Translations in Dataverse done in under 30 seconds

Translations in Dataverse have long been a challenge, and have taken far more time than they should. But those days are over: it’s now easily solved right in the browser, with a browser extension made by a colleague at work.

How we’ve done it until now

The most common methods used by functional consultants and developers are:

• Exporting and importing translation files: you export complete translation files from the solution, translate them, and import them back in.
• Easy Translator in XrmToolBox: a third-party tool that has made the job somewhat easier by splitting the translations into structured Excel files.

Don’t get me wrong, XrmToolBox is a fantastic tool. But for translations in particular, a few things cause problems:

• Imports often fail.
• You’re never quite sure whether what you translated actually made it into the solution.
• All those large files make it hard to keep track.
• It’s hard to narrow things down if you only need to translate, say, a single field.

CRM Toolbox: translations right in the browser

CRM Toolbox for Dynamics 365 is a browser extension made by a colleague at work. With it you can easily translate:

• tables and columns
• choices
• forms and views
• apps and sitemaps

And all of it in very little time. You’ll find it in the Chrome Web Store and Microsoft Edge Add-ons.

See it live: under 30 seconds

In the video below I show that it really does take under 30 seconds.

How I use it

Start from the model-driven app

You can find tables through solutions, but the trick is to use the model-driven app actively. If you’re on a view or a form for a table, the extension automatically picks up that table when you open it and click the translation tool.

That’s perfect and easy to use for functional developers who, for example, create new columns and need to do quick translations.

Keep track

• Everything you translate is highlighted in yellow, so it’s easy to keep track.
• You can filter out everything that hasn’t been translated.
• You can sort on what you’ve changed while you’re working on the translations.

Save, publish and add to the solution

You can also add what you translate to the solution. When you click “Save and publish”, you get a full live view of the progress: how much of what you changed has been translated, and a publish at the end.

Pro tip: translations in deployments

To include translations for columns in a deployment, the column doesn’t need to be part of the solution. It’s enough that the table itself is in the solution.

Fix wrong translations when you see them

You often come across wrong translations, but can’t face fixing them because it takes so long and is such a long process. With this tool, everyone on the team can easily fix them, without it costing them hours of work.

So next time you spot a wrong translation: take those 30 seconds and fix it.