[Solved] Interlinear Book

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gtaus
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[Solved] Interlinear Book

Post by gtaus »

Is it possible in Writer to create interlinear text for foreign langauges?

I am currently extensive reading (just for fun) an eText novel in French, and there are vocabulary words I don't know. I would like to highlight that French word(s) and the have the English translation word(s) above, or below, that sentence in the story. Moreover, I would want that word to be highlighted and translated throughout the entire text so I don't have to look it up again in the dictionary. After a number of exposures, I would probably know the word and at that point would like to undo the interlinear word - again, throughout the entire text. I don't plan on printing the document, just reading it on screen.

The closest solution I have come up with is to use a whole text Replace function and have the translation(s) following the foreign word in the same sentence. i.e. J'ai un petit chat blanc. => J'ai un petite (small) chat (cat) blanc (white).

Then, after a number of exposures, when I have learned "chat" is "cat", I would want to remove that association, i.e. J'ai un petite (small) chat (cat) blanc (white). => J'ai un petite (small) chat blanc (white).

Although that approach works, it would look a whole lot better if the translation was either above or below the associated foreign word(s) on a separate line. That way, the original foreign text, as written, is not broken up with English words.

Thanks for your time. Suggestions and/or alternative thoughts welcomed.
Last edited by Hagar Delest on Mon Jan 08, 2018 8:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Interlinear Book

Post by robleyd »

A very similar question was asked a few days ago on the LibreOffice support site; the responses there may be helpful.
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Re: Interlinear Book

Post by gtaus »

Similiar yes. But I don't want one complete sentence in English and the corresponding complete sentence in French below it. I just want to highlight the word(s) I don't know. I don't need a full parallel translation like in a bilingual text. Maybe my usage of the term "Interlinear text" is not quite correct, because I only want to translate and interline the select few words I don't know.

I had read other posts along the lines of the link you provided, and realize that there might not be a good solution in Writer. But I thank you for the response and the link.
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Re: Interlinear Book

Post by RoryOF »

There is an inbuilt character style "Rubies" which I understand is intended for languages not using western Roman alphabets; this over or underlines graphic alphabets (in particular Japanese, as far as I know) with smaller text in Roman characters. I have never investigated this very much, having no need to use languages with graphic alphabets.

However, there is no automatic linkage between the graphic characters and the equivalent Roman characters, so while this might be made to display the associated translation it would be necessary to invent a method of linkage.

Normally when questions of translation arise we recommend use of a table, basically of two columns, with equivalent paragraphs in corresponding cells in each column; this could be extended to have each sentence in parallel cells. But note: in translation there is not necessarily exact word for word linkage - as one moves away from "The cat sat on the mat" (French: "Le chat s'est assis sur le tapis") where one might guess "sat" == "s'est assis", the complexity increases.

It may be better to have open an application such as Google Translate and Copy/Paste words into that. Dmitri Popov, about ten years ago, posted some OpenOffice macros, one of which fed chosen words into an online translator. Google for "Popov OpenOffice macros" (no quotes).

I have come across, in the past, a translation-assistant application OmegaT which is designed to help with the handling of translated text, but not to actually do the translation.
 Edit: Such an interlinear/explanation of a word application might be based on the (largely ignored) structure of Smart Tags, introduced some 15(?) years ago by Microsoft and partially implemented in earlier versions of OO (still there? I don't know). Each word could be "smart tagged", so that hovering on it gave a pop-up dictionary translation. Thinking of the complexity of this I am overcome and may have to go and lie down to recover! I cannot recollect any actual use of "smart tags" in real life. 
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Re: Interlinear Book

Post by Zizi64 »

The closest solution I have come up with is to use a whole text Replace function and have the translation(s) following the foreign word in the same sentence. i.e. J'ai un petit chat blanc. => J'ai un petite (small) chat (cat) blanc (white).

Then, after a number of exposures, when I have learned "chat" is "cat", I would want to remove that association, i.e. J'ai un petite (small) chat (cat) blanc (white). => J'ai un petite (small) chat blanc (white).
The feature Comments seems as a similar feature what you needed You can switch on/off the visibility of the Comments by a menu item...:
Comments.odt
(10.04 KiB) Downloaded 233 times
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Re: Interlinear Book

Post by RoryOF »

It would be necessary to feed one text into the comments and link these, on say a sentence by sentence basis (presuming that the translated structure permitted that), to the sentences in the other text. This is not an insuperable problem, but it is not a project for a beginner to OO macro processing. Also, the number of Comments is likely to slow down OO writer, so the book might need to be presented as a number of files, each of an individual chapter.
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Re: Interlinear Book

Post by John_Ha »

I searched Help with smart tags getting
Smart Tags
When you have installed at least one Smart Tag extension, you will see the Smart Tags page.

