Google™ Translation Script

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"> <!-- document.write ("<FORM action=http://translate.google.com/translate>") document.write ("<div align=center><div style='border:1px solid #f00; padding:4px; width:200px; text-align:center;'>") document.write ("<img width=150 height=20 border=0 src=googletran.gif alt='Translate this page via Google™'><br />") document.write ("<INPUT type=hidden size=55 value='"+location.href+"' name=u>") document.write ("<SELECT name=langpair>") document.write ("<OPTION value=en|de>English to German</OPTION>") document.write ("<OPTION value=en|es>English to Spanish</OPTION>") document.write ("<OPTION value=en|fr>English to French</OPTION>") document.write ("<OPTION value=en|it>English to Italian</OPTION>") document.write ("<OPTION value=en|pt>English to Portuguese</OPTION>") document.write ("<OPTION value=en|ja>English to Japanese</OPTION>") document.write ("<OPTION value=en|ko>English to Korean</OPTION>") document.write ("<OPTION value=en|zh-CN>English to Chinese (Simplified)</OPTION>") document.write ("<OPTION value=de|en>German to English</OPTION>") document.write ("<OPTION value=de|fr>German to French</OPTION>") document.write ("<OPTION value=es|en>Spanish to English</OPTION>") document.write ("<OPTION value=fr|en>French to English</OPTION>") document.write ("<OPTION value=fr|de>French to German</OPTION>") document.write ("<OPTION value=it|en>Italian to English</OPTION>") document.write ("<OPTION value=pt|en>Portuguese to English</OPTION>") document.write ("<OPTION value=ja|en>Japanese to English</OPTION>") document.write ("<OPTION value=ko|en>Korean to English</OPTION>") document.write ("<OPTION value=zh-CN|en>Chinese (Simplified) to English</OPTION>") document.write ("</SELECT> ") document.write ("<INPUT type=hidden value=en name=hl><INPUT type=hidden value=UTF-8 name=ie><INPUT type=hidden value=UTF-8 name=oe>") document.write ("<INPUT type=hidden value=/language_tools name=prev><INPUT type=submit value=Translate></div></div></FORM>") // --> </script>

Instructions For Use

You'll likely note, if you know anything about JavaScript, that the above is rather awkward and unwieldy and probably not the best way to do what we want to do, but since it's free just how much time am I expected to devote to it? I mean, honestly.

Okay, so you'll want to highlight everything in the Text Box and copy it to your weblog template or Web page or what have you. You can, of course, make it into a .js file and link to it just as easily, assuming you know how to do that, but whatever.

Here is the graphic header I used: Feel free to also copy and save that if you like. Please do not link to it off my server. I love you lots, but I don't want to pay for everyone else's traffic. Danke!

If you make up your own graphic, don't forget to replace the code in the script. If you elect to use this graphic, you'll need to change the src= attribute in the script for the image. But you already knew that.

You may also note, if you are paying attention, that the script above includes additional translation services that do not appear in my drop-down. This is because you don't need to translate my pages from languages other than English, so I removed any "Other Language to English" options. Feel free to change as you desire. If you don't want the Italians reading your page, they don't have to. The full drop-down looks like this:

Lastly, I did not ask anyone at Google if I could do this, so I may be in jail tomorrow. If they ask me to remove it, I will comply immediately. I elected to use Google's translation services rather than Alta Vista's Babelfish for that specific reason. Babelfish requires a rather large piece of page real estate and you are not allowed to alter their images, code or content. Fair enough. But I didn't want that big ol' ugly thing sitting on my pages, but I did want translation capabilities since the Web is a World Wide tool and I want everyone to know just how charming, witty, intelligent and humorous I am in any language.

So I went to Google and saw nothing about "don't do this, can't do that, agree to our rules or get out of the sandbox" so I made this and it seems to work just peachy. Thank you, Google! I love you!