Easy Way to Translate a Scanned Document into English?

I have a document that's in another language that I wanted to translate into English so I could read it. I scanned it to a folder on my computer. I don't want to download anything onto my computer to do this, and I don't want to pay anything to do it.

I went to Google translator and tried to upload it from my computer, but it came up blank. I tried to copy a paragraph of it and translate it that way on a website, but I don't know how to copy it and paste it from my file.

I have a Windows 10 computer and was wondering if there's something already on my system that might translate the page for me, without trying to go to online websites.

Thanks for any advice or suggestions, I don't know very much about computers, only the basics.

You have a paper document that you scanned?
Typically this would create some kind of image file which Google translator cannot use. It would first need to be converted to a text file. Have you done this? Can you clarify what you have done.

Language translation is hugely complex and Windows has no such capability.

LMiller7 said:

You have a paper document that you scanned?
Typically this would create some kind of image file which Google translator cannot use. It would first need to be converted to a text file. Have you done this? Can you clarify what you have done.

Language translation is hugely complex and Windows has no such capability.

Thanks, I do have the paper document that I scanned. You're correct because the translator cannot use it and uploading it there has failed. I have not converted it to a text file, not sure how to do that. Likely the reason I can't highlight, copy and paste even a paragraph to a website.

spunk said:

What is the extension of the file? is it a .pdf, .docx Word Document, or .txt Text etc?
Open the document with it's default application, (ie) Adobe Reader, Microsoft Word, or Notepad.
Drag your mouse across the text highlighting it, Right click the highlighted text and choose Copy.
Open Google Translate and put your pointer in the Left box Right click and choose Paste

Thank you. When I first scanned and saved it, it was pdf, when I had no luck with that, I scanned again and saved as jpeg. Not able to highlight and copy anywhere online. I only have Wordpad to write simple letters or documents, no Word or Office.

Dalchina, I don't have a smart phone or access to one, no phone with online access.

PDF XChange Viewer is free and it has got a module to add an OCR layer to your PDF. I think it supports English, French, German and Spanish.