To access this command...
Choose Tools - AutoCorrect Options - Smart Tags tab

Label text with smart tags
Enables Smart Tags to be evaluated and shown in your text document.
Currently installed smart tags
Displays all installed Smart Tags. To configure a Smart Tag, select the name of the Smart Tag, then click Properties. Not all Smart Tags can be configured.
Properties
To configure a Smart Tag, select the name of the Smart Tag, then click Properties. Not all Smart Tags can be configured.
and using smart tags said
Using Smart Tags
Smart Tags provide additional information and functionality to specified words in a Writer document. The available features can be different for different Smart Tags extensions.
Installing Smart Tags
Smart Tags can be supplied as extensions to OpenOffice Writer.
To install a Smart Tag, do one of the following:
Save the *.oxt extension file to your hard drive, then double-click the *.oxt file in your file manager. Alternatively, in OpenOffice choose Tools - Extension Manager to open the Extension Manager, click Add and browse to the file.
Click a Smart Tag *.oxt file link on a web page and open the link with the default application. This requires a properly configured Web browser.
Smart Tags Menu
Any text in a Writer document can be marked with a Smart Tag, by default a magenta coloured underline. You can change the colour in Tools - Options - OpenOffice - Appearance.
When you point to a Smart Tag, a tip help informs you to Ctrl-click to open the Smart Tags menu. If you don't use a mouse, position the cursor inside the marked text and open the context menu by Shift+F10.
In the Smart Tags menu you see the available actions that are defined for this Smart Tag. Choose an option from the menu. The Smart Tags Options command opens the Smart Tags page of Tools - AutoCorrect Options.
To Enable and Disable Smart Tags
When you have installed at least one Smart Tags extension, you will see the Smart Tags page in Tools - AutoCorrect Options. Use this dialogue box to enable or disable Smart Tags and to manage the installed tags.

Text that is recognised as a Smart Tag is not checked by the automatic spell check.
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Re: Interlinear Book

Post by RoryOF »

I have brooded about using Smart tags but to be frank, I always found an easier way (or abandoned the idea) to achieve a desired object. As I said, I have not come across any application where they were used in real life; this is not to say that a use might not yet be found for them.

A simple explanation: Smart tags effectively find the words to be tagged and turn these into a form of hyperlink, indicating these words by a coloured underline. Hovering or clicking on that word pops up a number of options, as written by the implementer of the tags for that application, options which might be, for example, a popup info panel, or more complex processing.

Because of security concerns Microsoft has removed the smart tag feature from later Windows; it is (as John_Ha points out) still available in OpenOffice if one writes the recogniser and action functions.
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Re: Interlinear Book

Post by John_Ha »

How about using references? You could then italicise (or add a highlight colour over) the referenced words to identify them.
Clipboard01.png
Clipboard01.png (3.67 KiB) Viewed 8002 times
Cross-Referencing Text
Before you can insert a cross-reference, you must first specify the targets in your text.
To Insert a Target
1. Select the text that you want to use as a target for the cross-reference.
2. Choose Insert - Cross-reference.
3. In the Type list, select “Set Reference”.
4. Type a name for the target in the Name box. The selected text is displayed in the Value box.
5. Click Insert. The name of the target is added to the Selection list.
Leave the dialogue box open and proceed to the next section.

See attached file.
cross reference.odt
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Re: Interlinear Book

Post by John_Ha »

Save as a PDF and use Adobe Reader to add a comment (which can be placed anywhere on the page).
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Re: Interlinear Book

Post by gtaus »

RoryOF wrote:I have brooded about using Smart tags but to be frank, I always found a easier way (or abandoned the idea) to achieve a desired object. ...
Thank you for the idea. I have now read some references to Smart tags, and to be honest, it really looks like too much coding and effort required for what I want to do. I am just reading the foreign text for fun, and if I had to spend more time on coding then reading, then I defeat my purpose. But, thanks anyway.
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Re: Interlinear Book

Post by RoryOF »

When I read a book in a foreign language (French) I find a French/English dictionary of assistance, although I rarely need it, as the doubtful word may be intelligible from the context.

