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SheetApps User Guide

Turn an Excel workbook (or Google Sheet) into a multi-user web app — forms, validation, lookups, import/export and more.

Localization

Localization adapts a SheetApps app to each person's language and region. It has two independent parts: multiple languages — the app's text (menus, field labels, dropdown values, validation messages) shown in the viewer's language — and multiple locales — dates, numbers, currency and percentages formatted for the viewer's region. The two are separate: someone can read an app in German while seeing US-style dates, or English text with euro formatting.

Supported languages in SheetApps

Language keyLanguage
enEnglish
deDeutsch
ja日本語
arالعربية

The SheetApps interface itself is always available in every one of these — Arabic switches the whole layout to right-to-left. A generated app's own content appears in another language only where its author supplied a translation; anything untranslated falls back to English. As SheetApps adds more languages, this list grows automatically.

What gets localizedHow
The SheetApps interfaceSign-in, navigation, Admin console, Help — always available in all four languages. Each person picks theirs at sign-in or in Display settings.
Your app's contentField labels, dropdown values and validation messages — translated from the workbook (see the steps below). Untranslated text shows in English.
Regional formattingDates, numbers, currency and percentages — formatted automatically for each viewer's region. The stored data never changes.

Steps to enable localization

  1. Choose the workspace's languages. A workspace admin opens Admin console → Languages and turns on the languages your apps may offer (English is always on). Every plan includes one extra language to try; the full allowance is a paid annual-plan benefit, and your plan sets how many additional languages you can enable.
  2. Pick each app's languages. When you create or change an app, the App languages step lets you choose which of the workspace's languages that app offers. Someone whose language the app doesn't offer still sees the SheetApps interface in their own language; the app's own labels and values fall back to English.
  3. Translate the app's content. In the workbook, add a Translation_ sheet — columns Object Type (field, message, form, section, list, widget, report, measure or app), Object, and one column per language code (de, ja, ar) — for field labels and messages, and add name_lang columns to a List_ sheet (e.g. Asset_type_de) for dropdown values. A list reuses its field's translation, so a separate list row is optional. Standard fields such as Currency, Unit and Sex are translated automatically.
  4. Set the region. In Display settings choose your Region (how dates, numbers and currency look) and your Regional defaults (home country + default currency). These are per-user: set them once at the SheetApps level and every app follows them, or override them on a specific app. Leave a field unset and it follows your device.
  5. Each person picks their language. Anyone chooses their interface language on the sign-in screen or in Display settings; it's saved to their account and used the next time they sign in.
Regional formatting is free for everyone and on by default — every app already shows dates, numbers and currency in each viewer's regional format. Offering an app's interface in more than one language — beyond the one every plan includes to try — is the paid annual-plan benefit.
Localization is display only. Your stored data, imports and exports stay in one canonical format — switching language or region never changes the underlying values.