This installation guide will walk you through the installation process to get Translations Builder up and running on the same machine where you work with Power BI Desktop.
Before installing Translations Builder, you must ensure your computer meets the following requirements.
- 64-bit Version of Windows 10 or Windows 11
- 64-bit version of Power BI Desktop (January 2023 or later)
The current version of Translations Builder is version 2.2.
Before installing Translations Builder, you must first download and install the .NET 6 Runtime for Desktop Applications. You can start by downloading the installation file from here. Once the installation file has been downloaded, run the installation program and accept all default settings to begin the installation process. Once the installation has completed for the .NET 6 Runtime for Desktop Applications, you can continue to the next step.
To install Translations Builder, begin by downloading TranslationsBuilderSetup.msi. When you click this download link, the browser should download the MSI file named TranslationsBuilderSetup.msi and place this file in the local Downloads folder.
The browser should show that TranslationsBuilderSetup.msi has been downloaded and provide a context menu of actions. The following screenshot shows what this experience looks like when using Google Chrome. Other browsers will provide a different experience.
Run the setup program named TranslationsBuilderSetup.msi. When you see the Welcome screen of the Translations Builder Setup Wizard, click Next to continue,
On the Select Installation Folder page, accept the default Folder location value and click Next.
It is recommended that you do not change default Folder path value of C:\Program Files\Translations Builder\. The reason you should avoid changing the Folder location is the installation program copies a file named translationsbuilder.pbitool.json into the special folder for Power BI Desktop external tools and that file has the hardcoded path of the default Folder location. If you change the Folder location from the default value, then you will need to update the file named translationsbuilder.pbitool.json which is explained at the end of this article in the Troubleshooting Installation section.
On the Confirm Installation page, click Next to continue.
When you are prompted by the User Account Control dialog, you should be able to confirm that Microsoft Corporation is listed as the Verified publisher.
Click Yes to continue.
Wait until you see the Installation Complete dialog and then click Close to complete the installation process.
Now that Translations Builder has been installed, you should be able to launch it from Power BI Desktop as an external tool.
- Open Power BI Desktop.
- Navigate to the External Tools tab.
- Locate and click the Translations Builder link on the External Tools tab.
- Once you see Translations Builder start up without an errors, you know it has been installed successfully.
The following information might be important to you if you need to troubleshoot your Translations Builder installation. The default Folder location for the Translations Builder EXE file and other deployment files uses this path.
C:\Program Files\Translations Builder
Here is what this folder looks like after installation if you examine it with Windows Explorer.
Another essential part of the installation process for an external tool is copying a special deployment file with JSON configuration information into a special folder that is examined by Power BI Desktop as startup. More specifically, the Translations Builder installation program copies a file named translationsbuilder.pbitool.json into the following folder.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Power BI Desktop\External Tools
If you examine this folder, it should contain the file named translationsbuilder.pbitool.json along with a separate files with a *.pbitool.json extension for any other external tool that you have installed.
If you open in translationsbuilder.pbitool.json in a text editor such as Notepad, you will see it contains a path property with a configured file path to TranslationsBuilder.exe. This is the file path Power BI Desktop uses to launch Translations Builder as an external tool from the External Tools tab.
If you installed Translations Builder into a Folder location other than the default value, you will need to modify the path value, save translationsbuilder.pbitool.json and restart Power BI Desktop.
The follow applies to version of Translations Builder 2.1 and later. When a new version of Translations Builder becomes available, you can upgrade by simply running the installation program again. Running the installation program for a new version Translations Builder will automatically remove the previous version.