Translate Text: Instant Translation for Any Plain Text, Now in PDF Translator Pro

PDF Translator Pro - Translate Text feature

PDF Translator Pro started as a tool for translating PDF documents — and it still does that exceptionally well. But translation needs don't always come packaged in a file. Sometimes it's an email draft, a product description, a message you received, or a paragraph you copied from somewhere. That's why the app now includes Translate Text: a full-featured text translator built directly into the same platform, with the same engines, the same glossary support, and the same level of control.

Translate Text lets you paste any plain text — up to 30,000 characters — and get a high-quality translation back instantly. No file needed, no reformatting, no extra steps. You get the same translation quality available for PDF documents, plus advanced options to fine-tune the result for your specific context.

Translating Your First Text

Getting a translation takes seconds. Here's how to do it:

  1. Open PDF Translator Pro and navigate to Translate Text from the main menu.
  2. Select your target language — the language you want to translate into. The source language is set to auto-detect by default, so the engine identifies the original language automatically. You can also set it manually if you prefer.
  3. Paste or type your text into the left panel. A character counter updates as you type.
  4. Click Translate, or press Ctrl+Enter (Cmd+Enter on Mac). The translation appears in the right panel.

That's the core workflow. Everything else — engine selection, formatting options, glossary, download — layers on top of this when you need it.

Choosing a Translation Engine

Two translation engines are available, and which one to use depends on what you're translating.

Standard is the default. It covers a wide range of languages and handles most topics well — everyday text, general content, mixed-subject documents. If you're unsure which engine to use, start here.

Advanced is built for situations where precision and consistency matter. It gives you direct control over formality, style, and context, making it the better choice for professional, legal, or domain-specific content. Note that Advanced is available for a specific set of language pairs — if your target language isn't supported, the app switches to Standard automatically.

To select an engine, open the Settings panel (the gear icon) and choose from the Engine options at the top.

Advanced Options

When using the Advanced engine, several additional controls become available in the Settings panel. Each one addresses a specific translation challenge.

  • Formality. Controls whether the translation sounds formal or informal. Useful for languages that use different registers — German, French, Polish, and others distinguish between formal address and casual speech. Select the register that fits your audience.
  • Improve Translation Tips. A context field where you describe what the text is about. The description itself is not translated — it's used only as a guide. For example: "This is a product return policy for an e-commerce store" or "Informal conversation between colleagues." A few words of context can significantly improve translation accuracy for ambiguous or domain-specific text.
  • Preserve Formatting. Prevents the engine from auto-correcting punctuation, capitalisation, or spacing in your source text. Turn this on if your original formatting is intentional and should be carried over exactly.
  • Preserve Tags. Enable this when your text contains HTML or custom tags. The engine translates only the content between tags, leaving the tags themselves untouched. You can also use tags to mark sections you want to skip entirely.

Applying a Glossary

If you work with specific terminology that must stay consistent — product names, technical terms, legal definitions — you can apply a Translation Glossary to your text translation just as you would to a PDF.

  1. Open the Settings panel.
  2. Scroll to the Glossary section. Glossaries that match your current language pair are shown automatically.
  3. Select one or more glossaries to activate them. An active glossary badge appears on the Settings button so you always know one is in use.
  4. Translate as usual. Your defined terms will be applied throughout the output.

If you don't have a glossary for the current language pair yet, click New Glossary to create one. The app pre-fills the language pair and returns you to the translation once the glossary is saved.

Downloading and Sharing Your Translation

Once you have a translation you're happy with, you can save or share it in several ways.

Download the translation as a plain text file (.txt), a Word document (.docx), or a PDF — accessible from the Download button below the translated text panel.

Share the translation directly from the app:

  • Send it via your email client with the translation pre-filled in the message body.
  • Post it on X (Twitter) — the first 260 characters are included automatically.
  • Generate a shareable link and copy it to your clipboard. Anyone with the link can open the translation in their browser.
  • Use the native share menu on mobile to send it through any app installed on your device.

History and Favourites

Every translation you run is saved automatically to your History. You can search, sort, and reload any past translation — including all the settings that were active at the time — with a single click. This makes it easy to revisit work without starting over.

If a translation is something you'll return to regularly, mark it as a Favourite using the star icon on the translated text panel. Favourites are stored separately and are easy to find again without scrolling through the full history.

Tips for Best Results

  • Use context for specialist text. A single sentence describing the domain — law, medicine, software, marketing — often makes a noticeable difference in output quality, especially for terminology-heavy content.
  • Set the source language manually for short texts. Auto-detect works well for longer passages, but for very short snippets, setting the source language explicitly removes any ambiguity.
  • For HTML content, always enable Preserve Tags. Without it, the engine may translate or alter your tag structure along with the text content.
  • 30,000 characters is roughly 5,000 words. For longer documents, switch to the Translate PDF workflow — it handles unlimited document sizes and preserves the original layout.
  • Keyboard shortcut saves time. Ctrl+Enter (Cmd+Enter on Mac) translates immediately without reaching for the button — useful when iterating through multiple versions of a text.

PDF and Text — One Platform

Translate Text and Translate PDF share the same engines, the same glossary system, and the same account credits. You move between them as your work demands, without switching tools or managing separate accounts. Whether you're working through a scanned contract or translating a paragraph someone sent you in a message, PDF Translator Pro handles both from the same place.

To try it, open Translate Text from the main menu, paste something in, and hit Translate.

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