How to translate texts in Linux using keyboard shortcut and notifications

This method allows us to translate any text that can be selected (texts on web pages, pdf, txt, applications, among others), so its uses can be many.

How to translate texts in Linux

Advantages and Disadvantages of this solution

Among the advantages of this method we can highlight:

• It allows the translation of any text that can be selected (PDF, web pages, magazines, libreoffice, in-app texts, among others.
• It allows to translate texts quickly, thanks to the use of keyboard shortcuts.
• Allows you to view translations from system notifications.
• Allows translation from various source languages.
• The target language can be parameterized.
• It is ideal for translating small words and phrases.
• It is easy to install and configure.

The main disadvantages of this method are:

• You cannot translate entire web pages.
• If Google cannot determine the source language, it will return an error and therefore will not translate the text.
• An internet connection is required for this method to work.

Configuring the script to translate texts in Linux

In order to configure and run the script to translate selected texts using keyboard shortcut and notifications we must follow the following steps:

• Instalar las dependencias necesarias, en primer lugar instalar libnotify-bin (para enviar notificaciones de escritorio), wget (para recuperar la traducción de Google) y XSEL (que se utiliza para obtener el texto resaltado en ese momento). En Ubuntu y derivados puedes instalarlo usando el siguiente comando:

sudo apt-get install libnotify-bin wget xsel

• Copy the following code to the console:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
notify-send --icon=info "$(xsel -o)" "$(wget -U "Mozilla/5.0" -qO - "http://translate.googleapis.com/translate_a/single?client=gtx&sl=auto&tl=es&dt=t&q=$(xsel -o | sed "s/[\"'<>]//g")" | sed "s/,,,0]],,.*//g" | awk -F'"' '{print $2, $6}')"

and then create a file called "notitrans" (You can call it whatever you want, for this case it will be called what the original author called it), which will contain the previous code.

If you want to translate to a language other than Spanish, you must replace «tl = es» with the language of your preference, for example «tl = ru» for Russian, «tl = fr» for French, etc.

• We must give execution permission to the file created with the following command:

chmod +x ~/notitrans

• We add the script to our $ PATH with the following command

sudo mv ~/notitrans /usr/local/bin/

• Our script is ready, now we have to make it activate when we use a keyboard shortcut, for this we must create a custom access.

For Cinnamon, GNOME, and Unity, you can create a custom keyboard shortcut by accessing  System Settings> Keyboard> Keyboard Shortcuts> Custom Shortcuts, where we must click on add custom shortcut. Where we enter the name of the shortcut, in my case I put Translate and in the Order we place «notitrans»Or the name that we have given to our script:

add keyboard shortcut

Variations of the script to translate texts in Linux

Es muy fácil modificar el script para adaptarlo mejor a sus necesidades. A continuación encontrará un par de variaciones que ha creado  Andrew. Para usar estos script, simplemente siga los mismos pasos que anteriormente (incluyendo cambiar «es» al idioma en el que desea traducir el texto), pero no copie el código de script anterior sino que utilice el que corresponda:

Visualizing translation with Zenity

In order to view our translation in Zenity We must follow the following steps:

sudo apt-get install zenity

• Perform all the steps in the original script, but use the following code

#!/usr/bin/env bash
text="$(xsel -o)"
translate="$(wget -U "Mozilla/5.0" -qO - "http://translate.googleapis.com/translate_a/single?client=gtx&sl=auto&tl=es&dt=t&q=$(echo $text | sed "s/[\"'<>]//g")" | sed "s/,,,0]],,.*//g" | awk -F'"' '{print $2, $6}')"
echo -e "Original text:" "$text"'\n' > /tmp/notitrans
echo "Translation:" "$translate" >> /tmp/notitrans
zenity --text-info --title="Translation" --filename=/tmp/notitrans

Viewing the translation in the notifications and automatically copying to our clipboard

To have a variation where the translation is shown by system notifications and automatically copied to our clipboard we must do the following steps:

• Install xclip on your system. In Ubuntu and derivatives you can do it using the following command:

sudo apt-get install xclip

• Perform all the steps in the original script, but use the following code

#!/usr/bin/env bash
text="$(xsel -o)"
translate="$(wget -U "Mozilla/5.0" -qO - "http://translate.googleapis.com/translate_a/single?client=gtx&sl=auto&tl=en&dt=t&q=$(echo $text | sed "s/[\"'<>]//g")" | sed "s/,,,0]],,.*//g" | awk -F'"' '{print $2, $6}')"
echo "$translate" | xclip -selection clipboard
notify-send --icon=info "$text" "$translate"

Already culminating, I hope this article allows you to make translations of words or texts that you want, in the same way if any of you have any questions or modification of the script, do not hesitate to leave your comments.

Source: Webupd8