Translation or Localization in Power BI

Need

Usually we are very familiar with our mother tongue. We prefer to read / see the content in known languages only. To engage and showcase your content; it is good to show your data in local language. Localization is a very good feature provided my Microsoft using XMLA endpoint through which we can achieve translation / localization in Power BI reports.

Prerequisite

a. XMLA Write feature needs to be enabled on Power BI service.

b. Install Tabular Editor Tool.

Steps for Implementation

a. Open Power BI report in Power BI Desktop and Click on 'Tabular Editor' from External Tools tab from Menu section.

b. Right click on 'Translation' and select 'New Translation' if you want to add new culture for translation like fr-FR for French. Or you can export existing translations using 'Export 1 translation..' option. It will export the file in JSON format.

c. Exported JSON translation file has 'cultures' tag. It contains translation mappings for Table, Measures and Column names. You can add new by copying existing cultures block and replace your column names with actual translations. Refer image above; I have replaced translation for column 'Name' as 'Nom' for culture fr-FR.

d. Once you are done with changes; right click on 'Translations' and click Import Translations. 

e. That's it. Now you can display localized labels by switching between various languages. Even you can pass language culture to Power BI report dynamically from an application using Power BI embedded APIs.

Business Scenarios

a. To keep your Power BI reports language intact with your websites culture.

b. Attract more peoples by showing reports in their native language.

Limitations

a. It translates visual header not actual data.

b. Date Time can not be localized.

c. Overhead of modifying and maintaining translation files.