English PDF translation comparison: How to make a Chinese-English bilingual version

Key points of this article

Bilingual comparison is suitable for checking and circulation, and only the translation is suitable for direct reading. Both must be selected before uploading.
Scanned English PDFs can be directly uploaded for translation without converting them to alternative text first.
Before uploading, make sure the file can be opened normally and select the correct text style such as academic, legal, and technical.
After the results come out, focus on checking the page order, paragraph correspondence, terminology unity and numerical formulas.
Important content such as contracts and instructions still need to be reviewed manually before being sent out, and machine translation may make errors.

If you have an English paper, English contract or English instruction manual and only want a Chinese translation, you usually only need the "Translation Only" result. But many times, what you need is to look at the original text and the translation side by side: to check terminology, circulate it to the team, or keep it as study material. What you need at this time is the English PDF translation comparison, which is often referred to as the Chinese-English bilingual version.

This article is written for people who need to do bilingual comparison. It answers three questions: what should be confirmed before getting the English PDF, how to generate a bilingual comparison version in OmniDoc, and how to check the result after getting it. After reading it, you should be able to independently produce a bilingual PDF that can be read in Chinese and English, and know which areas require manual review.

How to make English PDF bilingual in Chinese and English? One sentence conclusion

Upload an English PDF and select "Bilingual" in the output format (the original text and the translation are displayed side by side) instead of only keeping the translation; scanned copies can also be uploaded directly. After getting the results, you can check the paragraph correspondence, terminology and numbers page by page, and you can use it with confidence.

your situation	Recommended practices	reason
For papers and reports, terminology needs to be checked paragraph by paragraph against the original text.	Choose bilingual output and choose academic style.	The original text and the translated text are side by side on the same page, so there is no need to flip back and forth between two documents when checking.
I just want to understand the main idea, and I don’t intend to quote or forward it.	Select translation output only	The layout is more concise, so you can focus on Chinese when reading.
Contracts, agreements and other legal texts	Bilingual comparison, choose legal style	The correspondence between clause numbers and terms needs to be compared clause by clause.
Scanned English PDF	Upload directly and choose bilingual comparison	Scanned documents can be translated directly, eliminating the need to convert text first.
To be sent to the team or client for review	Bilingual comparison, check item by item after completion	What the other party sees is the control version. Mistranslations will be directly exposed and need to be checked in advance.

Before you start: Confirm these points first

Confirm whether it is a scanned copy. Open the PDF, try to select a piece of text with the mouse and copy it. If it can be selected, the description is a text version; only a full-page picture can be selected, and the description is a scanned copy. Both can be uploaded directly, but the recognition effect of the scanned document is affected by the clarity of the original. When the original is blurred, skewed, or has a large number of handwritten annotations, the results need to be carefully checked.
Confirm which output format you want. Bilingual comparison is suitable for verification, only the translation is suitable for direct reading or use after typesetting. This is an output option that needs to be selected before uploading. Think clearly before starting to avoid redoing it just to change the format.
Confirm the text type and select the correct style. Word usage habits vary widely among academic, legal, medical, technical, business, literary and other styles. If a paper uses a legal style, or a contract uses a literary style, the translation of the same word may go wrong.
Confirm that the file can be opened normally. For encrypted, password-protected or damaged PDFs, please resolve opening issues before uploading.
Try it first with a short file. Use a paper of about 30 pages as a sample to see clearly how the bilingual comparisons are arranged, and then process the entire long document after becoming familiar with it. If the team has a fixed translation method, it can also make a list of terms in advance and check them after the results are available.

Steps to generate Chinese-English bilingual PDF in OmniDoc

Open the omnidoc.top web version, or enter the document translation function in the OmniDoc desktop client.
Upload the English PDF file. Both text and scanned versions can be uploaded directly.
Select "Bilingual Comparison" in the output format, and the result will be that the original text and the translated text are presented side by side. If you only need Chinese, select "Translation Only".
Choose the style according to the type of text. For papers, choose academic, for contracts, choose legal, for product descriptions, choose technical, and for other documents, choose one that is close to the content.
Start translation and wait for the task to be completed. Do not switch to other documents during the process to avoid selecting the wrong file.
Preview the results, first look at the layout of the first few pages, and then decide whether you need to adjust the settings and regenerate.
Download the bilingual comparison PDF.
If you only need to modify individual sentences, you can use the PDF editor on the desktop client to directly modify the paragraph text, save it and then check it completely.

Check each item after completion

After getting the bilingual version, do not forward it directly. Check it item by item according to the table below.

Check items	How to see	What to do if there is a problem
Number of pages and order	Compare the total number of pages with the original text to confirm that the last page, appendices, and references are all present, and there are no missing pages or duplicates.	If the number of pages does not match, check whether there are blank pages or attachments in the original document, and re-upload after confirming that they are correct.
Paragraph correspondence	Select several pages at random to see if each translation corresponds to the same paragraph of the original text.	Write down the page number when there is a dislocation, check whether the structure of the original paragraph is complex, and retranslate it if necessary.
Terminology and proper nouns	Is the translation of person name, organization name and acronym unified in the full text?	Change it to a unified translation in the PDF editor and read through the location of the same word in the full text.
Numbers, units, and formulas	Check values, decimal points, units and formula symbols one by one	The original text shall prevail, and the formulas and forms should be checked against the original page.
Recognition quality of scanned parts	See if the blurring, tilting and handwritten notes of the scanned piece are mistranslated.	If the original is not clear, use the OCR function of the PDF editor to process the original and then re-translate it, or replace it with a clearer one.

Mistranslation or omission may occur in machine translation. the terms of the contract, the amount in the specification and the key data in the taboo, examination or application materials should be reviewed manually before use.

# Summary

The key to English PDF translation and comparison is to select the "bilingual control" output and the appropriate text style before uploading, and then check the results one by one according to the number of pages, paragraph correspondence, terminology, numbers and the quality of the scanned parts. Only in this way can the Chinese-English bilingual PDF be really used for reading, checking and delivery.

# frequently asked questions (FAQ)

1. What is the difference between bilingual control PDF and translation-only PDF?

Bilingual comparison puts the original text and the translation together to facilitate paragraph-by-paragraph checking; only the translation is retained in Chinese, which is more suitable for direct reading or as an official deliverable. Both are the output forms chosen before uploading.

2. Can the scanned English PDF be used as a bilingual control?

You can upload the translation directly and choose bilingual output. If the recognition results are not satisfactory, you can first use the OCR function of the PDF editor to process the original, and then re-upload the translation.

3. Can the bilingual control version be sent directly to others?

Yes, but it is recommended to complete the check before sending it out. What the other party sees is the version of the source text and the translation side by side, and any mistranslation will be exposed. Contracts, specifications and other documents need to be reviewed manually.

4. Can the bilingual version be transferred to Word to continue editing?

The PDF editor for the OmniDoc desktop client supports exporting to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The typesetting after export may be different from the original, and you need to check it yourself before using it.

Open OmniDoc, upload the document and start translation.