Is there a forum setting that will let me translate entire non-English posts please? Ideally also one that would translate any reply I make into the original language, but that’s a big ask!
When I need to translate foreign language posts or reply in a foreign language I use Google Translate
Hi @Terrypin. I work with non-English posts throughout the course of every day in the performance of my moderation duties. I use this browser extension:
The Google Chrome browser has a built in translation feature, which is enabled by right clicking on a page and then selecting "Translate to English". So the extension might seem redundant. However, the built-in translation feature has an unfortunate behavior of putting the browser tab into a persistent auto-translate state which continues even when you open other pages. There is no indication that the browser is in this state. This can cause you to accidentally reply to non-English forum topics in English, which is not welcome in the non-English forum categories. For me, this behavior makes the browser's built-in translation feature utterly worthless and even dangerous.
Unlike the built-in feature, the extension displays a prominent banner at the top of the browser window when the page is translated. You can easily switch the browser back out of that state by clicking the X icon on that banner.
Me too, or when browsing with my iPad I use the built in tool in Safari to select text for translation. But that’s well short of getting an entire thread translated with a keystroke, tap, or mouse click.
A good workaround (that might exist already but I haven’t found) would be simply a way to quickly select the entire thread. Without tedious scrolling or editing. Then head for Google Translate or whatever.
As you mention "entire thread", I should disclose an unfortunate deficiency of the extension I recommended. When you use its "TRANSLATE THIS PAGE" feature, to translate the entire topic page (as opposed to its other capability of translating only the selected text, which I find to also be quite useful), the forum's "infinite scrolling" feature doesn't work on the long threads that use it. You will find that you can scroll through ~20 posts and then the scrolling stops.
You can force the forum software to load the next 20 posts by dragging the scroll control on the right side of the page down to a post number after the currently selected set:
So it is possible to read even long threads in an auto-translated format, but it is inconvenient. It doesn't often affect me because I am typically moderating relatively new topics that haven't accumulated enough posts to trigger that limitation.
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Image didn't upload correctly, perhaps retry uploading it?
Thanks. I'd forgotten all about installing that extension!
Now that I'm using my PC instead of iPad, and after clicking that tool icon, my problem has apparently disappeared! In fact I cannot now find a thread that needs translation.
I'll test it after restarting Chrome, but is it possible that a single use of that extension 'sticks'? IOW, automatically translate all subsequent forum pages to be translated to english?
BTW, why would I not see it in Chrome > Menu > Extensions > Manage Extensions. That displays nine, but not that one.
Minutes later: now it's also diappeared from the tool icons!
Maybe try some of these Deutsch - Arduino Forum
You must have posted that before I added my footnote!
I'm not going to pursue it right now but hope to get some insights from @pert first. Do you have it installed?
EDIT: OK, a strong coffee later and I think I'm getting a grip on this extension. But a usage summary from someone more familiar with it would be appreciated. Meanwhile I reckon:
- Open a non-english thread
- Right click > Translate to English
It looks fine for me. Please check again in case it was caused by a transient network service degradation.
Yes, after you use the extension's "TRANSLATE THIS PAGE" feature, it continues to translate any post you open in that browser tab. But it should be obvious because it adds a banner to the top of the browser window that shows it is in this state:
You can revert back to the normal non-translated state by clicking the X icon on that banner:
Because you don't have the extension installed.
That is the Chrome browser's built-in translation feature; not the "Google Translate" extension.
Your use of the built-in translation feature is the reason why you weren't able to tell that the browser was in that page translation state. This is the very reason why I use the extension instead of the built-in translation feature.
Thanks, got it: a feature cf an extension.
That image was OK here too btw.
On iOS 15+ Safari provides a web page inline translation functionality. When you touch the Aa icon next to the webpage address you get a menu that has a translation option. You can preset your preferred languages. I had not used here, but I can see it works. Not perfect, but almost
Away from my Mac, I can’t tell if MacOS has something similar
Yes, picture is there now. Sorry about that Pert.
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Thanks, that sounded promising - but my iPad does not apear to have that menu item.
Website Settings looked a possible, but not so:
This is iOs version 16.7.2 on a 5th generation iPad.
Installed that but it is an independent app. I do not get any integration with Safari.
I think I figured it out. To test, I first deleted all the secondary languages, leaving only English as my language.
The translation option in Safari disappeared :
Then in Settings>Language and Region I added Spanish
…and it reappeared
EDIT: if you add several languages that option becomes a submenu that lets you choose the language to translate to, other than the language detected by the device. I can see English pages in French, Deutsch and Spanish
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