Universal Language Translator


 

Experimental Procedure
by
Cliff Thompson,

Member, Friends of African Outlet

Situation

FOAO Appropriate Technology ("AT") Resource Directories often point to sources such as the Peace Corps Appropriate Technology Library (AT Lib) on CD, some of whose files, for particular village AT projects, may be stored on a Website/Newsgroup server hard drive for review and download by the African village project leader, often from one of that countries' "cyber cafés". The AT Lib's many low-tech, low-cost construction plan articles, in Adobe Acrobat Reader .pdf format, are written in English, but the African Countries may be non-English speaking, their national language, for example, being frequently French. 

Providing the villager with a Web-based ability to take the text of, for example, an AT Lib Water Pump construction plan .pdf document (typically a "Hydraulic Ram Pump"), and translate the text from English to French, would be quite helpful. As it turns out, there is such a Web-based Language Translation Web site service - the Alta Vista Babel Fish Translation web site, which offers a "Translate a Web page" field (the web address of  a webpage to be translated), list of Language conversions (for specifying source and destination languages) and a Translate button (translates the source language of the webpage into the destination language in a 2nd webpage). As the requirement is for the source material to be coming in from a web page, it is necessary to first convert the source document into web format, for example, turn a .pdf file into an .html file.  Below is the summary and detail describing a procedure to accomplish these objectives.

Summary

The following example utilizes a Windows computer running Word, Adobe Acrobat Reader and Internet Explorer (IE) Web Browser (2 sessions, "browser 1" and "browser 2"), and uses a sample Peace Corps Appropriate Technology Library article, in Adobe Acrobat Reader .pdf format, whose filename is The_Construction_Of_A_Hydraulic_Ram_Pump.pdf.

The article is in English but is going to be downloaded and used by African villagers in the country of Mali, which is predominantly French speaking.

The article is actually several combined together; the 3rd article, titled "Hydraulic Ram Pump", on Acrobat Reader pg.'s 12-14, will be selected for translation from English to French.

The original .pdf document will be downloaded from the FOAO Website Newsgroup Files area to the users desktop, where the .pdf file will be opened, the 3rd article, titled "Hydraulic Ram Pump",  selected and copied, then pasted into Microsoft Word and "Saved as a Web Page" in .htm format to the desktop. The .htm file will then be uploaded to the FOAO Universal Language Website Files area (hosted by Yahoo Geocities), where it will be selected and viewed as a web page in "browser 1". A 2nd browser session, "browser 2", is then launched to go to the Alta Vista Babel Fish Translation website. The web address of "browser 1" is selected and copied, then pasted into "browser 2"'s "Translate a Web page" field, followed by a selection of the desired language to translate into and a final click on a "Translate" button, to produce a translated version of the webpage in "browser 2".

Detail

The procedure consists of the following steps:


On the FOAO Newsgroup Files area, access the Reader pdf file and download it to the desktop

• Access the FOAO Website Newsgroup Files area where the file is stored
  
  FOAO Website Newsgroup Files area subdirectory containing .pdf file
  
  

•   Right-click on the filename and on the context menu that appears select "Save Target As...",

   and in the "Save As" dialog box that appears, click the "Save in:" dropdown and select "Desktop"

   and verify that the "File name:" field reads "The_Construction_Of_A_Hydraulic_Ram_Pump.pdf",

   then click the "Save" button

 On the desktop, open the Reader pdf document and open a new Microsoft Word document

• On the desktop, double-click the icon named The_Construction_Of_A_Hydraulic_Ram_Pump.pdf to open the pdf file
  
  

• Open a new Word document (Start\Programs\Microsoft Word)

In Reader, select and copy the text of the desired part of the pdf document

• On the Reader Toolbar click the "Text Select Tool" icon (a "capital T" to the left of a small dotted box),

  then Page Down to the top of Reader pg. 12 where it reads "Hydraulic Ram Pump",

  then select the article by clicking to the left of the title, and dragging past the bottom of the screen, causing the page to scroll until you get to the end of Reader pg. 14.

