Translate a product catalogue in Excel into Spanish

What changes when a catalogue goes into Spanish

A spreadsheet catalogue is not running text: it is a grid of short, often isolated cells, and that is where Spanish sets its traps.

• Gender agreement. A \"Colour\" column containing just \"Red\" does not say whether the adjective agrees with camiseta (roja) or pantalón (rojo). Without context the engine has to pick one form; if attributes must agree with the product, make the cell explicit.
• Plurals. Spanish uses the one, many and other categories: \"1 unidad\", \"12 unidades\", \"1 millón de unidades\" (note the \"de\"). A catch-all cell such as \"unit(s)\" translates awkwardly; use a fixed form instead.
• Inverted punctuation. Promotional badges open with ¡ and ¿: \"¡Novedad!\", \"¿Buscas más colores?\". A \"New!\" sticker therefore gains characters.
• Length. Spanish runs longer than English and close to French. If your source catalogue is in English, description columns that fitted snugly will overflow.

Spain or Latin America: catalogue vocabulary

The same product is not named the same way on both sides of the Atlantic, and a catalogue makes that obvious.

• Electronics: ordenador (Spain) / computadora (Latin America); móvil / celular.
• Clothing: camiseta in Spain, playera in Mexico; zapatillas / tenis.
• Home: nevera or frigorífico / refrigerador.

Register matters too: many consumer brands in Spain address the buyer informally (descubre, elige), whereas a trade catalogue uses the formal form (descubra, elija). Manuce does not take variant or terminology instructions, so to see which Spanish and which register you will get, request the free sample on a representative description, then check the key product names in the delivered file.

What Manuce delivers, and what it does not do

Your catalogue goes to Calliope, the marketing and sales specialist. In practice:

• text cells on every sheet are translated (product names, descriptions, attributes, taglines);
• formulas are left alone: a cell such as =B2*(1-C2) computing a discounted price keeps calculating; numbers, dates and amounts stay as they are;
• you get the original .xlsx back with its column widths, colours, borders, number formats, filters and merged cells;
• you also receive a Word version, a PDF and the plain text.

What is not done:

• sheet tab names (\"Prices 2025\", \"Accessories\") stay in the source language;
• cell comments, charts and shapes or text boxes placed on the sheet are not translated;
• a narrow column is not widened: a longer Spanish description may be cut off on screen, just as it would be in the original;
• text written inside a formula, e.g. =IF(D2>0,\"In stock\",\"Sold out\"), is part of the formula and therefore stays untranslated.

Preparing the workbook

• Move labels out of formulas. Put \"In stock\" and \"Sold out\" in two cells and reference them: they will be translated (Disponible, Agotado) and the formula keeps working.
• Make attributes explicit. If the colour has to agree, write \"Red T-shirt\" rather than \"Red\" alone, or accept a neutral form.
• Keep product codes in their own column. A code like REF-2041-BL buried in a description may be read as text; in a separate column it stays put.
• Use standard unit symbols (cm, kg, ml) rather than in-house abbreviations.
• Leave room in description columns, especially from an English source.

Checking the Spanish file before publishing

1. Turn on text wrapping or widen description columns, then look for truncated text.
2. Filter the colour and material columns: check that rojo/roja, blanco/blanca match the product's gender.
3. Check range and brand names you want kept as they are; restore any that were translated.
4. Rename the tabs yourself and translate comments and charts if the file is going to a Spanish-speaking client.
5. Have the taglines read by someone selling in the target market: a pitch that works in Madrid does not always land in Mexico City.

In practice

1. Move labels out of formulas and keep product codes in their own column.
2. Upload the .xlsx and read the quote, based on the exact word count.
3. Request the free sample on one description to judge the Spanish variant and register.
4. Download the translated workbook, widen narrow columns and check colour agreement.
5. Rename the tabs and translate comments and charts by hand if needed.