Document Translator

English

How to translate a document without uploading it

A document translator turns a Word file, a PDF or a block of text into another language, and this one does the work inside Chrome instead of on someone else's server. Chrome has translation models built in, and the page simply feeds them your paragraphs one at a time.

1. Choose a file (TXT, MD, DOCX or PDF) or paste the text into the box.
2. Leave From on Detect language, or pick the source language yourself.
3. Pick the target language under To and press Translate.
4. Watch the original and the translation fill in side by side. Cancel whenever you like and keep what is finished.
5. Copy the result, download it as .txt, or for a Word file download the translated .docx.

The first time you use a language pair, Chrome downloads a language pack. After that it is stored on your computer and the same pair starts at once, even offline.

Will a translated Word file keep its formatting?

Yes, for the most part. A .docx file is a zip of XML files, and the text sits in small runs inside word/document.xml. The tool translates each paragraph, then writes the new words back into the same runs. Fonts, headings, bullet lists, table cells, page breaks and images are untouched because nothing else in the file is rewritten.

The one soft spot is a paragraph that mixes styles, such as "Total: $1,200 due on receipt". The translation can be longer or shorter and word order changes between languages, so the bold part may land a word early or late. Check headings and labels after translating. Text in headers, footers and footnotes is not translated.

What happens with a PDF?

Only the text survives. A PDF is a drawing of a page, not a flowing document, so the tool reads the text from each page, joins lines into paragraphs and translates those. The layout, columns, images and fonts are gone, and the download is a plain .txt. If you need a translated PDF that looks like the original, translate the text here and rebuild the page in your layout tool.

Scanned PDFs are the other catch. If you cannot select text in the file, there is no text to read. Run it through the Image to Text tool first, then paste the result here.

What each format gives you

Which browsers can do this?

You need desktop Chrome, version 138 or newer, because the Translator and Language Detector are Chrome features. Phone browsers, Firefox and Safari do not have them yet, so on those you will see a message. You can still load a file and copy or save its text there, which is handy if you want to paste it into another translator.

Getting a better translation

• Set the source language by hand for short texts. Detection is reliable on a paragraph, shaky on a line like "OK, see you Friday".
• Tick the line-break option for text copied from a PDF. Each hard-wrapped line is otherwise translated as its own sentence, which produces broken grammar.
• Translate mixed-language documents in parts. The language is detected once for the whole text.
• Keep names and product codes in mind. A model can translate a company name that should stay as it is. Search the result for them.

How accurate is on-device translation?

It is machine translation, and it is closer to a decent phone app than to a professional translator. A routine email from English to Indonesian will usually read fine. A contract, a medical leaflet or anything with legal weight needs a person who knows both languages to read it before it is signed or sent. The side-by-side view helps with that, since the reviewer can compare each paragraph with its source.

Is it private?

The file is opened in your browser and never sent to this site. The translation model runs locally, so the text is not passed to a translation service either. The only network use is fetching the language pack and, for Word and PDF files, a small library to open them. Once those are cached the tool works without a connection.

Frequently asked questions