  
  With all the text selected, click the Edit menu and select Copy

In Word, do a Paste, and then do a "Save as Web Page" to the desktop

• Click the Edit menu and select Paste
  
  

• Click the File menu and select "Save as Web Page...",

   and in the "Save As" dialog box that appears, click the "Save in:" dropdown and select "Desktop"

   and verify that the "File name:" field reads "The_Construction_Of_A_Hydraulic_Ram_Pump.htm",

   then click the "Save" button
  
  

• Click the File menu and select Exit to close Word

Upload the webpage .htm file to the FOAO Universal Language Website Files area (hosted by Yahoo Geocities)

• Launch IE web browser and go to the Yahoo Geocities website
  
  Yahoo Geocities website
  
  

•   Sign in to Yahoo by entering the following ID/Password values:

• Yahoo! ID:  anafricanfriend

• Password  : africans

           then click the "Sign in" button

• On the "Yahoo Geocities" screen that appears, on the right side of the screen, in the frame titled "Advanced Toolbox", click on the link that reads "Easy Upload"
  
  

• On the "Easy Upload" screen that appears, click on checkbox where it reads "Automatically change ".htm" extensions to ".html" " to select that choice,
  then click on the top button labeled "Browse"
  
  

• In the "Choose File" dialog box that appears, in the "Look in:" dropdown select "Desktop",

  then look in the list of files for the web page file named "The_Construction_Of_A_Hydraulic_Ram_Pump.htm"

  and click on it to automatically copy it's name back into the Easy Upload field by the top button named "Browse"
  
  

• Now click the button named "Upload Files".  The file will take a while to upload, then when done a "results" screen will appear that reads…
  
  "File Manager...Upload Results...The_Construction_Of_A_Hydraulic_Ram_Pump.html  - Uploaded successfully"
  
  

  • Now on this "results" screen click the link that reads "File Manager"
    
    The Yahoo Geocities File Manager screen will appear, listing the file you have just uploaded, "The_Construction_Of_A_Hydraulic_Ram_Pump.html"

Select the uploaded webpage .htm file and view it as a webpage in "browser 1"

• On the Yahoo Geocities File Manager screen listing the file you have just uploaded, "The_Construction_Of_A_Hydraulic_Ram_Pump.html",
  to the right of the filename click the link that reads "View" to view the file as a webpage. 
  
  A new browser session will appear ("browser 1") displaying "The_Construction_Of_A_Hydraulic_Ram_Pump" webpage

Launch a 2nd browser session, "browser 2", to get to the Alta Vista Babel Fish Translation website and perform the language translation

• Launch a 2nd IE browser session, "browser 2", and go to the Alta Vista Babel Fish Translation website. The Alta Vista Babel Fish Translation website will appear
  
  Alta Vista Babel Fish Translation website
  
  
• Select and copy the web address of "browser 1",
  
  (which should read…
  
  http://www.oocities.org/anafricanfriend/The_Construction_Of_A_Hydraulic_Ram_Pump.html),
  
  …into the "browser 2" "Translate a Web page" field,
  
  then click the "Language to Language" dropdown and select "English to French"
  then click the button named Translate
  
  
• The translation will take a few moments, then will appear in "browser 2" translated into French.

Archive the translated text into a Word document

• In "browser 2", click on the frame containing the translated text,
  and click the Edit menu and select "Select All"
  and click the Edit menu and select "Copy"
  
  
• Open a new Word document (Start\Programs\Microsoft Word)

• Click the Edit menu and select Paste.
  
  

• Click the File menu and select "Save As
  and in the "Save As" dialog box that appears, click the "Save in:" dropdown and select "Desktop
  and verify that the "File name:" field reads, (for "Article 3" in French, rename the file as...),
  
  "The_Construction_Of_A_Hydraulic_Ram_Pump3(French).doc ",
  
  then click the "Save" button
  
  

• Click the File menu and select Exit to close Word

Examples of the translation

The various stages of document transformation…

• "Pre-stage" (original English source document in .pdf format, and selected article in word format)
• "Intermediate-stage" (selected article converted to web page in .htm)
• "Post-stage" (English .html page converted to French)

…are stored on the FOAO Public Newsgroup Files area folder named " Universal_Language_Translator (Experimental)", which contains the original source document .pdf and 3 folders to hold examples of the 3 stages of translation, accessible via the links below.

FOAO Public Newsgroup Files area "Universal_Language_Translator_(Experimental)" folder

"Universal_Language_Translator_(Experimental)" folder contents

The 3 folders are…