I agree about the use of smart tags - only worth the effort of programming for an application that could not be done any other way.
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Re: Interlinear Book

Post by gtaus »

John_Ha wrote:How about using references? You could then italicise (or add a highlight colour over) the referenced words to identify them....
Great idea. This is more in line of what I was looking for. However, is there a way to have the cross reference appear on ALL cases where "chat" is mentioned in the entire text? i.e. Chapter 1 might reference the word, and then again in Chap 5, Chap 10, etc..... After trying to use the cross reference function, I can only get it to work on a single entry of "chat" and no others in the text. I have tried to use the Find/Replace function and highlight all occurrences of the word "chat" in the text, and then insert a cross reference to those highlighted words, but the function will not let me save the cross reference to ALL those words. I have only been able to add one cross reference to one word. If I can figure out how to get ALL following occurrences of "chat" to show the initial cross reference to "cat", then I would be done.

BTW, I really like the idea of having the text highlighted so if I don't remember the word, I can cursor over it and see the translation in the cross reference. If I don't need it later on, all the better because it is hidden and will not break up my reading of the original text.
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Re: Interlinear Book

Post by gtaus »

RoryOF wrote:When I read a book in a foreign language (French) I find a French/English dictionary of assistance, although I rarely need it,as the doubtful word may be intelligible from the context...
Well, I have thought plenty about just using a paper language dictionary and writing down my lookup words on a piece of paper. That is what I have done for the past 30+ years. But I am trying to get more into using eText books and computers to my advantage. No doubt you can carry a whole library of eBooks on your laptop/tablet and online dictionaries have many advantages over paper dictionaries. But paper has its advantages too. The mere act of physically writing out a foreign word seems to be a better learning process than typing the word into a document. Looking up words in a paper dictionary has the advantage of showing you a number of words that fall before and after your target word - so you learn new words by accident, as it were.

I am currently reading a French eBook that is perhaps a bit above my reading level. If printed, it would be about 450 pages. But since I have the etext already, I am just trying to find a good way on the computer using Writer to highlight unknown words and not have to look them up every time I come across that word. Thanks for your comments.
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Re: Interlinear Book

Post by gtaus »

For anyone interested in this thread, I think I have found a solution in another program called Learning With Texts (LWT) http://lwt.sourceforge.net/#howto.

After spending more research time on the computer, I came across LWT and it offers a foreign language learner a number of benefits including learning new vocabulary, testing, AND interlinear text printouts.

Here is a low res pdf of a printout:
LWT __ Annotated Text (4).pdf
100 DPI Low Res PDF
(111.06 KiB) Downloaded 261 times
.

Sorry, this forum will not allow me upload a file larger than 150K, so I had to really reduce the output quality to 100 dpi. The real printout quality at 600 dpi looks fantastic.

LWT does almost everything I wanted, and in some cases does more. For example, the interlinear translations can be filtered by how well I know the word(s) categories 1-5, or all words. As I stated, I don't plan on printing out my eBooks for my pleasure reading, but LWT allows me to display the text on screen just like in the printout. The word translations I enter on unknown words automatically carry through the entire text, so I don't have to look up the word again once I input it into my translation database.

Thanks to everyone who responded.
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Re: [Solved] Interlinear Book

Post by keme »

Thanks to you, gtaus, for posting back with a solution in ample detail.

Good job on searching for the right tool. It is going to help someone, I'm sure.
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Re: [Solved] Interlinear Book

Post by bedtime »

I have tried and tried to make an interlinear book with OpenOffice and have never quite been able to do it just how I wanted it; however, I have made a system that others may find useful when writing interlinear type books. As far as I know, it is quite original, and it took me a long, long time to come up with, as I had to try other ideas and compare, but it seems to work very well.

My system uses text sentences (i.e., from the first word to the period at the end of the sentence) that are grouped by conjunctions (and, but, or, not, so...). A side by side display of the translation in the literal and figurative goes below, and it has same page footnotes which contain vocab and grammar explanation.

It is better just to take a look: https://archive.org/details/DeBelloGallico


A system like this is extremely easy and pleasurable to read (especially for long winded content that cannot be easily translated in one go), as it does not force the reader to flip back and forth for grammar and vocab notes: the notes are always on the same page.


