How to translate any text in Ubuntu

Today, with so many devices connected to the Internet and so many sites to visit on the Internet, it is very normal that we find the information we are looking for in a language that we do not speak. We can even find a text in a language that we think we know well and read a word that we don't know what it means. In those cases, what do we do? Well, the normal thing is to consult the page of a translator, such as Bing or Google, but wouldn't it be better if we had a faster and more comfortable way to do it? Well, like practically everything in Linux-based operating systems, there are several ways to achieve it and in this article we will teach you how to translate any text in Ubuntu, as long as the language is included in Google Translator.

It is possible that the following guide will give some respect to users who do not like to touch the terminal very much, but it does not explain anything different than when we say how to add a repository and install a package that is not in the official ones. The difference is that let's create a script that will allow us to launch components available in Ubuntu. That said, below you have the steps to follow to translate any text in Ubuntu.

How to translate texts with Ubuntu

Creating the script notitrans

1. In order to use the script, we have to do three installations:
   1. libnotify-bin in order to receive desktop notifications.
   2. wget to get the Google translation.
   3. xsell to read the text that we have marked.

To do this, we open a terminal and write the following:

sudo apt-get install libnotify-bin wget xsel

2. Next, we create a new text file (just right click on the desktop and select New Document / Empty Document).

3. Inside the document we have to paste the following:

#!/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}')"

• 

• Note: in the script above there is a line that says "tl = es". If you do not want to translate into Spanish, you only have to change the language that you have behind the equal symbol (=).

4. We save the previous file and call it "notitrans" (without the quotes).
5. Next we have to convert the previous document to an executable file. To do this, we copy it to our personal folder and write the following in a terminal:

chmod +x ~/notitrans

6. The next step move the created file to the folder / usr / local / bin / with the following command:

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

7. We are not done yet. We need (at least) two more steps: now we have to create a keyboard shortcut. To do this we go to System Settings / Keyboard / Shortcuts and click on the plus symbol (+). You will see a window like the following:

8. In the window, we put the name we want (I have given it Notitrans) and the command "notitrans" (without the quotes). We can put another command, but we would have to use the same name with which we save the script.
9. Now you just need to create the key combination. To do this, we click on the text that says Disabled and enter the desired combination. I have used Control + period (.), Since I know that there is no key combination that uses that shortcut.

Variants

If you don't like the way the translation shows us with the script above, which in fact cannot display very long translations because it is limited by the size of the notification, we can also use some variants. To use these variants we will have to do the same process as the previous one (also change the language if we wish), but using the corresponding code in step 2.

Using Xclip

If we want that, in addition to the notification, we will copy the translation to the clipboard, we will also use xclip. First we make sure that we have it installed with the command:

sudo apt-get install xclip

And in the script that we will create we write the following:

#!/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, $6}')"
echo "$translate" | xclip -selection clipboard
notify-send --icon=info "$text" "$translate"

Using Zenity

And if what we want is to be shown as the previous image (my favorite), we will make sure that we have Zenity installed by typing the command:

sudo apt-get install zenity

And in the document we will write the following:

#!/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

Have you tried any of these scripts? What do you think?