Maxwell Render | Official public forum

Posted: **Fri Jan 30, 2009 10:20 pm**

Hej hej!

I've been using an English version of Excel for as long as I can think, but from time to time I have to use the German version at a relative's. This means I cannot use IF() in a formula but have to translate to WENN() - it's a major pain, and unfortunately installing the english language pack is no option, and I don't want to use a dictionary.

There must be a way to force Excel to interpret a given formula as if it was English. In VBA in Rhino I think you can use _if, but I have had no such luck in Excel formulas. And browsing the net has yielded anything useful either.

Anybody have an idea?

Thanks!

Posted: **Fri Jan 30, 2009 10:33 pm**

Can't you do a global search replace?

Go to Edit => Replace

jvm

Posted: **Sat Jan 31, 2009 1:00 am**

Thanks jvm, but that would require that I take note of all the expressions (IF, SUM etc) I use and then still translate them for the search replace. And my formula would not get evaluated until I translate it. In addition

Code: Select all

IF(condition, iftrue, iffalse)

translates to

Code: Select all

WENN(condition; iftrue; iffalse)

(note ; instead of ,)
i.e. the search replace would need to be a lot more elaborate.

Posted: **Sat Jan 31, 2009 1:21 am**

I'm not following...what exactly needs to be translated..whole statements or key words in the formula?

Posted: **Sat Jan 31, 2009 2:15 am**

Sorry I wasn't clear enough about my objective, let me try to rephrase:

I run Excel 2007 German, no English language pack is installed

In the German version, a valid formula in a cell would be:

Code: Select all

=WENN(SUMME(A1:A3)>=0; "positive!"; "negative!")

But, being used to the English expressions, I am too lazy to learn all those translations (they are not very intuitive, to me anyways). When I use the English formula, German Excel will produce an error message because it does not recognise the English keywords:

Code: Select all

IF(SUM(A1:A3)>=0, "positive!", "negative!")

So I would like to instruct my German version of Excel to interpret the formulas (or parts thereof) as English, for example indicated by a prefix "_":

Code: Select all

_IF(_SUM(A1:A3)>=0, "positive!", "negative!")

Furthermore, mixing of English and German would / should be possible:

Code: Select all

=_IF(SUMME(A1:A3)>=0, "positive!", "negative!")

So I may be asking for something that Excel cannot do, but I hope there is a way. Or maybe there is a global switch that doesn't require the English language pack be installed, but translates keywords and functions correctly. When you import a spreadsheet that was created with the English version using the German one, Excel will translate and display the German equivalent functions.

Does this make more sense?

Maxwell Render | Official public forum

English Formula in German Excel Spreadsheet

English Formula in German Excel Spreadsheet