PDF Translator Skill
Instructions
Follow these steps to translate a PDF file:
-
Identify the PDF File: Confirm the path to the PDF file the user wants to translate. If the path is relative, resolve it to an absolute path.
-
Extract Text: Use the extract_text.py script located in the scripts directory of this skill to extract text from the PDF.
-
Command: python3 skills/pdf-translator/scripts/extract_text.py <path_to_pdf>
-
Note: Ensure you are using the correct python environment (e.g., .venv/bin/python if applicable, or just python3 if dependencies are installed globally).
-
Translate Content:
-
Read the output from the extraction step.
-
Translate the extracted text into the target language requested by the user (default to the user's primary language or English if ambiguous).
-
Maintain the original structure (headings, paragraphs) as much as possible using Markdown formatting.
-
Save Output:
-
Write the translated content to a temporary text file (e.g., temp_translation.txt ).
-
Use the generate_md.py script to create the final Markdown file with metadata.
-
Command: python3 skills/pdf-translator/scripts/generate_md.py <output_path> <original_filename> <temp_translation_file>
-
Filename format: <original_filename>_translated.md .
-
Notify the user of the output file location.
-
Clean up the temporary text file.
Examples
User: "Translate the file papers/deep_learning.pdf to Chinese."
Claude:
-
Locates papers/deep_learning.pdf .
-
Runs: python3 skills/pdf-translator/scripts/extract_text.py papers/deep_learning.pdf
-
Translates the extracted text to Chinese.
-
Writes translation to temp_translation.txt .
-
Runs: python3 skills/pdf-translator/scripts/generate_md.py papers/deep_learning_translated.md deep_learning.pdf temp_translation.txt
-
Removes temp_translation.txt .
-
Responds: "I have translated the PDF and saved it to papers/deep_learning_translated.md ."
User: "Help me read this manual.pdf"
Claude:
-
Locates manual.pdf .
-
Runs extraction script.
-
Translates/Summarizes based on user intent.