Setting Up Your Google Sheet

Create a new spreadsheet

Open Google Sheets and create a new spreadsheet.

Structure your sheet

Your spreadsheet must follow this format:

key	en	fr	es
greeting	Hello	Bonjour	Hola
farewell	Goodbye	Au revoir	Adios
nav.home	Home	Accueil	Inicio
nav.about	About	A propos	Acerca de

• Column A: Translation keys (supports dot notation for nesting, e.g., nav.home)
• Other columns: One column per language, with the column header as the language code

Find your spreadsheet ID

The spreadsheet ID is in the URL:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/{SPREADSHEET_ID}/edit#gid=0

The long string between /d/ and /edit is your spreadsheet ID.

Optional: Auto-translation script

You can add a Google Apps Script to auto-translate text when you type in a specific column.

1. Go to Extensions > Apps Script.

   

2. Paste the following script:

function onEdit(e) {
  if (!e) return;

  var range = e.range;
  var sheet = range.getSheet();
  var row = range.getRow();
  var column = range.getColumn();

  // Trigger on column B (column 2), skip header row
  if (column === 2 && row > 1) {
    translateAndSet(sheet, row, range.getValue());
  }
}

function translateAndSet(sheet, row, text) {
  sheet.getRange(row, 3).setValue(LanguageApp.translate(text, "", "fr"));
  sheet.getRange(row, 4).setValue(LanguageApp.translate(text, "", "es"));
  sheet.getRange(row, 5).setValue(LanguageApp.translate(text, "", "ht"));
}

3. Save the script and return to your sheet.

To add more languages, add a new line in translateAndSet with the appropriate language code and column number.

tip

Remember to share your spreadsheet with your service account email address.