Translate an Excel File into Hungarian

What Hungarian changes in a spreadsheet

Hungarian is agglutinative: where English strings several words together, Hungarian often welds them into one long word. A header such as "Delivery deadline" becomes Szállítási határidő, and "Order number" becomes Megrendelésszám. With wrap text switched on, Excel breaks lines at spaces, so a word like Társadalombiztosítási cannot be split and will spill over or be cut off in a narrow column.

• Double acute letters: ő and ű are letters in their own right, distinct from ö and ü. They are frequently replaced by mistake with õ (tilde) and û (circumflex), which a Hungarian reader spots at once.
• Plurals after numbers: Hungarian has two plural categories (one, other), but the noun stays singular after a numeral: 3 termék ("3 products"), not 3 termékek.
• Name order: the family name comes first (Kovács Anna). A contact list with separate columns reads clearly; a single "First Last" column stays in the order you typed it.
• Register: business labels are usually nominal or use the formal Ön, rarely the informal form.

Formulas, numbers and dates: what stays as it is

Manuce does not touch formulas: a calculated cell keeps its formula and goes on calculating. Numbers, dates and amounts are left as they are. Two consequences matter particularly for Hungarian.

• Text written inside a formula is not translated. With =IF(C2>0,"Paid","Pending"), the displayed results stay in the source language. If those labels must appear in Hungarian, put them in text cells and reference them.
• Concatenation suits Hungarian poorly. A formula like ="Delivered on "&A2 assumes source-language word order; in Hungarian the date or number often takes a suffix that varies with the word (2024-ben, március 15-én). Avoid building sentences with formulas.
• How numbers and dates display: Hungary uses a decimal comma, a space as thousands separator and dates written 2024. 03. 15. A genuine numeric or date cell displays according to the reader's Excel regional settings; a date typed as text keeps its original wording.
• Currency: a euro or pound number format stays as it is. If the workbook should show forints (12 500 Ft), you change the format yourself.

What Manuce returns, and what it does not do

You receive your original .xlsx file with the Hungarian text in place of the source text: column widths, colours, borders, number formats, filters and merged cells are kept. You also get a Word version, a PDF and the plain text, handy when a reviewer does not work in Excel.

Not translated:

• sheet tab names (a tab called "Q1 Sales" keeps that name);
• cell comments;
• charts;
• shapes and text boxes placed on the sheet.

Narrow columns are not widened: with long Hungarian words, a header may be cut off on screen, just as it could be in the original. Manuce does not provide sworn or certified translation either: financial tables for a Hungarian authority that requires certification need a sworn translator. Hungarian carries a surcharge, with a ×1.25 coefficient on the per-word rate.

Preparing the workbook before upload

• Move text out of formulas: look for IF, VLOOKUP or concatenations that return labels, and put those labels in text cells.
• Put translatable text in cells: a title in a text box or a note left as a comment will not be translated.
• Keep family and given names in separate columns if the file is for a Hungarian audience, so you can present them surname first without editing each cell.
• Enter dates as real dates, not text, so they display in Hungarian format on the recipient's machine.
• Leave room: turn on wrap text for headers and give label columns some spare width.

For a term that must stay unchanged (a product name, an item code), check it in the free sample and then in the delivered translation.

Checking the Hungarian file on delivery

1. Go through every sheet and find truncated cells: widen the column or increase the row height.
2. Use Excel's search to look for õ and û: neither should appear anywhere in Hungarian text.
3. Confirm that formulas still calculate and filters still work.
4. Re-sort alphabetical lists: the Hungarian alphabet treats cs, gy, ny, sz and zs as letters, so a list sorted in the source language is no longer in order once translated.
5. Rename tabs where needed and translate chart titles yourself.

In practice

1. Move labels out of formulas and put any text to translate into cells.
2. Upload the .xlsx file and choose Hungarian: the quote appears straight away.
3. Read the free sample, checking ő, ű and any terms that must stay unchanged.
4. After delivery, widen cut-off columns, re-sort lists and rename the tabs.