stop; it is not a stray character.
• Mixed scripts. English technical terms frequently stay in Latin script: SKU, GST or Excel can sit alongside Devanagari in the same cell.

Formulas, numbers and dates: what stays put

Manuce does not touch formulas: a calculated cell keeps its formula and keeps calculating. Numbers, dates and amounts are left as they are. With Hindi, three consequences are worth knowing.

• Formulas that match text. If column C says “Paid” and another cell holds =COUNTIF(C:C,"Paid"), the cells become भुगतान किया गया but the formula still looks for “Paid”, so the count drops to zero. Look for IF, COUNTIF or VLOOKUP on labels and update them after delivery.
• Text inside formulas. A cell like ="Total: "&B5 is a formula, so its text is not translated. The same applies to plurals built by concatenation, such as =B2&" items". Hindi has only two plural categories (one, other), but nouns also change with gender and case, so a fixed label in a neighbouring cell works better.
• Numbers. Digits stay Western (1, 2, 3), which is the official usage in India, not Devanagari digits (१, २, ३). The original number format is kept: if your readers expect Indian lakh and crore grouping (12,34,567), change the format yourself.

What Manuce returns, and what it does not do

You get your original .xlsx back with the text replaced in place: column widths, colours, borders, number formats, filters and merged cells are preserved. You also receive a Word version, a PDF and plain text, handy for reading the Hindi outside the spreadsheet or passing it to a native speaker for review.

The following are not translated:

• sheet tab names (“Q1 Sales” stays “Q1 Sales”);
• cell comments;
• charts, including their titles and legends;
• shapes and text boxes placed on the sheet.

Narrow columns are not widened, so a longer Hindi label may be cut off on screen, just as it would have been in the original. Manuce does not provide sworn or certified translation: for official documents required by an Indian authority, you need an accredited translator. Hindi carries a surcharge (×1.6 on the per-word rate), already included in the quote.

Preparing the workbook

• Move chart and text-box wording into cells if it needs translating: a chart title linked to a cell, rather than typed into the chart, follows that cell’s translation.
• Replace hard-coded labels in formulas with a reference to a text cell, which will be translated.
• List formulas that test a label so you can update them with the Hindi term afterwards.
• Read the free sample: it shows one paragraph translated at your chosen level. Check that product names, acronyms and codes stay in Latin script as you want.
• Delete sheets you do not need: every sheet is translated and counted in the quote.

Checking the Devanagari output

1. Open the file on a machine similar to your recipient’s and confirm that conjuncts render joined (क्ष, त्र, श्र) rather than as separate letters.
2. Set rows to automatic height, or raise them where vowel signs are clipped.
3. Widen columns or turn on text wrapping where text is cut off.
4. Re-sort lists: an alphabetical order in Latin script is no longer alphabetical in Devanagari.
5. Translate tab names, comments and chart titles yourself if the recipient needs to read them.

In practice

1. Upload your .xlsx file: the quote appears straight away, based on the exact word count.
2. Choose Hindi and a level, then read the free sample.
3. Pay to start the translation of every sheet.
4. Download the translated .xlsx along with Word, PDF and plain-text versions.
5. Check fonts, row height, truncated columns and formulas that match on text.