Translate Documents on Mac from Finder: PDFs, Word Files, Images, and Transcripts

Mon, 25 May 2026 10:00:00 +0200

This post introduces Translate Document Quick Action, a Mac workflow that translates PDFs, Word files, Markdown, images, and audio transcripts directly from Finder.

I have open-sourced Translate Document Quick Action, a small macOS-focused tool for translating everyday documents directly from Finder, with the core translation workers kept as plain Python scripts.

The project is here: Jingyuan-Zheng/translate-document-quick-action.

Why I Built It

Translation tasks rarely arrive in one clean format. One day it is a PDF report, the next day it is a Word document, a Markdown note, a screenshot, or an audio recording that first needs a transcript.

Most tools handle one piece of that workflow. This project tries to make the common cases feel like one action: select a file in Finder, run the Quick Action, and get translated output next to the original file.

It also works from the command line, so the same workers can be used outside Finder or on non-macOS systems where the dependencies are available.

What It Supports

The current version supports:

PDF translation through pdf2zh-next
DOCX translation by editing Word XML in place, preserving the original package structure and media references
Markdown translation with common Markdown structure protection
TXT translation with line-preserving output
Images through macOS Vision OCR or an optional manga-image-translator adapter
Audio and video transcripts through the MacWhisper mw CLI, with optional transcript translation

Output files are written next to the input file and existing files are not overwritten. Monolingual outputs use a target-language suffix such as _CN.docx; bilingual outputs include both language codes, such as _EN_CN.docx.

Translation Output Examples

For PDFs, the bilingual output uses pdf2zh-next’s alternating-page dual PDF mode, which keeps the original page layout readable while adding the translated version.

Figure 1: PDF bilingual output keeps the translated and original pages easy to compare.

For Markdown and TXT, the bilingual output is interleaved, which is useful when reviewing paragraph-level translation quality.

Figure 2: TXT output keeps the source file easy to inspect line by line.

Figure 3: Markdown bilingual output preserves common document structure.

DOCX translation inserts the translated paragraph after the original paragraph while preserving media and layout references where possible.

Figure 4: DOCX bilingual output keeps the original document structure useful for review.

Image translation can use a lightweight macOS Vision OCR engine for clean screenshots, diagrams, and slides. It scans text, translates it, and redraws the translated text into detected boxes.

Figure 5: Image bilingual output places the original and translated images side by side.

Engines and Privacy Choices

The text translation workers currently support Google and Bing web endpoints, plus a local Ollama adapter. The Google and Bing options are convenient, but they are not official paid APIs and may be rate limited or change upstream behavior.

For sensitive documents, I would use a local backend such as Ollama or replace the adapter with an official translation API. The tool is intentionally structured so the file handling and translation backend are separate concerns.

Installation

The basic setup is a Python environment:

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python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

PDF translation needs pdf2zh-next installed separately:

`1`	`uv tool install --python python3.13 "pdf2zh-next==2.6.4" --with "BabelDOC==0.5.16"`

Finder Quick Actions can then be installed with:

`1`	`python3 macos/install_quick_actions.py`

CLI Examples

Translate TXT, Markdown, and DOCX:

`1`	`python3 scripts/translate_document_worker.py --engine google --lang-out zh --mode both file.txt notes.md paper.docx`

Translate an image with the lightweight macOS Vision OCR path:

`1`	`python3 scripts/translate_image_worker.py --image-engine simple-macos --text-engine google --lang-in auto --lang-out zh --mode both image.png`

Transcribe audio or video and translate the transcript:

`1`	`python3 scripts/translate_audio_worker.py --operation both --engine google --lang-out zh --mode dual interview.m4a`

Practical Notes

This is a practical automation tool, not a promise that every complex document will translate perfectly.

DOCX translation covers normal body text, headers, footers, footnotes, endnotes, and comments. Very complex Word features such as SmartArt, embedded objects, equations, or unusual text boxes may need additional testing.

The lightweight simple-macos image engine is best for clean screenshots, slides, and diagrams. It is not AI inpainting. For manga or complex backgrounds, the optional manga-image-translator adapter is a better fit.

If your daily translation work jumps between PDFs, Word documents, Markdown notes, screenshots, and recordings, this project gives you one place to start instead of a pile of one-off scripts.

For fully local AI text translation on Apple Silicon, see Mac-Lite-Translator.
For multilingual typing and academic symbols on macOS, see ABC Custom Keyboard.

DOCX on Jingyuan