SharePoint content processing updates – translation and simple prebuilt models
As we introduce some of the latest SharePoint innovations, features, and capabilities coming this Fall, a clear theme emerges: Cloud computing and AI continues to drive massive digital transformations and change the way we approach tasks and workflows and tasks.
These days, our closest coworkers, partners, and customers are operating globally, and our roadmap focuses on helping dispersed organizations boost efficiency, maximize productivity, and forge deeper, more meaningful connections with their customers wherever they are. Today, we’ll cover the latest SharePoint product updates around content processing and enrichment: translation, custom glossaries with translation, and the new simple document processing prebuilt model. Also, we’re excited to share opportunities for you to learn more at upcoming events.
In a global marketplace where we regularly engage with diverse populations, it’s critical to offer translation features that break down barriers and promote accessibility, inclusivity, and cultural relevance. And with the pace of business in this digital era, to be able to do this efficiently.
Beyond translation enhancements, we’re fully embracing AI’s power to empower SharePoint admins, allowing them to monitor their sites more effectively and ensure consistency in settings, policies, and content governance.
Here are some of the key roadmap features from SharePoint AI-powered metered processing services we’re excited to share with you:
Multi-language translation selection
Today, in your SharePoint document library, you can easily create translated copies of selected files. We’ve enhanced this feature, allowing you to translate a document into multiple languages simultaneously. Simply right click on the demand translation or in the command bar or automated translation via a rule, select the languages you need (up to 10 per request) and the translated documents are generated. As always, translation is available for all supported languages and dialects. This multi-language translation feature supports various file types, including Word documents and closed captioning text files.
Through June 2025, you can try out document translation and other selected Syntex services at no cost with free monthly capacity if you have pay-as-you-go billing set up.
Feature ID: 410213
Learn more about document translation
Enhanced glossary support
Every sector, industry, and business have their own specialized terminology. Whether you’re a pharmacist, engineer, or mechanic, the unique terminology and acronyms are integral to how your business operates. To support this need, you can now create a custom glossary that includes specific translations. For instance, if a pharmaceutical company is developing labeling and packaging materials for a new drug, Xyraphen, you can define in the glossary that whenever ‘Xyraphen’ appears, it should be translated in a specific way in French or German.
It’s as simple as adding your glossary file (.csv or .tsv format) to your document translation request. While you can translate up to 10 languages at a time, when including a custom glossary you will only be able to make one translation request. The glossary will be available at the SharePoint site level; users can point to the same custom glossary in multiple libraries from within the same site.
Simple document processing prebuilt model
You’ll recall that SharePoint offers a variety of document processing models that fall into two categories: custom models and pre-built models. The key distinction is that pre-built models are pretrained; they have been designed around specific schemas, such as business file types. For example, a pre-built schema for contracts is trained to recognize a defined set of common fields typically found in contract documents.
Pretraining involves a range of document types but is ultimately constrained by the defined model. As such, pre-built models are limited to recognizing what they have been trained on. This is advantageous when the pre-trained model aligns perfectly with your document parameters, but it can pose challenges when you need to capture fields outside of those parameters.
Custom models on the other hand, offer greater flexibility to address unique business scenarios. but require more upfront development time.
Seeing the need for both flexibility and time to value, we created the simple document processing pre-built model, which uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and deep learning AI. This is a good option if you need to extract to extract key-value pairs, tables, and selection marks from documents – such as barcodes or checkboxes – that aren’t recognized in our other prebuilt model schemas.
This approach is particularly useful if your business uses a standard form tailored to capture common attributes in your content, such as identifying various barcode types. The configuration process is similar, but the main difference is that simple document processing detects common elements in documents without a set schema. This feature can be invaluable for extracting necessary information from unique documents, helping to automate the detection process.
Additionally, simple document processing can detect the primary language of the document. When applied to a specific document library, it can extract language information based on your configuration, returning an ISO language code once the model runs.
Pre-built models offer ease of configuration, but due to their pre-trained nature, they may not always capture all the key information you need. Simple document processing serves as a valuable intermediary between custom and pre-built models, providing maximum flexibility in analyzing your content.
Learn more using a prebuilt model to extract information from simple documents
SharePoint eSignature updates
Have you tried SharePoint eSignature yet? We’re excited to that eSignature has expanded availability. Click here to check out our blog outlining the latest eSignature updates, including a new feature and expansion to new markets.
Join this online event – Microsoft Digital: AI tagging makes finding content easier
Last but not least, on 10/29 you are invited to an online event where we will be discussing how Microsoft is leveraging SharePoint’s Taxonomy Tagging feature to drive efficiency in content management. For more event details, please click here.
We hope you find the updates above useful. As always, we value your feedback! Please leave your comments below.
For additional SharePoint information, please read our technical documentation at aka.ms/SharePointDocs
Connect with us at a variety of events and webinars coming this fall, including Microsoft Ignite November 19-22 and ESPC Conference happening December 2 – 5.
For a list of all upcoming events please refer to Microsoft Tech Community Events
Not a SharePoint customer yet? Check out our latest features, demos, and pricing.
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
