Can you change the language of a PDF file in Calibre?

[Heathside Boy]

Just a simple question really and possibly showing my ignorance.

I have a book in PDF format but the language is in Spanish. Can I change this to English within the Calibre interface and then convert the PDF to EPUB format?

If so, how?



HB

[enriquep]

If by "change language" you just mean change the language under which it is filed whithin Calibre (not translate the file), yes, and it is easy: just open the metadata window for that file and you will see a "languages" pulldown menu (below, in the central body); choose "English", or whatever.

You can also convert the pdf to ePub. Select the book with the right mouse button, choose "convert books" > "convert individually" and the conversion window will appear; Don't mess with the left hand graphic-based options, leave them as they are; choose "EPUB" in the top right hand corner; while you're there check that the cover and metadata details are correct (text boxes in the right hand)... and click OK (below). That's it.

Don't expect perfect results.

My english is not very good, but I hope that I have made myself understood .

[theducks]

Originally Posted by enriquep

My english is not very good, but I hope that I have made myself understood .

Your written English is very good. If it wasn't for the Madrid as your location, I would not have known you were not a native English speaker.

[Heathside Boy]

Originally Posted by enriquep

If by "change language" you just mean change the language under which it is filed whithin Calibre (not translate the file), yes, and it is easy: just open the metadata window for that file and you will see a "languages" pulldown menu (below, in the central body); choose "English", or whatever.

No, what I meant was that the actual PDF book pages are in Spanish and I just wondered if I could change the language from Spanish to English within the actual pages? I guess that is a no-no then?

I know you can change the PDF to Word format, change every page separately and then use an online translator. This seems to be a long-winded way of doing it and I just wondered if there was a quicker way as I have explained?



HB

[enriquep]

So what you actually want is to translate the document. Well... that is a different story, and you should look somewhere else: Calibre has nothing to do with this. I suggest that you try searching in Google for a specialized tool... Or probably that will not be strictly necessary if the document is not too long and complex and if you're willing to do some post-translation correcting and editing... that will be necessary in any case.

Your idea of using an online translator is not bad, but the thing is mainly what you do before that, as online translators usually translate only webpages or plain text... but check in Google if there is any free service that translates pdfs; not that I know of.

IMHO the most adequate approach will in great part depend on the size and structure of the document: for example, there might be some apps that specialize in translating pdfs (I don't know, but Google does), that might be necessary for those long and complex files; but for very short and simple documents a direct copy-and-paste strategy with Google translate (and some patience) could be enough. You can also convert it to TXT (yes: with calibre, in this case) and pass the TXT to Google translate. Also, if the document is available online Google will directly translate it for you... et cetera.

Of course you can also use any of these strategies with any other on- or offline translating service (it doesn't have to be Google translate).

In short: There are several possible solutions - but calibre has (almost) nothing to do with them.

[enriquep]

Originally Posted by theducks

Your written English is very good. If it wasn't for the Madrid as your location, I would not have known you were not a native English speaker.

Thank you! - I try really hard to avoid making any mistakes in written English, it's probably a question of personal pride, and my (... British) accent is not bad at all hehehe. But, being honest, in many cases I have to circumvent what I really want to explain (or, rather, how I want to explain it) because I don't find the exact words, and writing long posts with detailed explanations takes me... Well, let's just say that if it were in Spanish I probably could, in the same time, write an equivalent (... better) post and prepare a perfect paella for six