Google docs is a useful application for sharing documents, but previously didn’t allow for sharing across different languages. Today, Google is launching a feature in Google Docs that will automatically translate documents into 42 different languages.
In the tools menu of Google Docs, you can now click “Translate document” and choose the language to translate too. This functionality uses Google Translate’s technology. You can replace the original document with the translation or save the new translated version as a different document.
Google says that formatting and layout of translated documents remains the same regardless of what what language it’s in. It looks like along with new features, Google Docs may be getting a new interface soon, perhaps in the fight to one-up Microsoft Office’s new web-based productivity suite. Google also peeled off the beta label for Docs in July.
It seems that this is just another example of Google’s tying its apps together. Other examples of this trend are bringing Google Gadgets into Gmail, Docs and Calendar, Picasa pictures in Google Maps and more.