How to Translate Incoming Emails in

Microsoft Outlook

BySandy Writtenhouse
Published May 13, 2021

You can use Microsoft Outlook to translate incoming emails easily. Adjust settings to
always translate or perform one-time translations.

Communicating with others who speak a different language has gotten easier with
technological advances. We can use translation apps on our mobile devices and
built-in translation tools for our desktop applications. Luckily, Microsoft Outlook is
one such desktop app with a translation tool, and the tool is available in Outlook for the
web.
When you receive an email in another dialect, you have a few ways to translate it. You
can adjust your settings to handle all incoming emails in another language the same
way. Or you can do translations when needed.

How to Change Your Outlook Translation Setting for

Incoming Mail
If you regularly receive emails that need to be translated, making a quick change in your
settings to accommodate this need is a good way to go. Here’s how to do it in the
Outlook desktop app.
 1. Open Outlook and head to File > Options.
2. In the Outlook Options window, select Language on the left.
3. Scroll down on the right to Translation.
4. Pick an option at the top. You can choose Always translate, Ask me
before translating, or Never translate. Obviously, you’ll want to select one
of the first two options.
5. You can confirm the translation language, which should be set to your
default already.
6. If there are languages other than your own that you do not want
translations for, you can click Add a language to include it in the box at
the bottom.
7. Click OK.

To navigate to the same setting in Outlook for the web, follow these steps.
1. Click Settings (gear icon) on the top right.
2. At the bottom of the sidebar, click View all Outlook settings.
 3. On the furthest left, select Mail, and to the right, select Message
Handling.
4. Under Translation, you have the same choices for Always, Ask, and
Never.
5. Make your selection and click Save.

Depending on which option you select, your incoming messages will behave differently
always to translate or ask before translating. But they work basically the same in the
desktop app and Outlook for the web.

Using Always Translate

This is the quickest way to go if you regularly receive emails in another dialect. The
translation takes only seconds (depending on your connection), and you’ll receive the
translated text automatically.
You can see the text’s original language and can click Show Original to see it before
the translation.

Using Ask Me Before Translating

For this setting, you’ll see an option at the top of the message for Translate message
to: [language]. Click that, and you’ll see Outlook translate the text to your preferred
language.
Like with the above setting, you can click Show Original to see the untranslated text.
You also have options to turn on automatic translations as described earlier.

How to Perform a One-Time Translation for an Email

Maybe you prefer to keep your Translation setting at Never translate in Step 4 above
and use Outlook to translate emails as they arrive.
1. Select the text you want to translate in the email by dragging your cursor
through it.
2. Right-click and move your cursor to Translate in the shortcut menu.
3. You’ll then see the translation at the top of the pop-out window. You can
also choose Translate Message to translate the text within the email itself
or use the Translate button in the ribbon.
Communicate Quicker With Microsoft Outlook
Translations
With both settings and one-time translations in the Microsoft Outlook desktop app and
on the web, communicating in other languages doesn’t have to be difficult. You can use
Outlook to translate emails effortlessly.

For additional help with translations, take a look at how to translate a PDF document.