Perhaps it may not benefit the author of the post, but I think a post with this title will grab many viewers who may be interested in such an alternative. I've been working on this for a few years now, and it seems to have stood the test of time, at least, as far as I am concerned. I've yet to see another style that offers all these features in one and is so easy on the eyes and mind.

I am open to alternatives if anyone has any.
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Re: [Solved] Interlinear Book

Post by gtaus »

Thanks for the link. I checked out the pdf of your sample and I think, your style, has many advantages for intensive (in depth learning) reading. I really liked your style for scholarly work as it has a parallel text, interlinear text, and appropriate footnotes on the same page. I can see where your approach would be really useful for language learners wanting to really dig down and study the material. I do not understand, however, how you put together your system. Is it Open Office based or some other program? Is your system open source or commercial? Could you provide a link/info to your system?

As for me, in this post, I was looking specifically for an interlinear text program for extensive (just for fun) reading. By definition, extensive reading should be within a reader's proficiency level, meaning that on any given page, you would probably only have 3-5 words you don't know. You would not even necessarily look up the unknown words, as the goal is to try to understand the word meaning through context. The interlinear text is there to highlight words you don't know, so you don't have to reach for a dictionary and slow your reading down. As I understand it, the goal of extensive reading is the act of reading enjoyable material and not really having to study the grammar and/or each and every word. If you do enough extensive reading, I have read, you naturally develop a feel for the language over time.

Just another mention about the Learning With Text (LWT) program now that I have been using it for about a week. I originally thought I could import a 500 page novel into LWT and have it do it's magic. It does, to a degree. However, it will split long text into (user defined) chunks of text up to 65K bytes. For me, I found out that a typical chapter in the book I was reading would be broken up into 4 or 5 smaller sections. LWT allows you to associate audio to the text, so each section is about 6-7 minutes of text read aloud. I have come to really appreciate the smaller chunks of reading material. I can usually find 7 minutes of time to sit down and listen to the audio as I follow along with the text. If there are absolutely words I need to look up for understanding the reading, I go back over the material again and click on the word(s) I don't know. LWT uses online dictionaries and I can update my local database with the words and meanings that I want to learn. The main point for me, is that I can actually see some progress, one small chunk of text at a time, whereas before I was overwhelmed by looking at a 500 page novel. Now I am able to feel some success and accomplishment, albeit 7 minutes at a time.....

Tying this back to Open Office, I now import/export word lists into LWT and/or a flashcard program such as Anki using Open Office Calc with tab delimited UTF-8 cvs files. Even though I chose not to use Writer for interlinear texts, I still ended up using Open Office on my project - just in a different way.
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Re: [Solved] Interlinear Book

Post by bedtime »

gtaus wrote:Thanks for the link. I checked out the pdf of your sample and I think, your style, has many advantages for intensive (in depth learning) reading. I really liked your style for scholarly work as it has a parallel text, interlinear text, and appropriate footnotes on the same page. I can see where your approach would be really useful for language learners wanting to really dig down and study the material. I do not understand, however, how you put together your system. Is it Open Office based or some other program? Is your system open source or commercial? Could you provide a link/info to your system?
All the info should be there in that link; it is Creative Commons and free to use. You need not give credit unless you were to use the actual text and material itself. I only used this protection to stop someone from snagging it and selling it on Lulu...

I made it in OpenOffice/LibreOffice Writer as an ODT file and then exported it to a PDF file, and I uploaded the PDF to an online site (you may download the PDF on that site to take a closer look at it). The literal/figurative translated text is merely a 2 row table. As for putting it together, you might want to read into using headings, page breaks, footnotes, styles, references, tables, frames, and indexes... to gain a better of how it works. It's far too much to explain here, but if there is a specific thing you'd like to know about that book, I can try to answer.
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Re: [Solved] Interlinear Book

Post by andley »

just fyi --- I'm exploring the possibility of using Math Objects to produce interlinear.

Attached are the screen shot and ODT sample:
interlinear.png
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Re: [Solved] Interlinear Book

Post by Zizi64 »

andley,

there is not attached .odt file in your post. The file size limit is 128 KiB in this forum.

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Re: [Solved] Interlinear Book

Post by andley »

Thanks for the reminder. in the process of figuring out how to update my signature :(
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Re: [Solved] Interlinear Book

Post by andley »

signature updated. thanks again.
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