Microsoft has open sourced an app that lets users translate Word, PDF, PowerPoint, plain text or Excel documents to one or more target languages.

Document Translator, which is available on GitHub together with its source code, lets you  rapidly translate documents both individually and in batches with what the Microsoft translator Team bog terms "full fidelity". This means it preserves formatting, such as headers and fonts and lets users continue editing if necessary.

The app is intended to showcase Microsoft Translator by showing how it can be integrated into enterprise and business workflows and the way in which users can add extensions and modifications to the batch translation app experience. 

The announcement states:

Additionally, Document Translator highlights several key features of the Translator API that were designed with businesses and developers in mind: enable the no-trace option on your translated content by using your no-trace enabled Client ID in situations that require greater privacy, and connect to the Microsoft Translator Hub to create your own custom translation system using your organization's and industry's unique terminology. These features are available to anyone creating custom products and apps with the Translator API. 

As we reported back in 2013 the Translator API is available on Micorosoft Azure with a free allowance of 2 million characters per month. The number of languages supported has now risen to over 50,

This could be useful even if you don't have a business or enterprise need for translation. As the blog post points out: 

"When your team speaks multiple languages, quick and efficient translation is essential to your organization's communication and productivity."

Having the source code on GitHub also opens up the possibility of using the Translator API in new ways.

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